Rating: 
Summary: Builds slowly, but well worth it
Review: David Brin has to be my favorate Sci-fi author. He creates such vivid characters and worlds in each of his books. This book begins an AMAZING trillogy. You will find book 2 and 3 worth the time he spent creating the world in book 1.
Rating: 
Summary: Gloss, gloss, gloss!
Review: While this isn't quite as good as Startide Rising, this is one of the best books around. David Brin keeps you wondering what marvel of time and space will come next. The hardest choice you have to make about the book is which story line you like best, or do you like the vivid description of the sooner races? I liked the Dwer story personally. I couldn't put the book down!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book, slightly different than previous uplift
Review: Once the style of this book becomes familiar (numerous voices are used to describe the story, some of very alien nature), the action keeps going. Also, I liked the depth that David Brin brings to the book's characters. Proabably not as 'good' as the startide series, but a worthwhile book to spend time with.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts slow, but still a great read with creative ideas
Review: I find most science fiction starts slow. Lots of new ideas, gadgets, and races to learn. But once you get past that, this is a good book. The action is a little slow in coming, but still great. There are lots of interesting ideas and theories presented too. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!
Rating: 
Summary: UGH!
Review: Could somebody please explain to my why so many of David Brin's novels fail to get interesting until about page 450? I loved the first Uplift Trilogy. I couldn't put it down. Brightness Reef is far from what I expect from Brin. It's slow and choppy and a real chore to finish. I will say that there are a couple of things I do like: I like Brin's ability to create such vivid creatures from so many possible evolutionary paths. In the past his work has been very inspirational to my artwork. The drawbacks of this novel far outweigh the positives, however, and I am only finishing this novel because I have heard the second of this trilogy is very good. This book is boring as heck, however. If you do read Brightness Reef, be prepared for the process to take a couple months and don't be surprised if you find yourself reading (and finishing) several other books before you are done with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not so gloss
Review: Not the better of Brin's work. I found the pace and character development slow. However, I've found that books written with a trilogy in mind, the first is always the slowest and the second usual picks up the pace. I've started reading the next and hope this is the case.
Rating:
Summary: Slow and frustrating
Review: I was looking for another good sci fi to read after I finished Elizabeth Kerner's "Song in the Silence," I didn't find on in this book. Can you say slow.. I think I finally started to care what happened around page 500 out of a 625 page book. It took way too long to build any rapport with the charecters, and Brin's style of skipping from one charecter's prespective and individual plot line to another added to the muddle. I made me even madder when NO resolution was brought to any of the varied plots, they were all, "to be continued in the next book ... and then the next book after that." This was not my best spent use of $6.00 nor will I invest in any more of the triolgy. If anyone feels like summing up what happens, drop me a note.
Rating:
Summary: ho-hum, formulaic grandscale human interest story
Review: David Brin.....like so many writers the verve and brilliance of youth have faded into the banality of middle age. This book, and the compulsory sequels preplanned with the publisher several years ago, is Mr Brins workplace. And like any workplace you have spent too much time at, it has lost its sparkle. The characters, even most of the 'alien' ones are typical mid-american clones. All with similiar ideas, needs, wants, hopes..with perhaps a dash of chrome on each one so you know they 'aint all human. The plot is micro-scaled, ill-defined and just plain SLOW....but then there are two more sequels to eke out paychecks into the next century. Brin isn't a bad writer (and is probably a nice bloke) but the characters, for those who live 400 years from now, seem so familiar, so Politically Correct (cept' the baddies) and so derivative. All G-rated of course so that we can sell it to the kiddies too! This book is OK, but hollywoodised to the max...think DeepImpact, not 12 Monk! eys. mostly harmless there ya go!
Rating: 
Summary: This is David Brin?
Review: I loved Startide Rising; I bought this in hopes of getting more good David Brin. I threw it in the trash (and I generally consider that act a sacrilege). I found nothing at all redeeming in the story, the characters or the style of this unfortunate addition to the Uplift story.
Rating:
Summary: Uttergloss! Mind-boggling! Fun to read! Gripping!
Review: Uplift universe strikes again! Not the stuff of Startide Rising, no grand scale space opera, no. This time it is only on a planetwide scale [ (so it seems at first and spurious glance at least : ) ], only the lives of six different populations/cultures are at stake here. Or is the scope far greater? Enemies of the Earthclan try to sow dissent among the Six, a pretty unprobable assortment of races, the humans, g'Keks, Qheuens, Urs, Hoon and traeki, living in harmony (almost) for nearly a century or so now. This story is about personal beliefs and the effect that this troubling time has on them. We see characters with shattered or at least shaken beliefs, those unmoved and those only trying to get the best opportunities. We are glad that the opportunistic way is shown as strewn with tripping stones, whereupon the stoic adherence to personal views sometimes works in favor and sometimes against portrayed characters. The best part of 'Brightness Reef' lies perhaps in the fact that though it mostly portrays the personal scale of events and their outcomes, it never the less hints at the universal scale.
There is also the question of style. We are presented with seven different points of view, each with a different personal emphasis. Two aliens and five humans give us the chance to submerge in different realities. It is the same reality every time, and its a different one every time. Getting used to the changes in narration occuring with change of perspective might spoil the ease of reading, but the diversity is also refreshing. This book is one story, yet it is seven stories at the same time. Paradox : ) It is a book to entertain and to make you think (as any good book should do). It is more demanding than Brin's previous Uplift books. I enjoyed it very much. As said before:
Uttergloss!
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