Startide Rising: The Uplift Saga, Book 2

The light plot that hampered SUNDIVER, the first in the trilogy is more than made up for here. 250 years later we are in a more sharply defined reality, better writting, complex plot, more defined and refined concepts and a narrator in full stride. Great stuff, looking forward to the next installment

Perhaps I am spoiled, I crave imagery and plot. This has none of the former and precious little of the latter. The reader does what he can to rescue this unconvincing tome, but after all, a short story remains a short story, no matter how much landfill you pump in between the pages.

i read this in college and loved it. this time around, i didn't enjoy it quite as much. the characters are a little flat, and they aren't really developed, but they are likeable (except for the bad ones!). having said that, startide rising is a lot better than most sci fi. the premise is very creative, and david brin makes a deep statement about taking care of our fellow mammals. i could have lived without him ACTUALLY STATING IT at the end of the book, but maybe he was afraid some of us missed it.

This imaginative book blends hardcore science with creative speculation. As with Sundiver (which should be read first) the storyline draws you in and becomes completely believable. It is written with thoughtfulness, humor and a deep understanding of human behavior. Not to mention the psychology of clients and ETs. I wish more of this author’s novels were available on audiobooks

No, not really. Mostly because it does not resolve central question.

A bigger bone thrown to this old dog concerning the central mystery would have been nice. I am trying not to spoil anything and I know that the journey is half the enjoyment in addition to the destination but we never get to the destination of knowing who the mysterious race is.

I rarely don't finish a book, but I had to let this one go about half way through. The plot has some interesting points, but takes half a book to layout just a few ideas. The character interaction is very uninteresting and strained. I just got bored with seemingly the same stuff droning on.

loved the universe. loved the dalphin's speech. loved the concept of uplift. some space battles...everything we need. highly recommended

The narrator is frankly awesome but the story moves a little slow for me. Lots of description of the uplift universe but the plot develops at a snails pace. Still it is worth reading since it won the Hugo.

In the end, for me, having dolphins as star travelers, didn't quite work. Throughout the book I kept thinking that all the extra gear (and water) needed to make them space-travel-able was so completely impractical as to be absurd - even for science fiction. This book might be better read in hardcopy due to the fact that there are so many characters I found it impossible to keep them all straight. The number of characters also made for long periods of character developement in the first half of the book. I'll definately skip the other books in this series.

I listened to the first of this trilogy and was disappointed, but I thought it would be worth it to get to this book because it had won awards. I was disappointed enough with this book that I will not complete the trilogy. The character were poorly developed and I just didn't care about them or the story.