Sundiver (Uplift Trilogy)

Rating:
Summary: A neat mix of genre writing
Review: "Sundiver" is a pretty clever book, overall, if only for the fact that it successfuly mixes elements of two different genres. While there are clearly elements of science fiction (that's what the book is marketed as), there's also a strong sense of a good old-fashioned murder mystery within these pages. And the conclusion depends upon the successful fusion of both types of writing... the solution to the "whodunit" is something nobody but a hardcore sci-fi audience would get.

In Brin's story, humanity has made contact with other races throughout the Universe, and found that they are a rare breed: a race which seemed to have developed on its own. Most of the other races they have met can credit their evolution to another race helping them along, a process known as Uplift. Humanity, however, is something of an oddity: an "orphaned" race whose origins are unknown. That doesn't stop them from taking part in Uplift, however. As we learn early on, the human race has undertaken the charge of Uplifting two other Earth races: dolphins and chimpanzees. In the course of the novel, the reader meets examples of both races which have been helped along by humans.

The story centers around a ship called "Sundiver." As its name suggests, the ship's main purpose is to explore the sun. Early on we learn that it has discovered a form of life living within Sol's chromosphere, something which also seems to be previously undocumented elsewhere in the Universe. The question of humanity's Patrons is raised, and many anicent alien races seem at least a little chagrined that this upstart race is discovering more than their collected knowledge can reveal.

When a crew member of Sundiver is killed, however, the story picks up on a different angle, and it becomes critical to not only find out who killed him, but why. The fate of humanity's status among the stars is at risk, and the twists and turns of the story from that point are dramatic, to say the least.

I enjoyed Brin's imaginative story and what he did with it. By framing the mystery aspect of the story in a classic Agatha Christie format of a closed group of possible suspects (including several aliens), he opened up the possibilities of the science-fiction aspect of the story. The question of "who?" could only be answered by first answering the question of "how?" The path that leads to the final answer is long and winding, but in the end it is worth the journey. The final revelation is not shocking in a "Usual Suspects" sense, but it definitely makes the reader re-think some of the conclusions they mave have drawn early on about the characters and their motivations. As in any good murder mystery, all is not as it first appears.

The passages in "Sundiver" which describe the exploration of the Sun itself are worth mentioning as well. They are detailed but not overdone, expressive of majesty but not exaggerated. In short, I really got a sense for what it might be like to travel into that forbidden inferno, what it might look like and how it would feel. That in itself was an impressive acheivement.

"Sundiver" dragged briefly in a few places, but overall it was an entertaining book, and a pretty clever one to boot. A compelling beginning to an idea that has a lot of potential. It makes me curious to read the other books of the Uplift series.

Rating:
Summary: Book 1 of a Great Saga
Review: Currently, there are six books in Brin's Uplift saga. It's kind of hard to categorize these books as elements of a series, though. The first three books in the saga, "Sundiver," "Startide Rising," and "The Uplift War," are not really a trilogy or a series in the normal sense. Instead, "Sundiver" relates to the rest of the saga as Tolkien's "The Hobbit" relates to his "Lord of the Rings:" it sets the stage for all the rest of the books in the saga. "Startide Rising" and "The Uplift War" describe completely different plotlines originating from the same event far distant, time wise and space wise, from "Sundiver". In a pinch, you could read these books in any order and not really miss anything. They describe different points in time and space of the same Universe. Of course, the best order is the one listed, above.

Unlike the first three books in the saga, the second three books DO form a series. The first of this trilogy, "Brightness Reef," picks up with yet another totally independent plotline and brand new characters. However, it does contain a central character who ties the first three books into this set. Unfortunately, Brin doesn't say, specifically, who that character is until the very end of the book. Even worse, the last time the character was used was so far back in the saga that it's hard to remember anything about him. The remaining two books, "Infinity's Shore" and "Heaven's Reach," continue sequentially from the first and form a tightly knit trilogy with no breaks in time.

