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David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling, highly regarded works of contemporary science fiction. Beginning with Sundiver, Brin provides an intriguing exploration of humanity's future in the universe. For nearly a billion years, every known sentient species in the universe has been the result of genetic and cultural guidance--or "uplifting"--by a previously uplifted patron race. Then humans are discovered. Having already uplifted chimps and dolphins, humanity clearly qualifies as an intelligent species, but did they actually evolve their own intelligence, or did some mysterious patron race begin the process, then suddenly abandon Earth? The answer to this mystery might be as close as our own sun, but it will take a daring dive into its fiery interior to know for sure. Sundiver begins David Brin's thoughtful, exhilarating exploration of a future filled with an imaginative array of strange alien races, dazzling scientific achievements, and age-old enigmas. Narrator George Wilson gives a strong, enthusiastic voice to Brin's search for humanity's destiny in the cosmic order of life.… (more)
User reviews
Two things rather won me over though and made this novel stick out in my mind. First, its take on human/alien relations is unusual. As this novel starts, humans had made first contact with a galaxy-spanning civilization whose previous space-going cultures had all undergone "uplift" from sponsoring older species, creating a patron/client relationship between species. Humans however, seem to be an exception of evolved intelligence. They therefore have no patron--but there are species very advanced technologically that would love to have them "adopted." This has had several affects on both internal and interstellar politics. Demwa, a Cherokee descendant, poignantly compares Earth's dilemma to what faced Amerindians when confronted with European settlers. How much can you, should you adapt of another, more technologically advanced culture to survive, without becoming dependent or losing who you are?
Besides this backdrop, this novel has the old-fashioned hard science-fiction pleasures of a novel of the Golden Age by an Asimov or Heinlein that revels in the wonders of astronomy. Much of the book deals with exploration of the sun and the riddle of Solarians--whether there is intelligent life on the sun and their possible relevance to human origins.
Add to this a murder mystery and elements of romance and it made for an entertaining story. I finished the novel intrigued enough to try the next book in the series someday, even if not motivated to immediately grab a copy.
Those same shields kept out most of the screaming heat, diverting the rest into tolerable forms. What got through was sucked up into a chamber to drive the Refrigerator Laser, the kidney whose filtered wasteflow was a stream of x-rays which clove aside even the plasma in its path.
Still, these were mere inventions of Earthmen. It was the science of the Galactics that made the Sunship graceful and safe. Gravity fields held back the amorous, crushing pull of the Sun so the ship fell or flew at will. The pounding forces of the center of the filament were absorbed or neutralized, and duration itself was altered by time-compression.
Sundiver is set less than thirty-five years after First Contact with the Galactic Civilisation. Virtually all space-faring species were uplifted into sapience by a patron race, so humanity's lack of a patron race is unusual and their status is increased by having two client species of their own, having recently uplifted chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins, and not everybody in the galaxy is happy about that. There are two groups of humans who have very strong opinions on the subject; the Skins, who believe that humanity uplifted itself through evolution, and the Shirts who are certain that we were uplifted by an alien race and then abandoned by them.
This book is basically a detective story. Jacob Alvarez is invited to pin the Mercury-based Sundiver project because the crews of the expeditions ships have started seeing strange things on their trips into the sun's chromosphere, ghostly figures that seem to be herds guarded by shepherd who sometimes transform themselves into humanoid shape and seem to be trying to communicate. Are these sun creatures real, and if so, could these sun creatures be humanity's lost patrons? It's a good mystery story, and I liked the aliens, especially Kant Fagin and Bubbacub, but the human characters were less so. Still, I am looking forward tot he rest of the series.
Plot: Patchy as shit. Backstory missing and not in a graceful way. The lead guy might as well be superman.
Characters: I liked the plant. Other than that they were all annoying. The lead just didn't have the depth needed. Despite the mental shock.
Style: Old school SciFi. Mostly science with a
This is all background. The story begins when Jacob Demwa, who is working with a sentient dolphin, is asked by an alien emissary to join a mission to explore the chromosphere of the Sun. Using a specially designed ship called Sundiver, the explorers have discovered at least two previously unknown species of intelligent aliens living within the chromosphere, and they want Jacob to help communicate with them. Also aboard the ship are representatives of three alien species and a scientist who will attempt telepathic communication.
