Customer Reviews

Earthclan: The Uplift War / Startide Rising

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Brin's Uplift series extends across six books now - Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, and the Brightness Trilogy. The premise is simple: the universe is not only full of life, it is old beyond belief, and as caste-ridden as India. Since the fabled Progenitors, one race after another has "uplifted" other races, by direct genetic manipulation or selective breeding. Each race has it patron, each has its clients who must discharge an multi-millenium period of servitude as repayment for their uplift, and each aspires to its own clan.

Except the earthling clan, which stumbles into this universe just before the beginning of Sundiver. And not only do the earthlings not have a patron, they have cheekily uplifted neo-dolphins and neo-chimps, creating their own client races. They are wolflings. It's an moral affront and a religious insult to other races that can trace their lines back a billion years.

So when one of the earthling ships, captained by a neo-dolphin and crewed by the three earthling peoples, stumbles across evidence of the fabled progenitors, the race that started uplift, well, it's just too much for the older races. Interstellar chaos ensues. Religious, economic and social wars break out, almost all of it aimed at the wolfling earth clan.

The earthling ship is chased across the five universes. The first book, Startide Rising is the story of the ship's attempt to hide itself on an oceanic world. A gripping plot, vivid characters, aliens that are really alien, and neo-dolphins that are everything you could want them to be. It's a wonderful story, with a stand up and cheer ending.

The second book, The Uplift War is the story of just one minor consequence of the earthlings discovery. Essentially the story of a counter-revolution, it's the triumph of low technology against high technology on an ecologically damaged world, of a band of Tymbrimi aliens, neo-chimps and humans against aliens who are really and truly alien. Told from the shifting perspectives of Tymbrimi, bad guy Jiburu, human and chimp, the story is clever, devious and captivating.

Brin's physicist training shines through his writing. But in Brin's hands the science is a means rather than an end. There's not the razzle-dazzle of the old pulps, or the machine gun pacing of, say, Ian Banks, but instead highly satisfying yarns with subtle themes, good plotting and strong characterizations. Of course the dolphins speak in haikus; how else would they talk?

This two in one volume has the Uplift Universe stories to start with. If the loose ends don't force you to read the Brightness Trilogy next, well, we _really_ don't like the same books. Highly recommended.

Received this book as part of science fiction book club -- contains both Startide Rising and Uplift War (see reviews for each individually). No need to order and wait since you can order each book individually.

However, if you want two wonderfully gripping and completely enjoyable books bound within a single cover, this would be the one to own. I read and reread this edition until the covers fell off.

In this universe, a clan is made up of a patron race (humans), and the client races that have been raised to sentience through the wonders of genetic engineering (dolphins and chimpanzees). Don't expect to hear about the technical aspects of "uplift." Instead, be prepared to become enthralled by the Hugo & Nebula Award-winning tales of noble humankind fighting to stay alive in a hostile union of 5 galaxies.

I've placed an order for this remarkable book.

Although both 'Startide Rising' and 'The UpLift War' are stand-alone books - which means that one can read the series backwards, as have I at times, and still wonder who's going to survive, and WHY and HOW - they are magnificent reading one after another. The very Concept of up-lifting explains quite a bit - and leaves questions open for later books and disscusions. for example: only the Brin family likely knows why the Tymbrimi are marsupial humanoid elf-like beings - _can_ one up-lift a myth? are the Caltmour the dragons of legend?

So MANY questions. And only TWO ways to know the definitive answers:

1) read the books. 2) your name is David Brin!

Brin's best works together in one novel. These two books are what made Brin. 'The Postman' is bland compared to these. Genetic engineering at its best.

Brin is a consistant winner with his books and this series is his best. The 'Uplift War' is fabulous with good charater development, and lots of action. But like the best Sci-fi, he has new ideas and concepts that become staples for other authors.

Very well written and intact alternate universe. Unfortunaly the author has written several stories following the Dolphin/human starship but in no particular order. Fortunatly the are written well enough to stand on their own.

This is one of the best science fiction books I've read in a while. The use of Haiku and a myriad of other literary genres makes these two books all the more interesting for a student of literature to read. The author dwells more on animal behaviour and anthropology than in physics and engineering, which is great for non-techies like me. Naturally it has the PC environmentalism expected in a novel of this era. C'est la vie. Hope others enjoy it as much as I have.

There's one logic flaw I just couldn't get over. Why send dolphins into space who will potentially suffer from psychotic breaks and threaten the whole crew? i.e if one dolphin is in danger and needs to be rescued it can send out a distress call that will cause all the others to risk themselvels in a suicidal attempt to rescue that dolphin. Basically they beach themselves. Otherwise great books.

Not much to say, other than these were excellent books. I would recommend them to any true fan of Science Fiction.