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A review by april_does_feral_sometimes
Startide Rising by David Brin
5.0
'Startide Rising' by David Brin is the best of the first two novels in the Uplift Trilogy! I was much more engaged with the characters of the second book in this series than I was with the first, '[b:Sundiver|96472|Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, #1)|David Brin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388176548l/96472._SY75_.jpg|461555]'. But both books have the linkage of the same world building and speculative science fiction, plus 'Startide Rising' makes the most sense if the first novel is read. The action takes place two hundred years after the first book in the series.
Despite that I am throwing a little shade on 'Sundiver', I think this is a wonderfully entertaining series. The basic platform of a patron species genetically tinkering with animals to give them the gift of sentience is not original, but Brin takes off with this dream of scientific Mankind and "goes where no one has gone before!"
I copied the book blurb because it is accurate:
"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."
While uplifting has changed animals into intelligent and literate beings, they retain certain atavistic characteristics of their species. Brin has brilliantly conceived a very likely set of results of the extending of those characteristics into believable non-human sentient cultures. There are also many political subplots and swirling currents of emotion which build up slowly to an explosive finish. Readers can feel like they are drowning in the complexities of individual human/dolphin/chimp characters and plans! But I thought the space opera was very engaging even when it was a whirlpool of inventive ideas. I am still feeling a bit swamped by the dozens of warring alien lifeforms, but the book never became unmoored from its science fiction roots. Brin enjoyed himself particularly in developing space alien species. I loved the funnily wicked Soro's bitch! That mating claw was awesomely chilling. Ffs, "mating claw"!
I suggest reading H. G. Wells' [b:The Island of Doctor Moreau|341272|The Island of Doctor Moreau|H.G. Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571484102l/341272._SY75_.jpg|68894] to see how difficult it is to uplift away from one's basic DNA -whatever the original animal! "But somehow the things drift back again: the stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day back again." -the crux of the problem for Doctor Moreau, and from where the headwater for Brin's waterfall of fictional uplift dramas stream.
Alien, human, dolphin or chimp - we are all uplifted today from a seabed of older and more primitive beasties! Jump into the book gentle reader, the water's fine!
Despite that I am throwing a little shade on 'Sundiver', I think this is a wonderfully entertaining series. The basic platform of a patron species genetically tinkering with animals to give them the gift of sentience is not original, but Brin takes off with this dream of scientific Mankind and "goes where no one has gone before!"
I copied the book blurb because it is accurate:
"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."
While uplifting has changed animals into intelligent and literate beings, they retain certain atavistic characteristics of their species. Brin has brilliantly conceived a very likely set of results of the extending of those characteristics into believable non-human sentient cultures. There are also many political subplots and swirling currents of emotion which build up slowly to an explosive finish. Readers can feel like they are drowning in the complexities of individual human/dolphin/chimp characters and plans! But I thought the space opera was very engaging even when it was a whirlpool of inventive ideas. I am still feeling a bit swamped by the dozens of warring alien lifeforms, but the book never became unmoored from its science fiction roots. Brin enjoyed himself particularly in developing space alien species. I loved the funnily wicked Soro's bitch! That mating claw was awesomely chilling. Ffs, "mating claw"!
I suggest reading H. G. Wells' [b:The Island of Doctor Moreau|341272|The Island of Doctor Moreau|H.G. Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571484102l/341272._SY75_.jpg|68894] to see how difficult it is to uplift away from one's basic DNA -whatever the original animal! "But somehow the things drift back again: the stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day back again." -the crux of the problem for Doctor Moreau, and from where the headwater for Brin's waterfall of fictional uplift dramas stream.
Alien, human, dolphin or chimp - we are all uplifted today from a seabed of older and more primitive beasties! Jump into the book gentle reader, the water's fine!