The fourth novel in Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxters internationally bestselling Long Earth series. 2045-2059. Human society continues to evolve on Datum Earth, its battered and weary origin planet, as the spread of humanity progresses throughout the many Earths beyond. Lobsang, now an elderly and complex AI, suffers a breakdown and, disguised as a human, attempts to live a normal life on one of the millions of Long Earth worlds. His old friend Joshua, now in his fifties, searches for his father and discovers a heretofore unknown family history. And the super-intelligent post-humans known as the Next continue to adapt to life among lesser humans. But an alarming new challenge looms. An alien planet has somehow become entangled with one of the Long Earth worlds, and, as Lobsang and Joshua learn, its voracious denizens intend to capture, conquer, and colonize the new universe -- the Long Earth -- they have inadvertently discovered.
