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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
A storyline that runs parallel to, but does not intertwine with, Startide Rising. The best written, and best story, of the trilogy
Let's just get this out of the way first: I REALLY LIKED this book. This trilogy has been the best I've read in a while.
And one of the most frustrating. Frustrating because so many awesomely fascinating things were hinted at in this universe, but there was no touch to do more than prod at them. Cannot wait to start reading the next trilogy.
Last time, I was amazed that I could like a book about talking dolphins as much as I did. This time, it was chimpanzees. People. Earthlings. I love the unity in that.
Aside from there not being enough time (is 600+ pages, probably half of which I tore through today) to get to all the awesome, I only have one minor quibble. I'm not going to spoil it, but it has to do with the respective journeys and positions of certain characters with respect to their genders. I don't think it's a *bad* thing, it's just something that tripped me up a bit. In a sense, it may be the more mature path. I'm not sure if I can decide.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS
Bonus points for making me empathize with the fucking villains. BIRDS. I felt bad with the bastards. I wanted them to get a section in the epilogue and maybe salvage something. That brave guy there at the end - I know he took the place of the one he dealt with. That's what happens in my ending-after-ending.
And one of the most frustrating. Frustrating because so many awesomely fascinating things were hinted at in this universe, but there was no touch to do more than prod at them. Cannot wait to start reading the next trilogy.
Last time, I was amazed that I could like a book about talking dolphins as much as I did. This time, it was chimpanzees. People. Earthlings. I love the unity in that.
Aside from there not being enough time (is 600+ pages, probably half of which I tore through today) to get to all the awesome, I only have one minor quibble. I'm not going to spoil it, but it has to do with the respective journeys and positions of certain characters with respect to their genders. I don't think it's a *bad* thing, it's just something that tripped me up a bit. In a sense, it may be the more mature path. I'm not sure if I can decide.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS
Bonus points for making me empathize with the fucking villains. BIRDS. I felt bad with the bastards. I wanted them to get a section in the epilogue and maybe salvage something. That brave guy there at the end - I know he took the place of the one he dealt with. That's what happens in my ending-after-ending.
I felt this was the strongest of the Uplift books. Here, Brin's storytelling catches up with his terrific sci-fi ideas.
I could have done without the chimpanzee strip club scene.
I could have done without the chimpanzee strip club scene.
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Better than the first two books
This is some solid intergalactic, geo-political sci-fi. And while it is a war going on, the niceties of formal political manners and rules make for a more restrained depiction of captivity, scheming, double-crossing, etc., than it could have been, which I greatly appreciate.
The aliens are pretty cool, even if I couldn't really track who was what. I also like that this book is like 75% non-humans in content, as Brin manages to mostly exclude them from the plot early on, with a couple individual exceptions.
The aliens are pretty cool, even if I couldn't really track who was what. I also like that this book is like 75% non-humans in content, as Brin manages to mostly exclude them from the plot early on, with a couple individual exceptions.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was better than Startide Rising, but not as good as Sundiver. I love that the Chimps us "Goodall" as a curse.
The year 2489 C.E. (Common Era) finds the avian species Gubru planning to invade the small out-of-the-way planet of Garth, a green, jungle-like planet nearly wrecked in an ecological holocaust millennia earlier. Humans and their uplifted neo-chimpanzee clients have worked hard to restore the planet to a livable state, but now find their world under occupation by the hostile Gubru. With most of the humans imprisoned, it falls to a band of chimps, a single free human and the Tymbrimi ambassador and his daughter to resist the occupiers. The Gubru try to hold Garth hostage in an attempt to learn more about the discovery that the dolphin spaceship “Streaker” made about the Progenitors in the previous book, [b:Startide Rising|234501|Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2)|David Brin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476445711s/234501.jpg|251634].
