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 realit..Show More »y, better writting, complex plot, more defined and refined concepts and a narrator in full stride. Great stuff, looking forward to the next installment

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What an awesome trilogy. By the third installment the whole thing is on fire, great writting - marred only by occassional clunky narrative device, out..Show More »standing narration and what a story. Inspiring, spellbinding speculative fiction. This lifts Brin into the realm of the great masters: Clarke, Silversberg, Heinlien, Asimov.

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I've seen a lot of bad reviews for this book, and frankly I don't understand why. Perhaps some readers are not used to hard-core, traditional sci-fi ..Show More »writing. So much of today's contemporary sci-fi writers are more into action and less into the classic philosophical aspects that began with epic writers like Herbert and Asimov.

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel it is a masterpiece in classic sci-fi form. David Brin knows how to sink the hook in and keep you guessing until the very end. He is a master at storybuilding from various alien perspectives, which may throw some people off because of the change in thought process/focus from one alien race to another, but I found it captivating and ingenious.

I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Frank Herbert, Peter F. Hamilton, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card and other masters.

However, one caution to casual sci-fi readers that prefer straight forward stories full of action and special effects: you will get action, you will be thrilled, you will be surprised, but you will not be satisfied unless you are a fan of classic sci-fi writing techniques. This is not a shallow, no-brainer entertainment for the masses. This is a thought provoking work with complex plots/sub-plots that provide surprising twists and turns that are hard to predict compared to a lot of other literature in the genre these days.

I hope you enjoy!

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This is a really great series, & unlike some other series, I think each successive installment gets better. My only gripe is the snails' pace at which..Show More » they've been released. Heaven's Reach is the last one to go. Dear Audible, please start blowing up some publishers' answering machines and inboxes for more Brin novels because I, for one, WILL buy them.

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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 aro..Show More »und 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.

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