The main plot is a convoluted mystery, which I had some trouble following. But more confusing, at least to me, was Jacob’s character, which seems to be split into a dual personality over which he has some, but not total, control. This happened after a pivotal event in Jacob’s past, when his wife died and he did something heroic involving saving one of Earth’s space elevators, a story Jacob keeps promising to tell but never really does. I began to wonder whether this novel was actually a sequel and I had missed the earlier installment, although I know this is the first part of a trilogy. This slipperiness kept me from fully engaging with the story and following its twists and turns. Although I appreciated the novelty of the Mercury setting and the sun ship, I just didn’t make an emotional connection with what was going on. I’m not sure I’ll continue the series.
UPDATE: I just discovered that the second part, STARTIDE RISING, does not have any of the characters from SUNDIVER, and it seems to be a much more highly regarded book. I probably will give it a whirl after all, since it’s already sitting on my shelf.
Unfortunately the plot wasn't that compelling for most of the book. It only seemed to gain momentum near the end, but was marred thereabouts by a pretty deus-ex-machina-y finale.
Overall it was an enjoyable read. I heard that the sequels blow this one out of the water; I look forward to reading them.
An interesting concept in a novel universe.
Good hard science fiction that, at it's core, is really a closed-room murder mystery. Agatha Christie in space, if you will. Along with our intrepid yet reluctant sleuth, Jacob Demwa, we have the typical cast of characters and the usual suspects, (comprised of humans, aliens, and an
This would have been a solid 4-star read for me if the initial 35% or so had not been spent on setup and exposition. Lots of hard science about how the sun works and about the galactic community that humanity has recently joined made it difficult for me to lose myself in the story. BUT... once that is out of the way, and the diving into the sun stuff begins, things really start to pick up as we thunder toward a bang-up of a finale. I expect all that setup will also provide a thorough background picture for continuing with the rest of the 'Uplift' books - which I intend to do right away. Next up: Startide Rising!
Then there's the beatiful young ship captain who flirts with the protagonist, and what do you know later on she breaks down crying into Mr. Protagonist's shoulder and she just wants to have his babies. I disapproved strongly of this character, and I thought her relationship with the protagonist was unjustified, uninteresting, and gratuitious.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless they're specifically interested in the history and development of the Sci-Fi genre.
It was also an unexpected pleasure to discover as I was reading that Sundiver turned out to be a pretty decent whodunnit mystery, and the perpetrator behind it all would surprise you.
Sundiver is the first in the Uplift series. It introduces us to the concept of the uplift, which is where a senior species with space travel selects a primitive race. Then through training and genetics, helps that species advance to the point of space travel. That species then owes service to the senior.
In Sundiver, the self-uplifting humans work with a team of aliens to dive into the Sun to explore a new sentient species unknown to the galaxy. The first dive ended in disaster, and a subsequent trip has problems that suggest sabotage. The story has intrigue and borders on being a mystery, except that the reader does not have sufficient backstory information to attempt a solution and must follow the story line.
The book sets up some interesting politics and potential for further stories, evidenced by the large number of books in the series. We are introduced to a new Earth with restrictions on travel, some odd cultural subgroups, and alien zones. Since humanity is self-uplifted, there is some resentment among other species who owe debts for having space travel and being part of a galactic community. We only experience a few aliens, they are unique and well thought out.
I had difficulty understanding the main character, Jacob Demwa. His character was not well defined for me, maybe I missed something. The book opened with him working with some sentient dolphins, when he was invited to join an expedition to study the solar chromosphere. It wasn't clear why this character was important to the project. In spite of this weakness, the story is well told, the technology is interesting, and the pace is very good.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Humans are rare in the universe because they weren't uplifted by another race. Now that we've made contact other races aren't sure how to take the humans and many human's aren't sure how to take the aliens, down to being downright
The story is fairly simple, a sort of "whodonit?" set around a space program that appears to have made contact with energy beings who live in and around the sun. The
I had enjoyed the character development in Startide Rising and The Uplift War, especially of the nonhuman characters (neochimps, neodolphins, and aliens). The characterization in Sundiver left me disappointed. The protagonist was neither sympathetic nor particularly convincing (the whole pseudo suppressed split personality thing just seemed silly to me). And the three important alien characters were interesting as excercises in alien design, but as key players in the story they left me unconvinced.