Book Review: Startide Rising (Uplift Trilogy 2)

Dolphins in spaaaaaaaace!

This is the sequel to David Brin's "Sundiver" - and the 2nd part of the Uplift series. And - BAM! - it goes straight into the action. Very little needless exposition - just spaceships running away from an Extra-Terrestrial menace, crash-landing, and having to escape. All good sci-fi fun. Especially with a crew of cyborg dolphins, a few telepathic humans, and one super-intelligent ape.

It's a thoroughly enjoyable adventure - and almost certainly impossible to film. It pairs nicely with David Zindell's "The Idiot Gods" in its treatment of cetaceans as deserving citizens of Earth. The poetry of the dolphins is a particularly pleasing literary device.

It is a door-stop of a book, possibly a bit too long for my tastes. Because of the huge crew, I found there was a bit of information overload trying to remember who was who, and which character belonged to which species.

I completely understand how this won every award going. It's everything sci-fi should be - weird, alien, exciting, and breathtakingly fun.