Reviews

• Science fiction worth reading.

  Well written with lots of humor. Interesting aliens and uplifted animals. A space opera at its best. Difficult to put the book down.

• An Amazing Novel

  When David Brin, physicist and tale-spinner extraordinary, tackles a huge, multifaceted subject, he has only one rival, Stephen Baxter. Don't expect a sequel to "Startide Rising". Those characters return in the next 3-volume series. This book can stand alone, and is one of Brin's best works, a novel of patriotism, heroism, spying, revolution, comedy, wit, and typical Earthling bumbling and muddling through, although some of the Earthlings in this book are Chims and Chimmies (male and female NeoChimps). It's the 3rd and final part of the first Uplift novels (older sentient beings of the universe who millions of years ago began to genetically and educationally modify the minds and skills of former animals--even of mobile plants). Earth is a latecomer to the society of uplift clients, and Earthlings are not always treated with respect by snobbier beings of venerable lineage--and their fear of the newcomers and what they discovered in "Startide Rising" sets off "The Uplift War". It's a rousing space opera, and also a great discussion of religion, appreciation of differences, the meaning of bravery, all with considerable humor. You will fall in love with the heroic Chim, Fiben, and his scholarly Chimmie friend, Gailet, along with the intriguing elfin alien, Athaclena, and her human friend Robert--and all the others. Even the "villains" are described with understanding. Brin's best books include a vast cast of protagonists espousing different and conflicting viewpoints, and always plausibly characterized, and by the end one important hostile diplomat has been converted to Earth's cause. The ending of this book is fireworks! It belies a few reviewers who claim that there's usually not much of a conclusion to David Brin's long novels. Read this, and you'll decide that's a vile canard.

• Great Characters

  To me, the most important 2 features of a book are 1) Is it readable over and over? This book easily pasts that test. 2) are the characters interesting enough that I would like to know them? I know of no one who's aliens or other life forms are more interesting. Mr Brin weaves multiple story lines together without confusion or loss of continuity. Above all, it is fun to read and upbeat in a sea of deadly dark future stories. If I want to be depressed I'll read a newspaper or watch cable news. Mr Brin shows you can be upbeat, logical, and fun all at the same time.

• Brilliant, Unique Science Fiction

  An original idea which is also an excellent commentary on our relationship with other intelligent species both real and imagined.

• Good continuation of the saga

  I first wrote this review at 1:00am, having stayed up way too late to read through the climax and denouement. Compelling ending, that grabbed my interest and kept me going. Great characters I cared about; I wanted to find out what happened to them. Hoped they would all succeed. Some do, some don't, but it was quite satisfying. The tension throughout the book was great, with multiple sub-plots working against each other. I particularly liked seeing the story from the multiple points of view: human, neo-chimpanzee, friendly aliens, and antagonist aliens. Very creative characterization and culture for the aliens. All that said, I can't give it 5 stars for several reasons. I found it repetitive in some of its underlying messages. I particularly tired of hearing over and over how the Bururali had destroyed the planet's ecology, and how terrible humanity was pre-Contact. Those two messages were driven over and over, to the point of detracting from the current story. I was also distracted by the over-use of highly unusual vocabulary. I have a large vocabulary and enjoy using 50-cent words myself, but even I was forced to look up words at the rate of 1-2 per page. Finally, there was far too much interruption of the action for my taste. Even in the climax, with a hot-and-heavy personal battle going on, the author chose to intersperse the battle with reminders of how the protagonist had gotten to that point during this day. All in all, it's a good book and worth reading, despite the problems.

Purchase links