[5UN]≡ Read Free Sundiver The Uplift Saga Book 1 David Brin Books

Sundiver The Uplift Saga Book 1 David Brin Books

Download As PDF : Sundiver The Uplift Saga Book 1 David Brin Books

Sundiver The Uplift Saga Book 1 David Brin Books

I read a few David Brin books about 20 years ago and remembered enjoying them, so I picked up Sundiver to explore his universe again. The part that stuck in my memory - the whole Uplift concept - was just as interesting as I remember. The whole concept of his universe is fascinating, especially as it plays out with the relationship between humans and the species they are Uplifting (chimpanzees and dolphins).

However the actual story of this particular book is a bit weak. It really is a detective novel set in a sci-fi universe, and I am not a fan of detective novels. The whole Scooby-Do ending is quite contrived and some of the leaps you have to take to accept the explanation are far-fetched (not a spoiler, but an entire race hid a special ability for thousands of years, and no-one noticed? Really?).

You also have to accept a fair bit of pseudo-psychobabble, and as someone who studied psychology it was a bit grating. Multiple personalities are NOT schizophrenia, and 'visual glare' doesn't cause psychosis. But if you don't have a psychology background you probably won't notice those things.

That being said, I still enjoyed the read and look forward to the rest of the trilogy, which I believe do not have the same 'detective story' style.

Also a note for the Kindle edition, it contains quite a lot of distracting errors; misplaced periods, random capitalisation, spelling errors. Far more than I've experienced in a long time reading on the Kindle.


Tags : Amazon.com: Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, Book 1) (9780553269826): David Brin: Books,David Brin,Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, Book 1),Spectra,0553269828,Science Fiction - General,Interplanetary voyages,Life on other planets,Sun,FICTION Science Fiction Action & Adventure,FICTION Science Fiction Alien Contact,FICTION Science Fiction General,FICTION Science Fiction Space Opera,Fiction,Fiction - Science Fiction,General Adult,MASS MARKET,Science fiction,science fiction;sf;uplift;aliens;space opera;uplift saga;sff;space;mystery;space travel;brin;speculative fiction;dolphins;american;first contact;1980s;fantasy;default;evolution;20th century;future;animals;adventure;hard sf;science fiction books;sci fi;sci-fi;sci fi books;science fiction and fantasy;fantasy science fiction;sci-fi fantasy;sf fantasy;science fiction fantasy;fantasy and science fiction;science fiction adventure;sci-fi books;literary science fiction;science fantasy;fantasy sci-fi,science fiction; sf; uplift; aliens; space opera; uplift saga; sff; space; mystery; space travel; brin; speculative fiction; dolphins; american; first contact; 1980s; fantasy; default; evolution; 20th century; future; animals; adventure; hard sf; science fiction books; sci fi; sci-fi; sci fi books; science fiction and fantasy; fantasy science fiction; sci-fi fantasy; sf fantasy; science fiction fantasy; fantasy and science fiction; science fiction adventure; sci-fi books; literary science fiction; science fantasy; fantasy sci-fi

Sundiver The Uplift Saga Book 1 David Brin Books Reviews

The scify concept of Uplift is vague; this book illustrates it as interaction between patron species and client. No race has succeeded alone- with one glaring exception. Two characters introduced early fit the concept Bubbacub (patron, from Pils) and Culla (servant, from Pring). The patron provides access to the wisdom of others, through something called a 'Galactic Branch Library'. In other words, there is a price (servitude) for galactic knowledge.
The protagonist, Jacob Demwa (a human), is the stereotypical damaged investigator- no, consider him a troubleshooter. He has previously taken assignments for some organization called the 'Center for Uplift'. The last caused him great emotional loss. His heart is presently with enhanced Dolphins, speaking their language and learning their humor (the author imagines them sharing limericks). For some reason, he is invited to meet three extra-terrestrials and accompany them to a distant outpost with several other characters (a journalist, a parapsychologist, an administrator).
Scouts have seen something- a new species? When you think of it, his group is unqualified to conduct the scientific study ahead; those on-site are already doing fine. The problem is forming hypothesis of what they have seen, and testing those hypothesis on later encounters. One of the investigators tells him
'... Martine shook her head. She looked down and fiddled with a knob on her helmet.
"It's so complicated. I don't understood [sic] it at all. Nothing's gone right ever since we got back to Mercury. No one is what he appears to be."
"What do you mean?"
The parapsychologist paused, then shrugged.
"Never be sure about anyone... I was so sure that Peter's silly pique with Jeffrey was both genuine and harmless. Now I find that it was artificially induced and deadly. And he was right, I guess, about the Solarians, too. Only it wasn't his idea, it was theirs."
"Do you think they really are our long lost Patrons?"
"Who knows?" .... (p. 183)
Other reviewers have highlighted the scientific and the psychological errors, and its' missteps as a detective story. The characterizations surprised me- why dispatch a treacherous plotter, a spy, jealous XTs, and others on a hazardous mission? Jacob's intuition tells him that a hoax is being perpetrated. Naturally, the truth comes out during that mission. Only chance saves the evidence.
The closing chapter uses political maneuvers to solve remaining problems.
Still, you will like the images of ships descending into nuclear plasma following filaments of ionized gas. Brin certainly creates a universe unlike that of other books featuring human-centric or aliens attacking Earth.
This was completely not what I was expecting, going in.

