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Title: Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, Book 1) by David Brin ISBN: 0-553-26982-8 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 January, 1985 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.47 (49 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A neat mix of genre writing
Comment: "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: 4
Summary: An Acceptable -- Though Not Spectacular -- Start
Comment: 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: 4
Summary: A good stand-alone mystery novel.
Comment: 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.
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Title: Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, Book 2) by David Brin ISBN: 055327418X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Uplift War (The Uplift Saga, Book 3) by David Brin ISBN: 0553279718 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Brightness Reef (The Uplift Trilogy, Book 1) by David Brin ISBN: 0553573306 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Heaven's Reach (The Uplift Saga, Book 6) by David Brin ISBN: 0553574736 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 11 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Infinity's Shore (The Uplift Saga, Book 5) by David Brin ISBN: 0553577778 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 03 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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