Startide Rising (Uplift Trilogy Book 2) Kindle Edition

dolphins in space. that's right up there with doctor who's-- dinosaurs, on a spaceship! And as superficially appealing as the concept may be-- avid brin really makes this a plausible scenario. he doesn't just throw them out into space on a whim. he must have started by asking the scientific question: what would be needed, and how would this work. And that is always the greatest starting point for any fascinating story!i read this book first, of the series- so am probably partial to it. and it can and does stand alone, even though there is a book before it and a book that follows it. Each book is also unique though.the premise starts with the concept up "uplift" whereby we genetically and biologically modify other species, such as dolphins and chimps- to enhance their intelligence and build human-speech into their evolution. the story goes on to explore the relationship we have with dolphins and delves into other-ness, through a different species that we already know and love. just because we have given dolphins the capacity for speech- does not mean they process language in the same way we do. In fact, the dolphins use poetry and haiku to communicate with us.this is a touching story about relationships, and the politics around power- whether it is within a ship, a species or intergalactic rivals. I laughed and cried and have reread the books several times. You won't be disappointed.Teri J. Dluznieski

This is classic "hard" science fiction at its best, combined with a tale of human and dolphin (uplifted Neo Dolphin) respect, cooperation and, sadly, envy and discord, during an interstellar survey that should have been brief but stretches into years of dodging and running. They travel on a small spaceship, "Streaker", that carried them before the story opens to a galaxy far, far away, discovering something that may shake the universe to its foundations--and none of the crew know why they are being pursued by hostile forces. They do know they are under attack, and hide in the deep ocean of a nearly all-water planet, Kithrup, that holds many surprises. Brin is an exciting but leisurely writer, who takes time to let us know the main characters, human, dolphin and a Neo Chimp scientist, their attackers, and the mysterious creatures of Kithrup. Brin's imagining of Neo Dolphin mythology, poetry, humor and a technology that allows them to manipulate with artificial hands is nothing short of stunning, The humans must compromise, too, by living in a highly modified spaceship of water-filled spaces and humidity. If there is a villain it isn't so much the distant alien races who out of their own terror pursue Streaker, but a human scientist who goes too far in his attempt to hurry the uplift of a tribe of dolphins not yet ready, and hides negative evidence until it is too late--and even he is plausible. (Brin, a physicist at MIT, probably based that man's troubled ethics on someone he knows.) The book follows two love stories, of humans Gillian and Tom, and dolphins Creideiki and Hikahi, and the perils that they meet--as well as friendships between humans and dolphins. Tom is a genuine hero, battered but unbowed, who with many others plan a daring, perilous, and personally tragic escape from Kithrup's waters. Read this great novel to find our how, and whether, they planned well enough to succeed!

I am amazed a 38 year old science fiction novel completely holds up. I never cringed at an aspect of technology that seemed too dated to be in present time. I listened to much of the novel’s audible recording. That is a particularly good way to experience it because the dolphin accent and dolphin language add to the suspension of disbelief.

Inhabited space is controlled by a billions of years old hierarchy of space-faring races and the highest value is any race of pre-sentient creatures that may be "uplifted" to full sentience, thereby making the race performing this service a "patron". Those on the top of the longest chains of patronage are the most respected and most powerful races. Those on the bottom as "client" races are paying off their "uplifting" by serving for up to 100,000 years as servants of their patrons. Humanity has only joined this society within the past few hundreds of years as a possible "wolfling" race, that has brought itself up by its bootstraps. Most galactic citizens, including many humans, do not believe in the possibility and think humanity must have some ancient patron that has been forgotten in the mists of time. This is the setting of the entire "Uplift" series. An easy to read, yet highly imaginative series. And a rousing good space opera!

In Startide Rising Brin throws us a few decades forward from Sundiver, the first of the Uplift books.In this book we see less of the complexities of the galactics and more of the effects of uplift. The mission is led by uplifted dolphins, with some humans and a chimp on board. We join the mission as they flee competing galactic fleets with a valuable secret on board.What follows is a complex plot of Delphin politics as two factions vie for control of their stricken ship. A new race ready for uplift. A complex ebb and flow of galactic alliances in planetary orbit fighting for control of the "secret".Woven into all of this we have layers of dolphin communication in Whalesong, Primary, Trinary and Anglic, with humans speaking Human anglic and english. Add to that languages from Galactic one to twelve and you begin to glimpse the depth of Brins vision. This is no simple phaser blasting military sci-fi novel. It is a well crafted and complex tale set in a well thought out reality.I now need to move to book number three.

Great idea to write the novel from the perspective of a water based animal. Also, Brin tries to explore the different psychology of non-human species. It is a refreshing approach to Sci-Fi, which can sometimes be two dimensional, when authors fail to consider the 'soft', people related aspects and rely solely on technology. Very good in the way that it brings out the dangers in unrestricted genetic manipulation, and how egotistical behaviour by various individual characters causes unexpected results and consequences. I don't know how I never managed to come across Brin before, but I will buy another of his books. Clearly, this book is one of a series and it hints at mysteries and parallel story lines which will come out in other books.

It's one of the best sci if books I have ever read. First read it in the 90s and could not put it down. Awesome book. The description of a galaxy full of crazy eaties fighting to get to a damaged earth ship at the bottom of an alien ocean is frankly outstanding. Read it now.

Dated, original, lifting clever animals to sentience. Good exciting story line that keeps you gripped to the very end!

Grat book

The book itself is excellent, but there are enough formatting errors and spelling mistakes in the Kindle version to be annoying. It looks as though it has been OCR'd.