Sundiver

The Uplift Saga, Book 1

By: David Brin

Narrated by: George Wilson

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling, highly regarded works of contemporary science fiction. Beginning with Sundiver, Brin provides an intriguing exploration of humanity's future in the universe.

For nearly a billion years, every known sentient species in the universe has been the result of genetic and cultural guidance - or "uplifting" - by a previously uplifted patron race. Then humans are discovered. Having already uplifted chimps and dolphins, humanity clearly qualifies as an intelligent species, but did they actually evolve their own intelligence, or did some mysterious patron race begin the process, then suddenly abandon Earth? The answer to this mystery might be as close as our own sun, but it will take a daring dive into its fiery interior to know for sure.

Sundiver begins David Brin's thoughtful, exhilarating exploration of a future filled with an imaginative array of strange alien races, dazzling scientific achievements, and age-old enigmas.

©1980 David Brin (P)2001 Recorded Books

Very engrossing and well read

I downloaded this book on the recommendation of someone who had read the printed version and did so noting some of the earlier criticisms of this particular reading and the narrator.

I very much enjoyed the book. Brin's universe is one filled with political intrigue and trans-species rivalry. His inventiveness and descriptive powers of an environment as unlikely as the surface of the sun were excellent.

Like many, many sci-fi novels, I think it could have done with a slightly firmer editor's pen but, given the genre, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also must respectfully disagree with the criticisms of the narrator's reading. Personally, I found it very well executed. I found the voices - which didn't seem silly to me at all - very helpful for keeping the panoply of aliens straight in my head.

All in all, I was very happy I'd bought and listened to it, and I have bought the other two in the series on the strength of my impressions of the first.

Great ideas and mystery

What made the experience of listening to Sundiver the most enjoyable?

The unusual nature of the subject material, delivered in a way that made it seem like complete sense. Characters were compelling and complex

Have you listened to any of George Wilson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Wilson has to account for a variety of species and personality types and does a fantastic job. He stays away from caricature and delivers both aliens and humans perfectly.

Oh but the possibilities

I have read and listened to this story many times over the years and each time I do it seems so smart, original and new. So many interesting plots, sub-plots; characters are developed enough to keep you longer for more and more.

Great, mostly

This is a great story, and the narrator is awesome. It was originally recorded in 2000ish, and you can hear all the little mouth and throw noises he makes. Kind of annoying and distracting, but it's worth getting through for the story!

im not saying its aliens... but, its ALIENS!!

Imagine a universe where the crazy haired guy from the Ancient Aliens tv show was taken seriously. Loaded with Erich von Daniken book citations Sundiver takes the ancient astronaut meme and uses it as a cornerstone for much of the story's underlying tension.

The book itself moves at a decent pace and reads like a detective story. One can frequently hear the narrator swallow, breathe and squeak in a chair. (A pet peeve) It occasionally brought me out of the story but for the most part the narrator did an excellent job with the materials given.

Note that written in the early 1980s, the female characters are written as paper tigers who often crumble into the arms of a man for when events in their chosen career gets too hard. That said for its time Sundiver does attempt to integrate and envision a future where women play roles largely unavailable at the time of the writing. Viewed through the lens of its time, the story does well with what little depth it does manage to give its characters.

if your looking for a decent sci-fi ocean to jump into, Sundiver isint a bad place to swim with the dolphins.

whodunnit in the uplift universe

An interesting novel that jumbles up a bunch of genres, but most importantly introduces us to the Uplift Universe. I read this first a long, long time ago, immediately after reading Startide Rising for the first time. There are a few minor things that haven't aged well, but otherwise it stands up well as a science-fiction/action/mystery mashup. One thing I like about it is that it is a straight-ahead story, not suffering from many-point-of-view-itis that the later Uplift novels suffer from (in my opinion).

Narrated slowly

Slow narration is most evident when the book rambles a bit. Rich and tight story.

Good Narration, Fun Story

I really liked how the narrator adopted a distinct voice for every character in the book. Since there were a lot of characters, it made it very easy to keep everyone straight.

I think this book adapted well to audiobook because of the high amount of physical description and action. It was very easy to follow and enjoyable, even cut into 30 min segments (I listen to books on my daily commute). Don't expect this book to be a serious treatise on science or society, or you'll be disappointed. It's just an engaging mystery set in space with humans and aliens.

classic

This is worth reading If you're into classic scify. The verbal illustrations of the sun ghosts are mysterious and alluring. The love portion of this is rather basic. the protagonist is a classic male personality that dates the book. But overall, I enjoyed it.

Love this story

Sundiver is a sci-fi classic! The narrator did an acceptable job. I could hear him swallow that was a little distracting.