Despite the title, this is not really a book about war. A book about “occupation” during war, perhaps but far more page space is devoted to other aspects of character, setting, inter-relationships, etc. I understand the author wrote three non-Uplift books between books 2 and 3 and I think his maturation as a writer is evident in this one. While I found the plot to be interesting and the characters realistic, it is the nature of the “Galactics” and the alien species that is absolutely fascinating. David Brin builds on his world building (galaxy building) from book 2 in profound ways. It’s really interesting to see how he has developed the various races in ways that are very different from humans, with complex approaches to way life is and how it should be. It goes way beyond just having alien vocabulary or avian plumage.
This book won the Hugo and Locus awards for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1988 as well as being nominated for the Nebula and Prometheus awards. I believe these awards are richly deserved. I sometimes have trouble reading science fiction award winners due to their overuse of hard science at the expense of good characters and good ol’ fashioned storytelling. But while this book is pretty lengthy, Brin’s prose is easy to read and the action moves along at a rapid pace. It only bogs down a bit when the Tymbrimi characters appear, as they express emotions through a series of psi-glyphs which appear above their heads. The reader is expected to refer to the glyph-glossary at the front of the book for their meanings which, of course interrupts the flow of the narrative.
Overall, this book is an extremely impressive novel and deserves its lofty position near the top of most science fiction must-read lists. For me personally, I think I admire it more than I enjoyed it, leading to my star rating. It can certainly be read as a stand-alone novel but I do recommend reading the previous book, [b:Startide Rising|234501|Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2)|David Brin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476445711s/234501.jpg|251634], just because of the several references made to it during the unfolding of the plot of this one.
Despite the title, this is not really a book about war. A book about “occupation” during war, perhaps but far more page space is devoted to other aspects of character, setting, inter-relationships, etc. I understand the author wrote three non-Uplift books between books 2 and 3 and I think his maturation as a writer is evident in this one. While I found the plot to be interesting and the characters realistic, it is the nature of the “Galactics” and the alien species that is absolutely fascinating. David Brin builds on his world building (galaxy building) from book 2 in profound ways. It’s really interesting to see how he has developed the various races in ways that are very different from humans, with complex approaches to way life is and how it should be. It goes way beyond just having alien vocabulary or avian plumage.
This book won the Hugo and Locus awards for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1988 as well as being nominated for the Nebula and Prometheus awards. I believe these awards are richly deserved. I sometimes have trouble reading science fiction award winners due to their overuse of hard science at the expense of good characters and good ol’ fashioned storytelling. But while this book is pretty lengthy, Brin’s prose is easy to read and the action moves along at a rapid pace. It only bogs down a bit when the Tymbrimi characters appear, as they express emotions through a series of psi-glyphs which appear above their heads. The reader is expected to refer to the glyph-glossary at the front of the book for their meanings which, of course interrupts the flow of the narrative.
Overall, this book is an extremely impressive novel and deserves its lofty position near the top of most science fiction must-read lists. For me personally, I think I admire it more than I enjoyed it, leading to my star rating. It can certainly be read as a stand-alone novel but I do recommend reading the previous book, [b:Startide Rising|234501|Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2)|David Brin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476445711s/234501.jpg|251634], just because of the several references made to it during the unfolding of the plot of this one.
This book is the third in the Uplift Saga series. It follows "Startide Rising" where neo-dolphins are "manning" their first starship.
In this book, the focus is on neo-chimpanzees (Pan Argonostes) with a small cast of neo-chimp characters to grow to like: Fibin Bolger, Gailet Jones, Benjamin, and Sylvey plus a crew of "Probies" ("probationers", chimps not quite advanced enough to reproduce freely) made up of Irongrip, Weasel, and Steelbar who you grow to not like.
The author chose to write this book as if morals are not absolutes but relative to the species involved. The neo-chimps had not been bred with any of the human taboos about sex or reproduction however their reproductive process was managed by the Chimpanzee Neo-Uplift Board; if they said "go and multiply", the chimps did so. Each chimp was issued a color coded card that was its breeding clearance.
