Okay, now I've finished it and...well, I think it's a mess. A gigantic, overwritten mess. I didn't think the first book was that great, but at least it stayed mostly focused on the Joshua/Lobsang/Sally story.
Here we get all sorts of new characters added, many of whom (like Helen's father) play no role other than to voice a didactic point of view. I didn't understand the need for or the role of the clergyman. We get far too little of Helen (who to me is little more than a Long Earth version of the long-suffering Helen from the James Herriott books, always waiting at home while hubby it out birthing calves in the middle of the night). The political posturing is banal and childish, with no nuances at all. The whole miraculous 'winning back of the trolls' story--they're all about to go walkabout and a hologram convinces them to return?
So much of this is so stupid. Beagles and kobolds can learn perfect English in days, when it takes humans years and years and years to master a second language? And we're supposed to believe that in ten years kobolds evolved from glorified apes to become conniving CMOT Dibbler types hooked on The Kinks?
And this whole idea of nearby step worlds gradually becoming overdeveloped is ridiculous. It took mankind several centuries with a population of billions of ruin Earth, and now a fraction of that population is ruining the nearby Earths in just a decade?
And also the notion that with millions of these worlds available that Datum would have the resources to go after tiny little settlements in each and every one to make them pay taxes? Hell, there are plenty of places in our world where we can't easily find people.
And, also, if the twains are used instead of steppers to move people across worlds, why then couldn't they simply take those who couldn't step on their own (like Helen's brother) to other worlds? That would solve the jealousy issue immediately. After all, if a twain can move tons of inert inorganic materials across worlds, why not humans?
The resolution of the long war itself is a total cop out. A huge Lennon-like "Give Peace a Chance" rally ends a military operation? Yeah, we've seen how often THAT works in real life. And then suddenly all of the Know Nothings back on Datum earth see the light and become hippie-dippie troll lovers? Sure. Close-minded fanatics are known for their intellectual flexibility.
Worst of all was the ending. Yet another deus ex machina just like the nuclear bomb in the first one. Big, huge destructive catastrophe forces millions to leave the Datum, which looks like it's about to totally explode.
And the biggest waste is the use (or non-use) of Joshua. He's thoroughly wasted here. His trip to Earth has no effect whatsoever. His trip to Beagleworld has no effect other than creating an opportunity for him to be tortured and turned into a potential martyr, although for what we don't know. He doesn't save the trolls; hologram Lobsang does. So why is he here at all?
I think the main problem is that there is far too much Baxter and far too little Pterry. I'd guess that only a few chapters were written by Pterry, and those were the Lobsang chapters because they're characterized by the long-winded dialogue that has characterized Pratchett's recent work.
The only things I truly enjoyed in this book were the references to past DW books. The avatar of Lobsang essentially dressed as a sweeper (named Lobsang!) is a cheeky reference to Thief of Time and the hunt scene on Beagleworld was certainly based on the Wolfgang/Vimes hunt scene from The Fifth Elephant. I don't even think it would be stretching it to say that Second Person Singular is in some ways the Discworld itself, living beings traveling on the back of a living creature.
