Hard science fiction is not my cup of tea to begin with, and I didn't realize this was what it was until it started. There are a lot of problems with this first novel (for Brin) as well. Brin creates settings and characters and then we don't see them again. The lead character, Jacob Demwa, is working with dolphins and a staff to uplift them, meaning tamper with them to make them smarter a la Planet of the Apes. That's all pretty much gone after Chapter 1, but thank you for introducing me to the

This was a recommendation from my husband, who read these books (The Uplift Saga) when he was younger and loved them. For a science fiction novel that was written and published before I was born, I have to say it has aged very well; this could have been written today. The technology and the science described is excellent, which was why my husband figured I would like this in the first place.It was also an unexpected pleasure to discover as I was reading that Sundiver turned out to be a pretty de...

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and beca

This is an interesting one. All of the stuff that feels original, the sci-fi and science elements, the world building etc. is all pretty good.Couple of small issues with the main character, he goes through several epiphanies about himself which was a little hard to follow. Also he has this big event in his past which casts a shadow over the story, the problem being its such a big, specific, interesting event that it kind a feels like you’ve missed a previous volume.However the real issue is the

I loved the concept of uplifting. My youth obsession with Von Däniken's theories came to a full circle here (I hadn't thought of him or his theories in ages and it was like a coming home to be suddenly confronted with them in this novel). Equally great were the going ons around the sun (won't say too much cause it is beautiful to experience it together with the crew).The overall feeling was a bit Star Trekkie, which, again, was nice.Yet the story and the structure/characters felt dated and so on...

This is science fiction from 1980 and is therefore not obsessed with:1) Computers.2) Nanotech.3) Wormholes.This makes it rather refreshing. Instead this book uses an old theme, prevalent in post-WWII American SF: Humans (read the USA) are superior to everybody else. In this example, humans are technologically outclassed by every other space-faring species in the galaxy but are superior because their intelligence evolved naturally instead of being the result of genetic manipulation by an older sp...

The most fascinating aspect of Brin's work is, next do the development of language depending on the habitat and culture of a species, the idea of uplifting. Many questions, ideas and plot possibilities come with it: Have we been uplifted? If we have been uplifted, are we living in a kind of alien zoo? Could this be part of the simulation hypothesis?Is what we do with other animals, such as breeding for thousands of years and now, the hottest new trend, genetic engineering with techniques as CRIS...

Most recent SF I read is actually a bit dated, David Brin's "Sundiver". I picked it up because it got a lot of favorable mention in "Eclipse Phase" (a transhuman SF roleplaying game I play tested). It's setting has humanity uplifting some other earth species (chimps, dolphins, etc...) to human sentience... and then humanity encountering aliens which derive their intergalactic status on whether a species has uplifted other species (has "client" species). It has a big debate among humans whether t...

Mr. von Däniken must be very proud that his beliefs became the other evolutionary theory in this saga: Dänikenism versus Darwinism. You can almost glimpse the birth of Ancient Aliens ;)) Series I very much liked (well, some of the episodes, at least), which, unfortunately, I cannot say about this first part of the Uplift Saga.The main character, Jacob Darwa, is a sort of Hercule Poirot in a galactic interracial plot. A team composed of humans and a few more races of aliens starts an expedition t...

A good beginning of an ambitious hard-scifi series (I wouldn't consider it "space opera", though it stumbles into that territory at times). This is Brin at the beginning of his career. It is more in the style of Hal Clement than that of A.C. Clarke. Many specific scientific conditions dictating events 'peopled' by a wide variety of intelligent alien beings and "uplifted" earth mammals.

Jacob Demwa does not want to be part of the 'Sundiver' (eponymous book one in the Uplift Saga) project. He is enjoying his current job on Earth at the Center for Uplift working with uplifted dolphins, testing their IQs and ability to work with mechanized tools. The dolphins are not as far along intellectually as the uplifted chimpanzees, but he enjoys their company nonetheless. But when the alien Fagin, a Kanten who is in charge of the Institute of Progress, asks him to join Dr. Dwayne Kepler of...

I finally read this book after reading every other book in the series. And I could have skipped it entirely. I say this not to be cruel to one of Brin's first books, but for all the reviewers who were discouraged by this one and decided not to go on.Startide Rising is easily 10x better than this one. And one of my favorite books of all time.Please read it. It takes the awesome world-building of this book: million year old civilizations, uplift and patronage, and resentment to wolfling Earth, and...

This book just could not keep my attention. I liked the parts I heard but it just didn't grab me. I even restarted twice. No luck.The audio was thoroughly mediocre.

4 StarsMy first David Brin novel. I enjoyed this high concept science fiction novel. It is a fun adventure to the depths of our sun itself. Aliens, monsters, and ghosts fill the action scenes. All the while this is a novel filled with politics and racism.I liked the unfolding of the mysteries of this book, it could have been a gem. The ending plays out in an almost anticlimactic way. It was a let down.I will read more from him.

I really disliked this book. This may have been due in part that I listened to the audible edition and I'm not a fan of George Wilson as a narrator.The protagonist in this book, Jacob, is tedious and unbelievable. The author builds him up as a world-weary, zen, super scientist, martial-artist with a Mr. Hyde-like split personality that he needs keep in check. Al the other characters in this book are diminutive to Jacob. The women in the novel are little better than 2-dimensional window dressing....

This is a classic that I have been meaning to read for a very long time now. I finally got around to it and was not disappointed. It did feel like the never-ending story towards the end though, because it kept ending, but then aha! It's not the end! There's another twist! But it was all very interesting, so forgiven. I will listen to the sequel right away, because I'm afraid I will forget the details and who knows if it's important to sweat the details for the sequel. Anyway, the 2nd book is the...

DNF @ 11%. Felt absolutely no connection with anything in this book. After reading more than 1/10 of it, the sole fact I can remember, is that lead dude is James. The book felt boring as hell and names, names, names everywhere. And I hate books that just throws you into a lake of names and says "go figure them out by yourself". Nah.p.s. - google informed me, that lead dude is Jacob, not James. That pretty much sums up my relationship with "Sundiver".

The Uplift books are tied for my favorite sci-fi series with Asimov's original Foundation series. This is sci-fi at its very best. Brin goes through an astonishing number of fascinating ideas and concepts, but leaves them for the reader to peruse or discard. Want racial allegory? Sure. Prefer religion? Plenty of it. Political intrigue? It's there by the truckload.When Brin goes into pretend-science he goes all in. One can almost sense his smirk going through this first book: that's right, this b...

First read October 17, 2008. (No review)Second reading review, April 23, 2010.There are as many origin theories as there are people to think about the origins of humanity. Like most reviews, I can't help but praise David Brin's Uplift concept. On one hand, the von Daniken-like idea of having a "patron" species that shepherded humanity toward sentience is comforting and resonates with our need to have concrete origins and a sense of belonging in a larger community. On the other hand, the Darwinia...

Really fantastic, sci-fi that makes you think. I liked the aliens and the general mystery plot, but it was the other world-building details that stood out for me:- the technology behind the sun ships;- the anachronistic idioms used by one character who, due to relativistic time differences involved in her line of work, is from a much older time period;- the psychological/physical tests used to objectively decide that a certain proportion of humanity is too psychopathic/sociopathic to interact wi...