There were also 4 sets of aliens to observe at close range: Tymbrini, Thennanin, Gobru, and Kwackoo; the latter had been uplifted by the Gobru and were still subservient, as all Galactics knew. The Tymbrini and the Thennanin were present on Garth (the planet where the novel takes place) as ambassadors representing their races, Uthacalthing and Kault, respectively. I loved the sense of humor of the Tymbrini and the lack of humor of the Thennanin. The Gobru had no sense of humor at all. In fact, since they were avian-like, I couldn't figure out how they could hold weapons; the author made no mention of them having hands. I guess rather than a "hair trigger", their rifles would've had a "feather trigger".
Much of the book was literal guerrilla warfare for survival by the indigenous creatures against the superior force of the Gobru. Early on, the humans were removed from the story line to an island off shore thru the Gobru's use of "hostage gas"; if exposed to this gas, you would die in several days unless you turned yourself in for an antidote.
The worldview of Garth (and the universe of the Five Galaxies) is stark and godless. In place of the word "God" is a minor profanity, the book uses "Ifni" (which was an abbreviation of "Infinity" or "Lady Luck" - nothing like God). In addition, one of the exclamations is "By Darwin, Goodall, and Greenpeace!" which is enough to drive you into a dark depression if you say it often enough; in it is no hope and no joy, just random chance and mutation.
At the same time, looking at the brutal Gobru occupation of the planet Garth, one of the Tymbrini said "that when something like this happened, one really knew the God Himself was still in charge" (page 544 of the Kindle edition, not a literal quote).
There was a map near the beginning of the book but I (personally and subjectively) did not find it much help.
This was the first book in the series that had significant formatting issues: mostly hyphens that appeared in the text when they should've been hidden and only used to determine where to break words at the end of a line. Lots and lots of hyphens.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
In this book, the focus is on neo-chimpanzees (Pan Argonostes) with a small cast of neo-chimp characters to grow to like: Fibin Bolger, Gailet Jones, Benjamin, and Sylvey plus a crew of "Probies" ("probationers", chimps not quite advanced enough to reproduce freely) made up of Irongrip, Weasel, and Steelbar who you grow to not like.
The author chose to write this book as if morals are not absolutes but relative to the species involved. The neo-chimps had not been bred with any of the human taboos about sex or reproduction however their reproductive process was managed by the Chimpanzee Neo-Uplift Board; if they said "go and multiply", the chimps did so. Each chimp was issued a color coded card that was its breeding clearance.
There were also 4 sets of aliens to observe at close range: Tymbrini, Thennanin, Gobru, and Kwackoo; the latter had been uplifted by the Gobru and were still subservient, as all Galactics knew. The Tymbrini and the Thennanin were present on Garth (the planet where the novel takes place) as ambassadors representing their races, Uthacalthing and Kault, respectively. I loved the sense of humor of the Tymbrini and the lack of humor of the Thennanin. The Gobru had no sense of humor at all. In fact, since they were avian-like, I couldn't figure out how they could hold weapons; the author made no mention of them having hands. I guess rather than a "hair trigger", their rifles would've had a "feather trigger".
Much of the book was literal guerrilla warfare for survival by the indigenous creatures against the superior force of the Gobru. Early on, the humans were removed from the story line to an island off shore thru the Gobru's use of "hostage gas"; if exposed to this gas, you would die in several days unless you turned yourself in for an antidote.
The worldview of Garth (and the universe of the Five Galaxies) is stark and godless. In place of the word "God" is a minor profanity, the book uses "Ifni" (which was an abbreviation of "Infinity" or "Lady Luck" - nothing like God). In addition, one of the exclamations is "By Darwin, Goodall, and Greenpeace!" which is enough to drive you into a dark depression if you say it often enough; in it is no hope and no joy, just random chance and mutation.
At the same time, looking at the brutal Gobru occupation of the planet Garth, one of the Tymbrini said "that when something like this happened, one really knew the God Himself was still in charge" (page 544 of the Kindle edition, not a literal quote).
There was a map near the beginning of the book but I (personally and subjectively) did not find it much help.
This was the first book in the series that had significant formatting issues: mostly hyphens that appeared in the text when they should've been hidden and only used to determine where to break words at the end of a line. Lots and lots of hyphens.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes