Rating: 
Summary: The idea is unique and worth of more attention, but...
Review: Sundiver is book one of the Uplift Saga, in which the galaxy is filled with races who have genetically engineered intelligence into non-sentient beings thus "uplifting" them. The uplifted races then must submit to a period of indentured servitude (100,000 years or so) to pay their patron race for their uplift. This process has apparently been going on since the first intelligent race uplifted a client race. The human race however managed to uplift itself, that is, has intelligence without a patron. While humans are not the first "wolfling" race, they are generally looked down upon by the galaxy's glitteratti. What follows is intrigue (to some extent) and mystery as some our of Earth's benefactors are in fact trying to diminish humankind. A bit too slow at times and not terribly compelling. Still, the idea is unique and worth of more attention. I plan on reading the next two in the series to see how it goes (there are 5 so far).
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: Interesting and fun. I like Brins capacity for aliens. Terrific series. buy them all.
Rating: 
Summary: Story with a good plot lacks direction
Review: Okay this book starts off with an expedition to the sun. The cast of characters seem interesting but lack depth. Alot of things David Brin brought up were brilliant but shouldn't have included them in the story.
The idea of uplifting and the possiblity of uplifting the humans was a great concept in itself. The story should of remained on track with the expediton to the sun instead of tryin to add other elements that had nothing to do with the plot. For example, there was a reference to the Jihad Holy Wars in space, now that sounded interesting. David Brin can wrote a novel about that subject in future. Alot of little reference of that sort were dotted through out the whole book. Which in fact, made me loose focus and almost forgot what the book was about at times.For the most part, I thought he brought all these interesting ideas to fill up space for the book. I also notice he tried to add a little twist to keep thing a little interesting with the mysterious death of a chimpanzee and in the end it was never solved. I agree with another reviewer that there were loopholes in this book...
Rating: 
Summary: I gave this book a two for effort
Review: To be honest this book should be rated a one. The reason why I gave this book a two is because it had alot of well interesting ideas. This book lack focus and direction. I wasn't sure were the heck it was taking me. David Brin brought up so many things I eventually got lost. He also left loop holes and got me thinking about things he never bought up or mentioned again. Most of the time I was left with a big fat "Huh??" throught out finishing this book. If you happen to read part two of this series, you will also be loss because it doesn't tie up any loose ends with part one. Well, anyway that is a different story. I wouldn't recommened to book to anyone unless they want to put together the pieces of the story together in thier own way.
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Summary: J.Braswell
Review: This book was well written, it just never went anywhere. In my opinion this book was simply churned out to entice you to purchase future books. True, it's a sequel but the story is not strong enough to stand on it's own. Read the book "The Postman" but waste your time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: A confused, modest opening to the Uplift Saga
Review: Brin's first novel is notable for introducing the Uplift - a concept so far-reaching and yet almost believable (by sci-fi standards) that it spawned an entire series of books. The basic idea is that a scientifically advanced race will eventually learn enough about genomes to be able to "Uplift" other species to much higher levels of intelligence. In the future, dolphins and chimpanzees will become man's friends and apprentices. Meanwhile, the same process occurs on other planets, many of which have their own family of 'client' species, leaving the galaxy filled with scads of sentient alien races. Against this backdrop, the story focuses on some scientific discoveries related to sundiving, and these drive the main plot of this somewhat confused novel. Indeed, the biggest weakness of this sprawling book is not a shortage of interesting ideas, but their overabundance, and a resultant lack of focus. Amidst so many alien species, each with their own secret political agendas, the reader doesn't get a very fair chance to solve the mystery that's presented. Jacob Dimwa is a renowned hero who once saved the 20-mile-high Vanilla Needle tower from disaster in Ecuador, but was unable to save his beloved wife Tania. Still haunted by the incident, he nurtures an alternate personality that shows up under duress. Now a dolphin specialist, he helps dolphins realize their full intellectual potential (pretty high). He is brought to the Sundiver base on Mercury to help investigate the two unique life forms that have been found living in the sun itself. There's a societal subtext of Citizens versus Probationers (persons with a known tendency towards violence are not allowed near aliens), and the mystery behind Dr. Kepler's medication and illness may be just another red herring. Also, Dr. Martine is having secret discussions with Bubbacub, but are they the real villains here, or is there something even more nefarious at work? And when Jeffrey's ship crashes, was it an accident? Or was it destroyed by external forces protecting their own existence? Or was the ship sabotaged to further someone's political agenda? Dimwa will need all his personalities to find out. Nothing is as it appears to be in this story, and Brin seems to have gone overboard making sure no one would guess the secrets too early in this surprising mystery. Instead, this reader found that even after the denouement, it was difficult to keep track of who had been responsible for what. So as a mystery, this novel doesn't really play very fair. As science fiction, there are a lot of good ideas here, and Brin does a decent job of giving everyone a unique characterization, particularly all the various aliens. In the last analysis, the problem is the protagonist Dimwa. With the point of view trained on his split personality and tormented past and near-suicide and fear of insanity, we really don't get to have much fun investigating all these outrageous scientific discoveries. The novel seems weighed down by a pall of doom that prevented this reader from enjoying it as much as it the ideas in it deserved. Cut some of the 'downers' that don't advance the plot anyway, and you'd have a much better book. Nonetheless, many will wish to read this introduction to the highly acclaimed Uplift Saga. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and original
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The premise is interesting and original. The plot is excellent and David Brin is a talented writer. I liked it so much, I've decided to read the entire series.
