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A review by mburnamfink
Startide Rising by David Brin
4.0
Startide Rising is a solid modern pulp contribution to the Hugos. A few centuries into the future, humanity is part of a galaxy teeming with intelligent life. The catch is that all intelligent life is connected in a great chain of uplift, with older species advancing younger species to technological civilization and sapience. Humanity is alone as a wolfling, only allowed on the galactic stage by virtue of having uplifted chimpanzees and dolphins. Most species want humanity dead, and when the dolphin-crewed exploration ship Streaker finds a two-billion year old alien fleet, they turn into the target of a massive polygonal battle and hunt by the galactic powers.
But all of that takes place before the first page. The meat of the story concerns the Streaker, hiding on an abandoned water world and trying to make repairs and escape while battle rages above them. The majority dolphin crew are uneasy in their use of technology and logic, fracturing under the psychological strain of the siege. Worse, many of the crew are part of a secret project in improving uplifted dolphins, and even more volatile than the standard uplift. When the dolphin second-mate and psychologist conspire to mutiny, the Earthling's greatest enemy may be themselves. POV alternates between different members of the crew, and the alien factions in their sleek battlecruisers overhead.
I thought that the dolphin characters were well-realized as adjacent to humans, but not quite human, thinking and acting quite different from how we do. The mutineers were surprisingly sympathetic in their flaws: ambitious, cowardly, ultimately traitorous and murderous, but people who had a coherent strategy (surrender to the aliens and hope for the best, rather than run the gauntlet of enemy fire and pursuit). The idea of the galactic civilization based on uplift and servitude, and the way that humanity could threaten it, was quite appealing.
There's a lot to dislike about this book. People complain about Brin's writing, similar-voiced characters (not the lack of names. A day later I can only remember a few of the characters specifically), cartoonish antagonists, ridiculous setting, and dolphin poetry. They aren't wrong, but what they miss is that Startide Rising is FUN. Having read them in order, I can confidently state that the last decade of books were joyless slogs through dystopia, apocalypses, madness, and evil. Ringworld was the last Hugo that was optimistic, that took joy in space and action and exploration.
I'm willing to overlook a fair number of flaws in writing if the whole comes together, but there was one thing off about Startide which troubled me, and while I can't put my finger on it exactly, it's about smugness and sexism. The tone of the novel is a little too self-satisfied, a little too injokey. While there are plenty of female characters, they're all in supporting roles to the males. And the parts that fell the flattest were the "romances", and a rather generous ready of how acceptable sexual harassment is when stranded on a deadly alien planet. It's a lot better than almost all of the previous sexist scifi I've read in this series, but also somehow worse because Brin considers himself "forward-looking" (direct quote from his website), and would be externally described as a progressive Democrat with some unorthodox views. I'm not at all surprised that Jo Walton dumped her drink over his head at the 2003 Boskone. Fun book, but a little sticky.
But all of that takes place before the first page. The meat of the story concerns the Streaker, hiding on an abandoned water world and trying to make repairs and escape while battle rages above them. The majority dolphin crew are uneasy in their use of technology and logic, fracturing under the psychological strain of the siege. Worse, many of the crew are part of a secret project in improving uplifted dolphins, and even more volatile than the standard uplift. When the dolphin second-mate and psychologist conspire to mutiny, the Earthling's greatest enemy may be themselves. POV alternates between different members of the crew, and the alien factions in their sleek battlecruisers overhead.
I thought that the dolphin characters were well-realized as adjacent to humans, but not quite human, thinking and acting quite different from how we do. The mutineers were surprisingly sympathetic in their flaws: ambitious, cowardly, ultimately traitorous and murderous, but people who had a coherent strategy (surrender to the aliens and hope for the best, rather than run the gauntlet of enemy fire and pursuit). The idea of the galactic civilization based on uplift and servitude, and the way that humanity could threaten it, was quite appealing.
There's a lot to dislike about this book. People complain about Brin's writing, similar-voiced characters (not the lack of names. A day later I can only remember a few of the characters specifically), cartoonish antagonists, ridiculous setting, and dolphin poetry. They aren't wrong, but what they miss is that Startide Rising is FUN. Having read them in order, I can confidently state that the last decade of books were joyless slogs through dystopia, apocalypses, madness, and evil. Ringworld was the last Hugo that was optimistic, that took joy in space and action and exploration.
I'm willing to overlook a fair number of flaws in writing if the whole comes together, but there was one thing off about Startide which troubled me, and while I can't put my finger on it exactly, it's about smugness and sexism. The tone of the novel is a little too self-satisfied, a little too injokey. While there are plenty of female characters, they're all in supporting roles to the males. And the parts that fell the flattest were the "romances", and a rather generous ready of how acceptable sexual harassment is when stranded on a deadly alien planet. It's a lot better than almost all of the previous sexist scifi I've read in this series, but also somehow worse because Brin considers himself "forward-looking" (direct quote from his website), and would be externally described as a progressive Democrat with some unorthodox views. I'm not at all surprised that Jo Walton dumped her drink over his head at the 2003 Boskone. Fun book, but a little sticky.