Heaven's Reach [Hardcover]

David Brin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

Concluding novel in the "Uplift" sequence. After centuries of peace, the six fugitive races that escaped to Jijo from the Five Galaxies have been discovered by the terrifying Jophur. Their only hope is the ship that led Jophur to them - it contains ancient artefacts which could unlock their past.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Heaven's Reach is the final volume of the Uplift trilogy, which begins in Brightness Reef and continues in Infinity's Shore. It chronicles the adventures of a handful of primitives from the planet Jijo who have left or been taken from their homes only to be swept into the intrigues of galactic politics. The novel also continues the story of the fugitive Earth starship Streaker, pursued across the galaxy for its precious cargo of ancient artifacts. Just when it looks like things can't get worse for Streaker, the foretold Time of Changes rocks the galaxy. Devastating "space quakes" shake every planet and star, and some of the particularly unscrupulous alien races attempt to use the disaster to further their bizarre goals. There's danger and excitement on almost every page (in contrast to much of the first two books in the series) and Brin finally delivers on many of the mysteries of the Five Galaxies. The Progenitors, the Hydrogen Breathers, Streaker's cargo--these and more are explained at last. Or are they? Each seemingly ultimate truth tends to dissolve a chapter later, revealing a new and more complex truth. New adventures and mysteries await. --Brooks Peck --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The final book in Brin's Uplift Storm Trilogy (Infinity's Shore; Brightness Reef) sets space opera against a canvas that spans the galaxies, colored with interstellar conflict and peopled with smart-mouthed chimpanzees, overwhelmed humans and neo-dolphins who form the stalwart crew of the spaceship Streaker. The narrative, which unfolds at frenzied speed, opens with the Earth under attack by an alliance of evil aliens, the essence of space itself shaking apart and the beleaguered Streaker, captained by Dr. Gillian Baskin, trying to outrun a Jophurian battleship that seeks to destroy it. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of a wormhole that delivers the Streaker to the Old Ones, the godlike beings responsible for nurturing sentient life throughout the Five Galaxies and for inaugurating the UpLift process. While Baskin and her crew fear that the Old Ones are offering them "the embrace of gravitational tides," an interplanetary form of comfortable retirement, they learn that in fact they have been selected for a very special purpose: to journey to remote space, where the missing eight of the original Thirteen Civilized Galaxies wait to be contacted. Tension builds and builds?and then stumbles to a stop. Brin fans will find plenty to gorge themselves on here, including Niss Machines, Galactic Library cubes and Zang ship-entities, and Brin does offer answers to riddles he posed as far back as Startide Rising. But his choice of a conclusion for his massive and immensely popular trilogy proves a letdown, and then some.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: San Val (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417810815
• ISBN-13: 978-1417810819
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,962,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Brin is a scientist, public speaker and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

His 1989 ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web. A 1998 movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on his post-apocalyptic novel, The Postman. David's novel Kiln People has been called a book of ideas disguised as a fast-moving and fun noir detective story, set in a future when new technology enables people to physically be in more than two places at once. A hardcover graphic novel The Life Eaters explored alternate outcomes to WWII, winning nominations and high praise.

David's science fictional Uplift Universe explores a future when humans genetically engineer higher animals like dolphins to become equal members of our civilization. These include the award-winning Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore and Heaven's Reach. He also recently tied up the loose ends left behind by the late Isaac Asimov: Foundation's Triumph brings to a grand finale Asimov's famed Foundation Universe.

Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. His non-fiction book -- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? -- deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association.

As a public speaker, Brin shares unique insights -- serious and humorous -- about ways that changing technology may affect our future lives. He appears frequently on TV, including several episodes of "The Universe" and History Channel's "Life After People." He also was a regular cast member on "The ArciTECHS."

Brin's scientific work covers an eclectic range of topics, from astronautics, astronomy, and optics to alternative dispute resolution and the role of neoteny in human evolution. His Ph.D in Physics from UCSD - the University of California at San Diego (the lab of nobelist Hannes Alfven) - followed a masters in optics and an undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Caltech. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Space Institute. His technical patents directly confront some of the faults of old-fashioned screen-based interaction, aiming to improve the way human beings converse online.

Brin lives in San Diego County with his wife and three children.

You can follow David Brin:
Website: http://www.davidbrin.com/
Blog: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DavidBrin1
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/cab801

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Time's up! Put your pencils down., June 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Heaven's Reach (The Second Uplift Trilogy #3) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is deeply flawed. Most importantly, I got the feeling that about halfway through, David Brin looked up at his clock and said, "Oh my God, I have to FINISH this!" As a result, where Brin devoted the first 5/6 of the series developing plots and full-bodied characters, sometimes in aggravating detail, he spends the last 1/6 hacking off plot lines with abandon. In many cases, key events take place outside of the narrative, and we learn what happened in another character's often colorless retrospective. Some characters just disappear. Others are transformed from full-bodied characters to author-surrogates whose sole function is to spout descriptions of what's going on around them. And even with this mad rush for the finish line, Brin doesn't manage to tie up all the loose ends. In general, this all reminded me of some of my less successful answers to college essay exams -- slow and thoughtful at the beginning, but frantic and incomplete at the end as I struggled to finish by the deadline.

The characters in Heaven's Reach are also much flatter than in the earlier books. Their reactions are generally predictable and Brin omits the little touches that previously made them aggravating, endearing, or inspiring, and, in the process, made them more real.

The books is partially redeemed by Brin's facility with ideas and plot development. Even though the characters are plastic and the pace is uneven, the book is stuffed with new ideas and plot twists. Those kept me interested. I'm glad I read this book, but I am sorry that it doesn't come close to the author's normally high standards

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Brin's reach exceeds his grasp., July 17, 2001

By 

M. Packo (Stratford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heaven's Reach (The Second Uplift Trilogy #3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Do not expect anything like a resolution to the events of StarTide Rising here. Brilliant, up-to-date space opera that unfortunately suffers from the Too Much Of A Good Thing syndrome that has bedeviled an awful lot of SF since Frank Herbert set the sequel-itis meme loose big time. In other words: bloat. Heaven's Reach would have benefitted more by including less -- less of repetition, less of dizzying detail, less of all that impressive multi-dimensional, multi-species, multi-incident "dross" that only frustrates the story's impetus and, sadly, obscures our interest in its characters. This novel is a mind-boggler, no doubt about that. Chock full of wonderful, awesome, cosmic ideas. But...get ready for the NEXT Uplift trilogy, no doubt cooking on Mr. Brin's already overheated word processor right now. And let's hope for the best from the rest!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Heaven's Reach (The Second Uplift Trilogy #3) (Mass Market Paperback)

I love the Uplift universe. The last two books in this 2nd trilogy have been a disappointment, however. They don't seem to be thoughtfully written. As one reviewer noted, they seem to be dashed off. I am very, very tired of the literary ploy where each chapter is ended at a moment of crisis, and then the next chapter starts up with a different character, particularly when, when the characters in crisis reappear in a later chapter, often the crisis is not taken up where it left off; indeed it seemed that at least twice the crisis wasn't even refered to in retrospect, which astonished me. This stylistic "technique" gave me a headache.