Rating: 
Summary: Classic Sci-Fi
Review: It only gets better. I was prepare to labor thorugh this second book of this series, it would be hard to come to the mark that SUNDIVER set, Brin surpassed the mark. The array of characters, the depth of enteraction, I read it strait through. It's years later with a completely new cast not just dragging out the orginal story. Another amazing novel in Brin's universe of Uplift
Rating:
Summary: great sci fi, based on a grand scheme
Review: THis is one of the funnest sci fi books I ever read: it has good characters as well as highly imaginative conceptions of both the use of genetic science and the galactic order. It really captured my imagination and set me on a long spree of reading Brin's books. His writing is also crisp and fresh with good dialogue.Get it.
Rating:
Summary: great, great sci-fi
Review: This book is just cool. Brin's style reminds me of Asimov with an edge and a poetic touch. It has great characters, especially those of a different species. Human's have 'uplifted' dolphins and chimps to sentience. "Startide" has mainly human and dolphin characters (plus one chimp, and glimpses at a number of alien races). Each character is well developed, and the dolphins and aliens are well developed as a whole. Brin does well developing the psyche of the different species. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book is the dolphin's language and mentality. The dolphins speak a language called trinary, which is in effect speaking in Haiku. This speech develops, in part, from the strange dolphin philosophy of the "Whale Dream". I can't go on enough about Brin's ideas in this area. He is masterfully adept at creating the worldviews of non-humans. This book, to me, was the prize of the first Uplift trilogy, but the other two are both good reads as well.
Rating:
Summary: Superb, simply the best I've read in years!
Review: Taut, exciting, well-written, all that good stuff! When you read a lot of sf you get a bit blase; there seems to be nothing new under the suns. But this book-- wow! Original concepts *and* great plotting and characterization! Hats off to David Brin for this one. (As a note: this was the first Uplift novel I read, but I had no trouble following it.)
Rating: 
Summary: The second read was great!
Review: This novel was one of the best science fiction books I have ever read, brilliant on so many different levels. Unfortunately it was also very hard to follow, and although I enjoyed it greatly the second time, if I had rated it earlier I would have given it a three. If you do not know, David Brin's Uplift universe follows a really creative concept: what if all of the alien races were uplifted to sentience, going back in terms of ancestors to a pseudo mythical race called the Progenitors? What if the earthlings don't have a sponsor race (of course we don't we are human after all!) This makes his universe rich and diversified (I still think the battle segments are my favourite part of this novel), also rather literary - the poetical influence of the dolphins, especially the captain creates a novel that actually attempts to be something higher and succeeds. Great description, sometimes great characters (although even a few of the dolphins are obviously stock characters) and a startling new vision. This novels only faults are the confusing plot and jumbled action. This is the only reason I gave it four stars (five stars is hard to manage!)
Rating:
Summary: Good, fascinating.
Review: "Startide rising" is a good book. Personally, I found it too stretched out, too long: it could have been much better without a 150 pages. And, as others reviewers said, you don't have to expect a satisfaying ending. But I read it all with moments of real fascination, expecially the underwater scenes. Although many things seem to be irrilevant to the book, and I would have cut them ( such as many poems or aliens talking about their culture or many minor storylines ), I think "Startide rising" was well worth reading. I won't read the other books of the series, though.
Rating:
Summary: A Highly Recommended Story
Review: This is one of my favorite stories. The author shows a real talent for writing a suspenseful story that is also comprehensive to a new reader. The characters are realistic, so you can relate to how they deal with their problems, but at the same time they fit into the futuristic world around them. This isn't a hard book to read, but it creates the challenge of seeing the story from each characters' point of view. The ending is a little ambiguous, but many questions I had were answered when I read the rest of the books in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Irritating
Review: This book annoys me. Ok, the story is actually interesting, but the author doesn't tell the WHOLE story. This book would make indeed a very good second book in a trilogy, but the other two books in THIS trilogy do not tell the REST of this story. It's like a great epic is happening, and we are invited to look into only a brief chapter of this epic. A small spaceship and it's crew of (mostly) dolphins, a few humans and a single chimp are fleeing huge fleets of the galactic super-powers. We are told what caused said powers to do this, but not why. We are hinted at a story of valor, cleverness and mystery that we never get to see. The spaceship lands on the ocean (pun intended) of a supposedly unoccupied planet, and start exploring it, in search of materials needed for the repairs of the ship, if they are to have any chance of fleeing. Of course, first they'll have to figure out a way of leaving the planet without being captured or simply shot down by the aliens. The exploration also yields a small mystery about the planet, the importance of which is deemed purely academic by the crew (which have a share of academics, so that's not exactly a problem :). The aliens, meanwhile, give enough time for all of the above to happen by going at each other's throats for the prize of capturing the earthling ship. This story, we get told. Unfortunately, we *don't* get told how the *rest* of the voyage home goes, aside from being hinted to be every bit as adventurous as this part. The same thing goes for one of the main characters. In much the same way as in Sundiver, the character is experienced and pivotal figure in a number of other very important and seemingly interesting adventures. Which is all good, except that the author hints just a bit TOO much, getting us interested in tales that are not going to get told. If not for this "middle of the story" style, I'd rate this book four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Strictly mediocre
Review: I figured that any Nebula winner would be a guaranteed good read, but I couldn't have been more foolish. Perhaps in 1983 it was considered innovative to prophesy about genetically engineering other animals into sentience, but this theme has been worn into cliche long ago. No new insights here. The characters are unengaging; the heroes take forever to say their lines, and the villians are either too idiotic or just plain alien to generate a strong sense of revulsion. This is not a terrible book, it's quite average, but why waste your time reading something that isn't spectacular? There is much better sci-fi out there, skip Startide Rising and anything else by David Brin. I would suggest the Dune series if you haven't read it yet, but the all-time best is Hyperion by Dan Simmons. You might also consider reading the Lord of the Rings to get ready for the upcoming movie.
Rating:
Summary: Superior Sci-Fi, not for everyone though
Review: I loved this book, it is hard sci-fi at its best. David Brin writes a very technical novel which is a turn off for some people, including a few friends of mine who don't warm up well to hard, "scientific" sci-fi books. Another turn off for some people was the lack of characterization. Some of it was a little weak and characters don't act exactly how I would predict in the emergency situations that they find themselves in. The rest of the book shines making it a classic novel in the genre. The ideas are on a cosmic scale with God like aliens, galactic civilizations, libraries that hold the sum of all knowledge and the key idea of uplifting a primitive species to full sentience. I think of David Brin as a newer and more polished Arthur C. Clarke. As literature, Brin isn't quite in the upper echelon of sci-fi (try some early Orson Scott Card and early Dan Simmons) but with ideas, Brin is the very best.
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