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Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: "The Uplift books are as compulsive reading as anything ever published in the genre.". HTML: David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War--a New York Times bestseller--together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind? The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed in the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret--the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars. From the Paperback edition..… (more)
User reviews
Dolphins talking in Haiku rhyme
Uplift
Sounds stupid but this book is a cracker. Dont waste your time with the rest of the series. This one is the bomb.
This is actually the second novel in the Startide series, though I have been assured that it can be read independent of the original and has generated far more acclaim than the others. I never felt that I needed any more background information than was provided within the text of this book.
I can’t say that the writing was poor, or that the plot and characters were in any way deficient. However, I really never felt like I was pulled into the story. Others may disagree and reinforce the awards that this novel has earned, but I don’t rate it in the upper tier of science fiction novels I’ve read recently.
Well, this series got better. The first part of this book was rough, but then it smoothed out and got me to care.
Plot: Pretty darn good. I really liked the war backdrop in the cosmos. I actually cared about many of the characters. The villains were memorable.
Style: Definitely improving.
Is our master
* Yet we imagine-
Secret orders *
Tom sighed. There it was again, the suspicion that Earth would never let the first dolphin-commanded vessel go out without disguised human supervision. Naturally, most of the rumors centered around himself. It was bothersome,
The first ship commanded and crewed by uplifted dolphins, has discovered an ancient fleet of derelict spaceships that may be linked to the Progenitors, and has crashed on an ocean-covered planet while attempting to evade the Galactics who are determined to discover the secret of its location. As the Galactics fight a space battle other above the planet, making and breaking alliances in their efforts to come out on top, surprising discoveries are taking place on the planet below, which has supposedly been uninhabited for millions of years.
It was easy to sympathise with the neo-dolphin crew, with their tendency to revert to atavistic behaviour when stressed, and often exhibiting a lack of confidence in their own abilities, and deferring to the few humans on board. There seems to be a bit of anti-scientist theme, as Dr Metz's tinkering with the make-up of the crew leads to disaster, and the neo-chimp planetologist Charles Dart is equally as arrogant, obsessive and self-absorbed.
"Startide Rising" is a much better story than the first book in the series, being both more exciting and more complex rather than a straight mystery story, but it's still a good idea to read "Sundiver" first, as it explains about uplift and man's status in the the galactic civilisation as a wolfling species without a patron. And it is their wolfling attitude, refusing to use any galactic technology that they are unable to understand, and using initiative rather the age old tactics documented in the Galactic Library, that gives the Streaker's crew the edge.
In Startide Rising, the viewpoint shifts between a fairly large cast of characters. Good guys, bad guys, and many others in between. As a result, it takes a few chapters to get your bearings. Once things start to fall into place however, the story really gets
The scenario: In the future, humanity, after 'uplifting' first chimpanzees and dolphins to sentient status, have joined a galaxy-wide community - but their status is tenuous at best. All other known alien cultures, at some time in their own history, have been 'uplifted' by another race, thereby forcing them into indentured servitude to their 'sponsors' for a minimum of 100,000 years. Humans, because they uplifted other species before being discovered by the galactic community at large, are immediately considered a sponsor race and can therefore not be forced to serve others. As a result, a lot of aliens are angry at and offended by humans.
Now, a Terran starship - crewed mostly by neo-dolphins, a few humans, and a self-centered neo-chimpanzee - has made a momentous discovery. With an armada of ET ships hot on their tail, they barely escape immediate capture and, with a damaged ship, are currently in hiding on a metal-rich oceanic planet somewhere at the edge of the galaxy. As the enemy closes in, things go from bad to worse as disagreeing factions threaten to tear the crew apart. But the planet itself is an enigma that holds secrets that may help - if only the crew can hold it together and unravel the mystery in time.
The many tendrils of this story are slowly and inexorably drawn together. Brin weaves a unique and masterful tale that fully deserves the awards and accolades it received.
Highly recommended.
While reading the first few chapters I thought that characterization was going to be a problem with this book because I didn't get the feel of any of them. As I read on however I began to realize that the characterization is actually quite good, the problem is that there are just so many important characters and it takes time to attune to any of them. The large number of plot stands and the short chapters make the novel seem fragmented.
With all that said I love the concept of the Uplift universe and can not help but plan to read more. Hopefully the structure of other volumes is not so fragmented.