Heaven’s Reach

The Uplift Trilogy, Book 3

By: David Brin

Narrated by: George Wilson

Length: 22 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The final volume of the Uplift trilogy by Hugo and Nebula Award winner David Brin, Heaven’s Reach brings readers back to the planet Jijo one last time. The starship Streaker is still on the run with its dangerous cargo of ancient artifacts when the prophesied Time of Changes rocks the galaxy. As each race battles for control and chaos reigns, the truth about the Five Galaxies and The Progenitors finally comes to light.

Up for more? Listen to the rest of the Uplift saga.

©1998 David Brin (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"The Uplift books are as compulsive reading as anything ever published in the genre." ( The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)

Heaven’s Reach

Excellent finish to the series. The potential for more is possible. Always has interesting viewpoints.

Get this.

It is a masterpiece of its genre, on par with the Lord of the Rings, if not greater. You will not be wasting your time.

a fabulous final book to great series

The Uplift books are rightfully among the best of the best sci fi. A truly enjoyable complicated world with its complicated laws.

Crowning Moments of Awesome, FOR EVERYONE

Not to give the ending away, so this sentence is your spoiler warning. This is the hardest earned happy ending that was earned. They were chased around the galaxy, abused by older races, bullied by their peers, lied to by libraries, and adopting some friends that they had to protect or see them enslaved by others. Then at the end, they finally get to a place where they could have been ok, but they have to fight another battle.

DAVID BRIN just let someone, anyone be happy! I don't care who you choose, but just give someone a nice comfortable place to ride off into the sunset.

Thought provoking and epic conclusion

Great conclusion to the trilogy.
Voice acting is phenomenal, Mother approves.
All hail David Brin.

Finally, something interesting happens.

The first two books in this trilogy set the stage for this installment, but the story elements that contribute to that effort are buried under boring manusia. You could easily distill out all of that unnecessary background development and get one book a third as long as either of the first two books.

Overall I really liked this book, except for one massive plot hole: What happened to Jillian's husband and his crew? This really bugs me.

Great book, could have used some editing

When mulling over something in their head characters will repeat essentially the same paragraph 2-3 times in a row, then half a dozen other characters will do the same on the exact same topic, for example on the topic of “what is uplift” which anyone reading the series should know by the 6th book. It’s worse in this book than any of the previous books, which makes me think their wasn’t enough critical editing happening.

Overall the Uplift series had a very unique scifi universe and it’s a shame Brin didn’t write more books.

Narration by George Wilson was awesome. Unfortunately if you’re in a quiet room and have the volume up you can hear him constantly clearing spit out of his mouth between sentences.

another winner from Brin

it was long and involved but well worth the effort. Brin has a way of bringing the human touch to the most wildly imaginative Science Fiction

The last book, it ends pretty good

If you liked the first 5 books then I will assume you will like this one so this is not going to be much of a review other than to say how it ended.

The ship Streaker goes off of the planet Jijo and back in space and is still trying to reach Earth - its cool because meet with various orders of life: Hydrogen Breathers, the Retired, Machines, and the Transcendent.

The series ends pretty well but I was a little confused with the whole series, I was left wondering mostly about the alien races and how to distinguish between them - the narrator did a good job at making different voices but I still had trouble knowing weather they were Humans or Aliens, and if Aliens what race were they.

in the end I was still a little confused but I should have gotten the book "Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe" maybe that would have helped - I will go and read these books again in the future and will get that book then also.

Brin is one of the best.

Many seem to think Brin wastes time in the 3rd installment re-hashing old stuff. But one of the things that's jarring about Brin's Uplift trilogy, at first, is all the unrelated story lines and how he jumps from one to the other to the other. Some might never take to it. Many find it very engaging, and those are probably the ones who immerse themselves in the story lines, and don't want or need a re-statement.

But I read the first two books right about the time they came out, and never finished the series. I just remember I really LIKED the world-building and Brin's unique approach to inter-species societies. Probably it was Alvin who made me want to come back and finish it off on Audible.

Anyway, my point is that, coming back to it about 20 years later, the 'redundant' back-story was helpful in reminding me of what happened in the previous 2 books. I had totally forgotten about the derelict fleet they used to help the Streaker escape, even though it was a pretty big plot element.

As well as readers such as myself, who were some distance removed in time, there are probably readers who appreciate some of the redundancy, to help them keep all the different story lines straight. I remember when I first started on the first book, it was kind of hard to keep everything straight.