Rating: 
Summary: Average
Review: Not his best stuff. The first two novels in the series dragged a bit as did this one for the first half on the novel. It picked up in the end, but not all that entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: This book left the reader waiting for even more...
Review: Although I did like this book, it made me wonder if Brin is planning to write more on this series. I would certainly like to see more books, but was expecting to have the series draw to a close with this one. I would love it if Brin wrote more in the Uplift Universe, but would have liked to see the stories with the Streaker and its crew come to a conclusion. I am certainly looking forward to Brin finishing off this series, and he has quite a bit of work to do putting together all of the loose ends that he left the story with.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: The trigology could not have ended better. There are just so many different answers. I applude Brin on a truely successful series.
Rating:
Summary: read the following detailed discussion please
Review: this is an attempt to reach the author (d brin), not a review per se. to set the scene, i have read every novel written by mr brin. i admit to being a fan. i have read all prior uplift novels and eagerly anticipated the finale.i was NOT disappointed. i just finished my read, on a plane from pittsburg to charlotte. the last 100 pages moved me to laughter (annoying my 1st class comrades) and tears. although i did not really connect to any specific character, i, over the course of the story ( 6 novels ), identified with the theme as i saw it. i identified and "rooted for" the civilization of the 5/4 galaxies. the characterization of the "bad guys" was wonderful - with a constantly moving definition. you have the local heavies, the heavies who control the local heavies, and then...those that control the realm...without specific definition. and the implication of an influence beyond. if this is not stimulating reading, please forward me a reference for that which is. i had read the pre-release reviews of this novel, and was unimpressed and disappointed. those reviewers who complained that many ends were left loose, that story lines were not finished, ...., missed the point of good fiction. brin has always challenged us. i prefer to read through the text, without necessarily grasping every nuance, and let my emotions and imagination fill in the gaps (if any). those who cannot extrapolate, don't bother reading "heavens reach". to mr brin: thank you - this body of work (uplift series) is the first sci-fi read that has really moved me, since my first reading of asimov's foundation trilogy (not the diluted sequels, but the original). thanks again.
Rating: 
Summary: disapointing
Review: I can't believe I waited for this. Although Brin has a good imagination, this work seems forced. His characters are always getting into impossible situations only to be saved by some miraculous event. Worse, many of the characters that he introduced in past books turn out to have no real point. I mean whats the deal with Alvin anyway? Or that space chimp? Entire chapters are devoted to them, but it turns out they have nothing to do with the plot. In fact, Brin blows off everybody on the planet that was the focus of the second book. Oh and we never learn about those mysterious aliens that owned that planet - apparently the egg was just another device to get some of his characters out of another impossible situation. In fact, all that hinting about the egg is really annoying.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Conclusion for this trilogy, but room for later...
Review: Very Intrigueing! Recycling or transcendence? Which is the appropriate choice? BUT, what happened to the Streaker and her crew next, what of Earthclan's long-term fate, what happened to the isolated Jijoans, what happened to the great former-Jophur ship "message in a bottle", and many other questions remain to be answered. I hope that Mr. Brin picks up the writer's quill once again in the future and pens the happenings in the Uplift universe. I need closure! :)
Rating:
Summary: A Good Conclusion
Review: If you've read the last two, you will read this one, so a review is somewhat superfluous. Nevertheless, this is pretty strong. As usual, Earthclan struggles against the evil and/or shortsighted galactics and outwits them a lot more often than you would think. (Question: if original thinking is that good to outwit galactics, why doesn't anyone else do it? After all, if the galactics can design races that can deny reality so effectively that it ceases to exist, they should be able to design some "outside the box" species.) Unlike the previous five books in this universe, Heaven's Reach reveals a lot more secrets of the galactics than usual. In most books, the humans discover a forgotten race or technology or something, but here they learn some fundamental secret of the universe every few pages. After a while, it's easy to stop caring where the Harrower came from, what the Rothen are up to, what the difference is between a quantum and a memetic lifeform, and just settle down to rooting for the Streaker's crew. It is hard to imagine what the next book will cover. The scope of this book was already so huge that returning to some more limited saga of Tom Orley's or Jake Demwa's will seem a little constrained.
Rating:
Summary: This time, finally, at last, he's written it. The best book
Review: I had to buy this in hardback, but I deserved it 'cos of a long plane journey. Glad I did. This might be the Best Book Ever. This book is number 3 of a trilogy or number 6 of a six-logy. If its number six, then number one (Sun Diver) is so-so, number two (Star-tide rising) is good, number 3 (the Uplift War) is the biggest dissappointment in my life, number 4 (Brightness Reef) was a nice idea, could have been better, number 5 (Infinity's Shore) was too slow, should never have been written... <deep breath>... which is a shame because you don't get the full benefit of number six unless you've read most of the rest. Certainly you'd need 2,3,4. Then read Heaven's Reach. This time, finally, he actually does justice to his ideas. This time you get an uplifted monkey watching a human talk to a Hoon at the inter-galactic equivalent of a passport control queue and all the 5 previous books become worth it. Just for that paragraph alone. Plus the space battles. Plus the transcendance philosophies, plus the cosmology, plus the BIG PICTURE, plus the inter-species interplay. Its damn good. By the way, I don't give top marks easily. I was one of the few who thought "Enders Game" was merely a 7/10.
Rating:
Summary: The best science-fiction series going
Review: Brin's writing is more inventive and more exciting than ever. Not all loose ends are tied up, nor all questions answered. But I haven't felt so satisfied by a read since I finished Startide Rising. Best of all, in his coda, Brin seems to indicate that we can expect more books in the future.
Rating:
Summary: With imagination, we'll.....
Review: I couldn't help but respond when I read some of the other reviews of David Brin's Heavens Reach. I feel that the book is an extremely gripping and fitting finale to this trilogy. Sure, it doesn't answer all the questions, or solve every problem presented in this trilogy or the previous Uplift novels, but I think it is all the better for it. I've read some novels where the author has attempted to answer everything with the final volume (such as Dan Simmon's Rise of Endymion), and the sheer volume of answers being given detracts from the presentation of the story. Brin's style leaves us a universe that still lives, that still breathes of possibilities and adventures. It leaves the reader's imagination and interest engaged. I have found that the most satisfying books have not fed me all the answers, but left me mulling the possibilities and ramifications for days after I have finished the novel. If you, too, enjoy this style, I highly recommend this book
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