None of these books is "happy" or "light reading." For the most part, they're all intense, heavily detailed and fully characterized books. "Sundiver" is the least "heavy" and most lacking in the realistic feel of the rest of the books. But, for the most part, if you like "Sundiver," you'll definitely want to continue with the rest of the saga. Even if you don't like "Sundiver," I highly recommend you read at least "Startide Rising:" it has an entirely different feel to it and might be more to your liking. This saga is just too important to miss out on. As a whole, it's one of the great works of science fiction and one of the few pieces of science fiction that belong in the class of true literature.

The following are some comments on the individual books:

Sundiver: Somewhat different from the other books in the saga in that it's more of a science fiction mystery than a science fiction drama. This book sets the stage for the rest of the saga as it chronicles events that happen several hundred years before what happens in the other books. About the only thing negative I can come up with is that I wish Brin had written several prequels to it so we could read about the earlier adventures of Jacob Demwa that are referenced in this book.

Startide Rising: This book focuses on the group that starts all the other events noted in the remaining books of the saga. Though the main characters start off in a very bad way, Brin does a good job of moving them forward, and upward, throughout the book.

The Uplift War: The events in this book start from the same event that kicks off "Startide Rising." But, other than that, the two books are totally independent. Like "Startide Rising," Brin produced a gripping plot, great character development, and a good progression towards a positive goal.

Brightness Reef: This is definitely not a happy book. It starts out with many non-pleasant activities and fights its way forward from there. The biggest problem I have with it is that it's very hard to see how anything good or positive is going to happen to the main characters, no matter how much they try.

Infinity's Shore: First, the negative: once this book starts, it's very apparent that a whole lot of relevant stuff has been happening elsewhere that we missed. Essentially, there's at least one entire book that sounds extremely interesting that's missing from the saga. Brin fills in most of this back-story during this book and "Heaven's Reach." But, I'd sure like to have read that missing book. On the positive side, this book re-introduces us to old friends and subtly changes the focus to them. Everything's still happening in the same place with mostly the same characters, but the attitude changes and becomes more can-do.

Heaven's Reach: One difficulty with this book is due to how it continues from the previous book. It's merely a change of venue instead of a new set of adventures. A quote from one of the main characters near the end of this book sort of sums up my feelings about it: "...what will one more worry matter? I've long passed the point where I stopped counting them." Essentially, by the time this book and saga starts winding down (and even at the point of that quotation, it really hasn't started that yet), the reader is totally fatigued by never-ending problems. I really like these works, but the lack of a tie-up between "Infinity's Shore" and this book is grinding.

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: An Acceptable -- Though Not Spectacular -- Start
Review: I've been reading scifi for quite a few years. As such, Brin's Uplift books have been on my radar for quite some time. Picking up Sundiver to read I knew about what to expect...a decent first book in a trilogy whose sequels are award winners. I got about what I expected.

In school I was an Anthropology major, as such I find the concept of Uplift -- that Patron races bring about sentience in Client races -- to be an intriguing fictional alternative (or perhaps addition?) to humanity's evolutionary origins a la Charles Darwin. Also, I found the concept of the Progenitors -- a race of beings that initiated the process of Uplift billions of years ago -- to be an extremely interesting idea. The Progenitors brings up the first, and only major, problem I had with this book. The problem being the fact that they are only rarely mentioned in the book and play virtually no part in the climax of the book. I guess, upon entering the Uplift universe with Sundiver, I had the preconceived notion that the Progenitors would play a larger role in the book's story (especially its climax)...I was a bit disappointed when they only wound up as the hardly-mentioned foundation of this new Uplift universe Brin invites us into with Sundiver. I wasn't expecting all of the answers to the Progenitors in the first book of a trilogy...but a little more info on them would have been nice.

The second and final problem I had with the book was quite minor. Several times throughout the book the characters "Thank Ifni". Clearly this is akin to our "Thank God". But it took my perusing of the glossary in the second book -- Startide Rising -- to learn that "Thank Ifni" is thanking Infinity or Lady Luck. It would have been nice if, in Sundiver, Brin had let us onto what this "Thank Ifni" meant, but this was in no way a major problem with the book and in no way detracts from an overall decent plot, but it was a little quirk that left me slightly annoyed. (I figured "Ifni" was some semi-deitized hero of some future war or rebellion in space.)

