33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book 3 of a Great Saga, November 18, 2004
This review is from: The Uplift War (The Uplift Saga, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
Currently, there are six books in Brin's Uplift saga. It's kind of hard to categorize these books as elements of a series, though. The first three books in the saga, "Sundiver," "Startide Rising," and "The Uplift War," are not really a trilogy or a series in the normal sense. Instead, "Sundiver" relates to the rest of the saga as Tolkien's "The Hobbit" relates to his "Lord of the Rings:" it sets the stage for all the rest of the books in the saga. "Startide Rising" and "The Uplift War" describe completely different plotlines originating from the same event far distant, time wise and space wise, from "Sundiver". In a pinch, you could read these books in any order and not really miss anything. They describe different points in time and space of the same Universe. Of course, the best order is the one listed, above.
Unlike the first three books in the saga, the second three books DO form a series. The first of this trilogy, "Brightness Reef," picks up with yet another totally independent plotline and brand new characters. However, it does contain a central character who ties the first three books into this set. Unfortunately, Brin doesn't say, specifically, who that character is until the very end of the book. Even worse, the last time the character was used was so far back in the saga that it's hard to remember anything about him. The remaining two books, "Infinity's Shore" and "Heaven's Reach," continue sequentially from the first and form a tightly knit trilogy with no breaks in time.
None of these books is "happy" or "light reading." For the most part, they're all intense, heavily detailed and fully characterized books. "Sundiver" is the least "heavy" and most lacking in the realistic feel of the rest of the books. But, for the most part, if you like "Sundiver," you'll definitely want to continue with the rest of the saga. Even if you don't like "Sundiver," I highly recommend you read at least "Startide Rising:" it has an entirely different feel to it and might be more to your liking. This saga is just too important to miss out on. As a whole, it's one of the great works of science fiction and one of the few pieces of science fiction that belong in the class of true literature.
The following are some comments on the individual books:
Sundiver: Somewhat different from the other books in the saga in that it's more of a science fiction mystery than a science fiction drama. This book sets the stage for the rest of the saga as it chronicles events that happen several hundred years before what happens in the other books. About the only thing negative I can come up with is that I wish Brin had written several prequels to it so we could read about the earlier adventures of Jacob Demwa that are referenced in this book.
Startide Rising: This book focuses on the group that starts all the other events noted in the remaining books of the saga. Though the main characters start off in a very bad way, Brin does a good job of moving them forward, and upward, throughout the book.
The Uplift War: The events in this book start from the same event that kicks off "Startide Rising." But, other than that, the two books are totally independent. Like "Startide Rising," Brin produced a gripping plot, great character development, and a good progression towards a positive goal.
Brightness Reef: This is definitely not a happy book. It starts out with many non-pleasant activities and fights its way forward from there. The biggest problem I have with it is that it's very hard to see how anything good or positive is going to happen to the main characters, no matter how much they try.
Infinity's Shore: First, the negative: once this book starts, it's very apparent that a whole lot of relevant stuff has been happening elsewhere that we missed. Essentially, there's at least one entire book that sounds extremely interesting that's missing from the saga. Brin fills in most of this back-story during this book and "Heaven's Reach." But, I'd sure like to have read that missing book. On the positive side, this book re-introduces us to old friends and subtly changes the focus to them. Everything's still happening in the same place with mostly the same characters, but the attitude changes and becomes more can-do.
Heaven's Reach: One difficulty with this book is due to how it continues from the previous book. It's merely a change of venue instead of a new set of adventures. A quote from one of the main characters near the end of this book sort of sums up my feelings about it: "...what will one more worry matter? I've long passed the point where I stopped counting them." Essentially, by the time this book and saga starts winding down (and even at the point of that quotation, it really hasn't started that yet), the reader is totally fatigued by never-ending problems. I really like these works, but the lack of a tie-up between "Infinity's Shore" and this book is grinding.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My first Uplift novel, but not my last., September 24, 1998
This review is from: The Uplift War (The Uplift Saga, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
I just finished David Brin's "The Uplift War" (the second novel I have read from this author) and have to admit that I was impressed. My first Brin novel, "The Postman", had its strengths but I was disappointed in his lack of real character development. Happily, the characters in this novel are fleshed-out and surprisingly believable, especially when you consider how difficult it would be to try and breath life into chimpanzees (uplifted or not) or, of all things, big birds!
I was relieved to find out that one doesn't have to start with the first novel in this series (I have since learned that "The Uplift War" is actually the third book). As I read this novel, I could see that there was at least one novel that preceeded it, but this had no adverse effects on this story. "The Uplift War" stands on its own.
Admittedly, this type of novel may not be everyones' cup-of-tea, and I had problems at first with the Gubru aliens (big birds). But it was Brin's characters and eloquent descriptive narration that drew me in. One could really see these birds posturing as they debated. I went from thinking I was reading a fantasy novel to knowing I was reading a good science fiction novel, and one that required solid research.
So, if I liked it that much, why didn't I give it 5 stars? Unless a novel is absolutely unforgettable, and emotionally moves me (in any and all directions), it won't receive 5 stars. Very few novels (of any genre) deserve 5 stars. On a scale of 1 to 10, "The Uplift War" gets a solid 7 from me, which indicates that it is a very good novel, indeed. The idea behind this series is imaginative and far reaching, and if "The Uplift War" is typical of what to expect in this series, I will soon be purchasing more of David Brin's work. And what better recommendation can I give than that?
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor-quality kindle editions, September 5, 2010
Important note for buyers: I loved this book, but if you're interested in this book, do not buy the Kindle edition.
I bought most of the Uplift series in Kindle editions: Heaven's Reach, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Sundiver, Uplift War, and Startide Rising. I was extremely disappointed by the quality of these ebooks. Words were frequently mis-spelled or replaced with similar-looking but incorrect words; words and whole passages were arbitrarily italicized; many words were split with hyphens for no reason. It was confusing, distracting, and eventually irritating. I got the strong impression that all these books had been run rapidly through an OCR system and never checked for correctness or quality. For a publishing company of Ballantine's size and reputation this is ridiculous.
If Ballantine are going to sell ebooks, they should do it properly, and give them the same care and attention they would to physical books. There's no excuse for releasing shoddy digital products.
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