Brightness Reef (The Uplift Trilogy, Book 1)

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Summary: I can't stand that the third book is not available yet!
Review: The first two books of the Brightness Reef Trilogy have been available for months now. They are as fresh, exciting and delightful as the Startide Rising Trilogy was. The characters are very full, the planet, Jijo is believable. I really want to believe that these six sentient races can live in peace and serve as an example for the Six Galaxies. Mr. Brin deserves high praise for his noble ideals, and for the positive outlook he brings to his stories. These two trilogies are among the very best of the Science Fiction genre. I heartily recommend them. Norman Hodge

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Summary: Brin is back!
Review: I've enjoyed all of David Brin's books to varying degrees, but his first Uplift Trilogy rates among my favorite SF reads of all time. Brightness Reef captured my attention and imagination with intelligent and well thought-out characters and storyline once again. I can't recall the last time I actually succumbed to the temptation to skip ahead and see how a story thread comes out (yes, I'm ashamed). If I have one criticism, it's the proliferation of fragmented threads and narrative points of view, which at times spills over from suspense to frustration, but the overwhelming interest of the storyline kept me turning the pages. He's set a high bar for himself - he'd better come through on those sequels!

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Summary: Why doesn't he give me his ideas and let me write the story?
Review: David Brin is great for ideas - all those associated with the uplift-scenario make for great space opera. So why does he write such booring books ? The Uplift War was the epitomy of this. You've picked up the ideas from the previous books, you know you get billion year time spans, multi-galaxy civilisations, million year old space ships ... and then he drags the plot down to the soap opera, not space opera. Perhaps it's supposed to engage us on a "human level". Stuff it! Stick to the plot! Give us the ideas, the space opera and stop trying to be Jane Austen. In both The Uplift War and Brightness Reef I think maybe he should get someone else more direct - Mike Resnick perhaps - to do the writing based on his rough sketch

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Summary: Save some money - Dont buy it!
Review: I've read all the previous Uplift books and they seemed to be only just above average, however this book really is awful. After trying repeatedly to force myself to complete the book, it became apparent that the plot was dull and I couldnt care less about the characters. In addition to this, like many people I purchased the book in order to find out what happened to the Streaker, and was thoroughly dissapointed. There are a huge number of better books out there that get a lot less attention. The only justification I see for many of these reviews giving high marks is that they have yet read anything better. If you want to something to compare it to, try the Hyperion series.

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Summary: Engaging start that spins into confusion
Review: As usual, Brin's book starts out complex but terribly engaging, as we are introduced to several highly interesting characters. The middle portion is also excellent as a fascinating story line is brought into play which ties us back to the original Uplift trilogy and brings out new perspectives on the characters to whom we had been introduced. But instead of tieing it nicely into a clean ending, Brin uses the last part of the book to take off on completely unrelated tangents that are not only uninteresting but completely uninspired (The horses are still around? Please! How corny can you get?) At the end of the book he "apologizes" for his inadvertant slip that turns this into a trilogy. It seems like more of a commercial set-up to me. I for one, plan not to read the rest of the trilogy out of sheer disgust. David Brin's earlier works are superb. Avoid this mediocre and misleading book if you want to avoid a sour taste

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Summary: Is Brin finally getting back to the story?
Review: A slow start for a trilogy that I sincerely hope goes somewhere. If it wasn't for my great love for Startide Rising I would not have finished the book. I read the Uplift War because I wanted more about the Streaker and was disappointed (though I admit it was a pretty good tale all on its own). I started Sundiver and did not finish it because it never developed an interesting enough plot to make slogging through all the uninteresting techno/political jargon worthwhile. Finally, Brin is continuing the story. However, Brightness Reef is only a teaser and I got through it only by encouraging myself (with an elicit glance at the last two pages) that it was worth slogging through to the end. Imagine my joy when the Streaker actually entered the story. I only hope the next two books in the trilogy move faster and abandon some of the slower, less interesting subplots in favor of the story! I must agree with other reviewers that this trilogy might have benefited from some ruthless editing and been carved down to one fairly decent book. The Uplift era might think well in terms of centuries and millenia, but that doesn't mean the reader should have to spend that much time slogging through it all. I'll reserve further judgement until I've read the sequels.

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Summary: Good, but not what I wanted.
Review: Having read the first Uplift Trilogy (which got better with each book) I did what I rarely do and actually borrowed this one from the local library. (I don't like reading books I can't keep.) If I had not already been fascinated by Brin's Uplift universe I might not have finished this book (and thus would have missed the best parts). I agree with one of the other commenters here that Brin's Uplift universe is so good that maybe he should farm it out to writers who will give us more of it. (Those who are into role-playing games--I'm not--should know that there is a game for role-playing in the Uplift universe: Gurps Uplift. Gurps being some all-encompasing role-playing system that my son is into.) Here's hoping that this second trilogy, like the first, get's better as it goes along. (I wasn't very impressed with Sundiver, either, but Startide Rising was excellent and Uplift War was outstanding!

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Summary: Disappointing if Streaker's fate was top of mind
Review: If you're looking for the fate of the Streaker, you'll have a really long wait. There aren't even HINTS until the very last bits of this book. If the edition I read hadn't had a teaser for Infinity's Shore I probably would have given this Trilogy up in disgust. Brin likes to jump from one character's point of view to another. Since he generally comes up with some interesting characters, this isn't usually a problem. However, the habit becomes irritating in this book because Brin has chosen to juggle a fairly large cast of characters. As a result, I found that the few really interesting story threads were almost lost among a tangle of mediocre tales. The first Earthclan books (Sundiver, The Uplift War, and Startide Rising) were excellent -- the stories were gripping, the characters interesting, and the premise intriguing. Unfortunately, the first two books of this new trilogy should have been heartlessly and ruthlessly edited back to a single book.

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Summary: The Uplift Saga Continues on a New Bent
Review: This book begins laying the foundation to a new splinter of the uplift universe. We catch up with old friends, but the action doesn't start until the second half of the book. The first half is essential to read and understand because the rest of the series relies on it. The second book is out in hardcover; more friends arrive as well as more enemies. Kredieki and crew join the picture. By the end of the second book the momentum has built to an unstoppable train of destiny. Brin doesn't disappoint; the political intrigue has the usual mind expanding twists, like peeling an onion only to find an orange inside

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Summary: Read at least one of the previous Uplift books first.
Review: This is the fourth book set in an already well-delineated, andamazing, universe. Brin's imagination is unsurpassed; he has goodnarrative skills and a wicked sense of humor (not especially obvious here). Despite being an avowed fan since his first short stories, I found the effort required to read this book annoying. The narrative intersplices the numerous threads of the story in flashes, many so brief as to be strobe-like. More than half the characters are aliens, and ones quite different from any he has previously shown us in this universe, as well as being radically different from humans. Whether your enjoyment of science fiction is predicated on excitement and strangeness, or on meticulous consistency, your investment of time to understand will be repaid by the delights his imagination has created.