Short version its not a great book, but it's a quick read, with a few really stand out ideas.

Long version

I heard about this book because it's considered the origin (or at least the first, most obvious example of) the "Uplift" trope. Which is to say, the idea that most intelligent species in the universe get that way by being "Uplifted" by another intelligent race. And, for what it's worth, that part of this book is really fascinating and I can see why many other authors have borrowed it.

But that is a very small part of this book.

Overall, Sundiver is a mystery novel, but not a very good one. (In fairness, I don't really like mystery novels, so I may be a bad judge.) The book also dates itself in a lot of ways. The biggest, for me, is the blending of science and para-sciece that was a fad in Sci-Fi for a while. Think X-Files, where UFO's coexist with telepathy and Ouija boards (only the x-files was, well, good...). Worse, there's a ton of pop-psychology stuff thrown in and given the strength of scientific fact. (Imagine, "Darth Vader, you clearly have a desire to sleep with your mother! But we can put you in a trance and fix it.") There's a lot of stuff, too, that is clearly trying to be politically correct, but by standards that are so out of date now it feels really racist/sexist.

All of that might have been okay, except I found the narrator pretty tiresome. He may or may not be deliberately written this way (it relates to all that pop-psych stuff), but he's terrible. He behaves inconsistently, and is constantly daydreaming and not paying attention. I suspect the author was doing this on purpose, so that he could draw attention to "important clues", but it really doesn't work. Passages like this make up, no joke, the majority of the text

"Well, it's a nice day, and also you have terminal cancer."
It was a nice day, and the sky was so beautifully cloudless and blue. He thought back to his days on a beach as a young child. Wait, did the Doctor say he has cancer!?

YES HE DID. We were paying attention the first time.

One last gripe Reading this book, you would be forgiven for assuming it's the sequel to another book. Everyone is constantly referring back to an earlier event in the protagonist's life, without ever really explaining what happened. I was so confused, I did some googling, and apparently this is just something David Brin does in all his books.

One big problem, though That non-existent first book sounds a lot more interesting.

But with all of that, I still gave it three stars. Because it's not unreadable - indeed it's a very quick read. And because it does have some really stellar ideas, even if the author doesn't seem to know himself what's good and what isn't. So for fans of the genre it might be worth picking up for the same reason I did, to see the archetypal "Uplift" book.
I read a few David Brin books about 20 years ago and remembered enjoying them, so I picked up Sundiver to explore his universe again. The part that stuck in my memory - the whole Uplift concept - was just as interesting as I remember. The whole concept of his universe is fascinating, especially as it plays out with the relationship between humans and the species they are Uplifting (chimpanzees and dolphins).

However the actual story of this particular book is a bit weak. It really is a detective novel set in a sci-fi universe, and I am not a fan of detective novels. The whole Scooby-Do ending is quite contrived and some of the leaps you have to take to accept the explanation are far-fetched (not a spoiler, but an entire race hid a special ability for thousands of years, and no-one noticed? Really?).

You also have to accept a fair bit of pseudo-psychobabble, and as someone who studied psychology it was a bit grating. Multiple personalities are NOT schizophrenia, and 'visual glare' doesn't cause psychosis. But if you don't have a psychology background you probably won't notice those things.

That being said, I still enjoyed the read and look forward to the rest of the trilogy, which I believe do not have the same 'detective story' style.

Also a note for the edition, it contains quite a lot of distracting errors; misplaced periods, random capitalisation, spelling errors. Far more than I've experienced in a long time reading on the .