Rating: 
Summary: A slow start to a great series.
Review: I was not mad about Sundiver. It is the book that introduces you to the world of David Brin's Uplift War. He has to give you a lot of concept building data on the aliens, their alliances, the galactic library etc. As a result, it is a book that takes a bit of perseverence. The reward comes as you dig deeper into the series, because what Brin has created is one of the greatest Sci-Fi classics. It is a complex universe of patron and client races that operates like feuding Italian Medieval states. Humans are a small player in this canvas, and one mistake can doom them to slavery forever. I wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone who has an interest in hard sci-fi which explores possible futures.
Rating:
Summary: Convincing and Entertaining
Review: David Brin sells his characters better than most. They jump to life and one cannot help but come to like them. Reading this book sold me on the rest of the series, as well as other Brin works.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than I Remembered
Review: I first encountered Sundiver years ago, and I recall that when I first read it I didn't think much of it. I almost didn't more on to the other novels in the Uplift saga because of this, but on a friend's reccommendation I did, and I'm glad of it. I hadn't read Sundiver in years, preferring to reread the other Uplift novels instead. Recently, though, I decided to give the first novel another chance -- and I'm glad I did that, too. I don't know if it's the benefit of hindsight or simply seeing Sundiver in the context of the other Uplift novels or both, but it turns out that Sundiver was better the second time around. Sundiver's pages are spent in the company of Jacob Demwa, a special operative working in a more-or-less unofficial capacity for the Terragens Council. We first encounter him working with a newly-uplifted dolphin (uplift being the process of genetically enhancing a near-sentient species to full sentience) -- but he is called away from this job to join the Sundiver project, a Mercury-based expedition to explore the sun -- and it turns out life has been discovered there. What follows are a series of mysteries, interspersed with Brin's vivid evocations of what it might be like to actually be inside a stellar atmosphere. Brin does a very good job all around -- as other reviewers have noted, his training as a physicist serves him well from a "hard science" viewpoint. His description of the sundiver ship is both poetic and believable, and he also does a great job with the mysteries Demwa must solve, which include: a murder, what the solar life forms may (or may not) be, why the "shepherds" of these life forms are so hostile towards the sundivers, and what the motivations of the various human and alien characters are. Speaking of which, Brin does a great job with character in this novel. Jake Demwa, being the focus of the narrative, is the best-defined of them all, but others -- Dr. Shriver, for instance, and Kanten Fagin, are well-written and believable. But it is Jake Demwa who is the heart of Sundiver, and I wish Brin would do something more with him, another novel or a short story or something! Jake D. is equal parts special operative, private investigator, criminal, and psychological case history -- recovering from the death of his wife, he has hypnotized himself into a split personality -- the "normal" Demwa and "Mr. Hyde," who contains all of Jake's antisocial tendencies, and who takes over from time to time in unpredictable and unsettling ways. Demwa is unusual and engaging, and it is largely because of him that Sundiver is such a great read. Of course, Sundiver is the first part of Brin's ongoing Uplift series, and as such does a lot of establishing -- introducing aliens like the Kanten, and the Pila, and mentioning aliens that will grow to play major roles in later Uplift novels, like the Soro and the prankish Tymbrimi. Brin also introduces the Uplift concept here, and the esential dichotomy of the Uplift universe: Every sentient species in the Five Galaxies has been uplifted by a patron species -- or so it is believed until mankind comes along. Humanity is a so-called "wolfling" race, a race with no known patrons...or if those patrons do exist, they abandoned humanity millenna ago, and will not admit to the crime of client abandonment. Humans might have been adopted as someone else's clients -- but for the fact that they have uplifted clients of their own, chimpanzees and dolphins, with talk of dogs soon to follow (an intriguing thread Brin unfortunately never returns to). This automatically gives them the status of a patron race -- which angers the Soro, the Pila, and others no end. Much of the outcome of Sundiver, as well as the other Uplift novels, hinges on whether or not men will keep their patron status, or whether the Galactcs' political maneuvering will reduce them to client status. A crowded universe is Brin's great concept here -- a univese literally stuffed end-to-end with species that have existed for thousands of centuries...and in which humans may have no place, where our very existence as free people is in jeapoardy. Brin returns to this "free existence" theme in other guises in many of his novels, such as The Postman and Glory Season, but nowhere is it as crisp and as immediate as it is in Sundiver. It serves as a great introduction to the Uplift saga (currently at six books; it's unclear whether Brin will write more); but it also works very well indeed as a stand-alone novel of mystery and science, of one man and his mental health, and of humanity's place in the cosmos. I liked it better the second time around, and I give Sundiver four stars as a result.
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