The above mentioned problems aside I found the book to be reasonably well written. None of the major characters came off as cardboard and though the plot probably wasn't strong enough to keep most people up reading in a marathon all-night session, it was certainly good enough to keep one engrossed enough in the story to easily finish the book without feeling like one has wasted their time.

Rating:
Summary: A Detective Short Story Disguised as an SF Novel
Review: I've just finished Sundiver. A member of our local book club had selected Startide Rising. But I wanted to begin at the beginning. Now having read it, I thought I'd review it because, unlike many reviewers, I haven't read anything else by Brin to color my thinking.

This is a detective story. At first I thought this was going to be a hard SF novel. It's not. For most of the book, we follow the protagonist, Jacob Demwa, as he unravels the mystery is "who killed the intelligent chimp in the sunship" and other related riddles. So while we visit Mercury, the Sun, and an entire universe of Brin's imagined future, the plot rests on a couple of tentpole scenes where the protagonist solves the mystery and accuses the criminal. Brin seems to acknowledge the legacy of this device when he refers to one climactic scene as an "Agatha Christie" turn of events.

It's easy to imagine why Brin, at the beginning of a career, would choose such a device. A detective story is an incredibly sturdy workhorse. The detective journey can be explore a great variety of inventions by the author in the quest for clues. In this case, the inventions are a unique future history, galactic structure, alien races, and hard science fiction. And all these inventions are neatly worked into the mystery and its solving.

Unfortunately, this idea only succeeds if you've got an interesting mystery. As a reader, Brin never really courted me into curiosity or concern. Characters are flat. Events and clues work with the plot in oblique angles. We follow, for example, Jacob Demwa to Mercury and beyond but for a good chunk of the novel, no-one really tells him why he's been invited. Often supporting characters can't divulge plot details or help because of some convolution of the plot, apparently to avoid a premature climax.

In a Sherlock Holmes short story, this is okay. It only takes a few pages for Holmes to amaze us with how neatly he deduces a conclusion. Sundiver moves similarly but, unfortunately, with the onus a couple hundred pages of universe building before things come togethor. Brin keeps his mystery closed to the reader. Brin's clues only function for the plot when the plot jerks forward and villains are unmasked. This makes the mystery solving becomes something of a Rube Goldberg moment. Everything comes together but not in a way we could have possibly conceived.

There are other, smaller flaws dealing with characters, pacing, and setting. Personally, I was particularly put off by Demwa was surprised by 20th century anachronisms in some scenes but then using them other scenes. It made the character seem half baked.

If Brin had made his central idea work and involved the reader in the solving of the mystery, the novel would have worked, even with a whole universe of ideas in tow. But the mystery is forced. We patiently wait for the solution while we watch Brin build his universe. And because we see the artist at work, the novel doesn't succeed in really transporting into its fiction. There's just not enough momentum.

The good news is that we are left with the foundation which Brin then works to create the (hopefully) superior sequels. As a reader, I can't recommend Sundiver: the rewards just aren't big enough. But as an academic, the underpinnings of the novel and how they both fail and succeed are pretty interesting. And they promise a writer with greater things to come. So despite my disappointment, I'm ready to dig into Startide Rising.


Rating:
Summary: A false start
Review: If you're interested in jumping into Brin's excellent uplift universe I suggest you skip Sundiver and move on to Startide Rising and treat IT is the first book. Sundiver is a novella containing some interesting ideas that become a wondrous experience once they are fleshed out in later books. Here they come off as uninspired and are presented with a plot that is awkward and an environment (the Sun no less) that is hard to identify with. The book as a whole fails to induce us to suspend our disbelief.

I am serious, the Uplift series is possibly the best thing in Sci-Fi... just don't expect this book to convince you of that. Startide Rising is reasonably engrossing and the next book, The Uplift War is just a damn good book. The second cycle, the Uplift Trilogy (beginning with Brightness Reef) has a depth and power and fascination that will take your breath away. I constantly find myself reviewing these books in my mind, wondering what it would be like to take all the *implied* stories that must be passed over and flesh them out and expand the seriese. For example, the years-long defense of Earth would make an outstanding new trilogy.

I have nothing but raves for the Uplift series as a whole... but in my own mind I don't really count Sundiver as a member of that august body.

On a side note... if there happen to be any Brin fans out there who aren't sure whether his new book Kiln People looks like you're cup of tea, I suggest you try it out. The dust-cover synopsis put me off for quite a while but I finally gave the book and chance and it delivered in spades. My new motto is "trust Brin".

Rating:
Summary: Great book
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: Ramble on (endlessly)
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: A good stand-alone mystery novel.
Review: There has been some critique, on this website, of Sundiver because it does not have the grandeur evident in the other novels of the Uplift series. While this observation is valid, it nevertheless works very well as an introductory chapter to the series. Also, unlike the inter-galactic settings of the other novels, here the action takes place on Earth, Mercury and the Sun. It is a small novel in scope but introduces us to the concepts that will loom large in the the other novels. Primarily, the concept of intelligence being the result of genetic manipulation by a "higher" species.

The driving plot line deals with the discovery of mysterious "beings" in our Sun and the controversy surrounding their existence. Are they the hidden driving force behind our rise to sapiency, are they simply a newly discovered species, or are they imposters, part of a larger scheme?

I must admit that I greatly enjoyed this novel. There is an old fashioned feeling to the novel. One reviewer complained that it read like 1950s fiction. I think that to the extent that this observation is true, it is one of the strengths of the story. In a way, this novel, of all the Uplift saga novels, is the most identifiable to us. It starts with a brief world history between today and the start of the novel. We see consternation amongst parts of humanity as we try to grapple with the idea of not only not being alone in the cosmos, but also owing our intelligence to an unknown third party. The world of tomorrow is not so different than our own. Into this steps the idea that another alien species will lay claim to us, will take credit for all our accomplishments. This is not only troubling but also humiliating. The humans are uncertain in this story. Before the story begins, the protagonist has suffered a traumatising personal event and that makes him doubt himself, even though he has all the characteristics we could wish for in our heroes. He acts for all of us here. He is humanity writ small. Like him, humanity doubts itself. Should it be proud of it's heritage or merely grateful and fearful of what its history means for its future.

In the end, despite the awesome technical advances of the alien species we meet, it is some good old-fashioned human ingenuity and technical know-how that saves the day. This novel is pivotal, because it helps to explain some of the confidence and fighting spirit evident in the human characters in the other books.

The mystery is also entertaining and we are given enough clues to figure it out, which can't be said of many mystery novels. In the end, the choice to start this saga with a mystery as opposed to the bombastic action of the later novels allows humanity to gain the confidence in their own intelligence and makes it more believable.

No, Sundiver, does not have the epic scope of the rest of the saga, but it is a very solid and enjoyable start to it all.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant sci-fi story and a good start to a trilogy.
Review: These days, science-fiction is being filled with cliches and reused plots. Luckily, however, it's good to know that there are authors who can come up with original and brilliant ideas. David Brin has done just that with "Sundiver", the first book in both the "Uplift" series and first "Uplift" trilogy.

The "Uplift" novels are centered around the idea of "uplifting," which is one of the most original ideas I've come across in science-fiction. I won't go into detail about uplifting, but I will say it sets the stage for some interesting ideas that can be(and, for the most part, were) used in the novel.

However, this is probably where the only gripe I had with the book comes into play. Instead of concentrating on the idea of uplifting, "Sundiver" focuses more on a mystery being played out and how the various aliens in the story are involved. Uplifting takes a backseat in the story and is usually used as reasoning behind why events occur.

But that really doesn't matter, because I feel that "Sundiver" is a book used to introduce the reader to the "Uplift" universe and set the stage for the next few novels to follow. If "Sundiver" had been a lone book, it would've been a major disappointment. Luckily, that's not the case.

The story itself in "Sundiver" is beautifully played out and very well-constructed, although it does tend to move a little fast at times, particularly in the beginning. The aliens in Brin's world are alone worth getting the book, because Brin, who knows his stuff, makes them interesting yet believable at the same time. Of course, it's not the best story in the world, but it's definately worth any science-fiction fan's time to look into it.

All in all, "Sundiver" acts as a good starting point to the rest of the "Uplift" series, which will most likely play upon the idea of uplifting a great deal more. Combined with a pretty good story and a terrific, original environment, "Sundiver" demands to be given a chance.