Sundiver

The Uplift Saga, Book 1

By: David Brin

Narrated by: George K. Wilson

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

A True Classic

This is one of Brin's ealierier novels and the story telling is a bit stilted. Part of that is the process of Universe building. The concept of a universe based on Uplift is easy to grasp but hard to explain. The other part is that it was Brin's first published novel. Even a great first novel is a first novel. The story is a good mystery based on scientific possiblilities. The Universe he creates is interesting and engaging as are the characters.

The narrator does an excellent job of dealing with both human, terrestrial and alien characters. They are clear and recognizable.

I look forward to listening to the rest of the books.

"chapters" cut at really weird places

the chapters don't remotely match the book. and some of them actually cut off the narrator mid-sentence. makes it a bit hard to listen to one "chapter" at a time

wow

The Uplift books are tied for my favorite sci-fi series with Asimov's original Foundation series. This is sci-fi at its very best. Brin goes through an astonishing number of fascinating ideas and concepts, but leaves them for the reader to peruse or discard. Want racial allegory? Sure. Prefer religion? Plenty of it. Political intrigue? It's there by the truckload.

When Brin goes into pretend-science he goes all in. One can almost sense his smirk going through this first book: that's right, this book has talking chimpanzees and dolphin haikus and spaceships flying into the sun. Wanna fight about it? It works, and the mileage he forces out of it is outstanding.

And to top everything off he makes a point of tying off each book with an epic space battle, punctuated with a stunt humans come up with that surprises (or angers) their alien counterparts for sheer boldness and audacity. What's not to love?
#scffi #Suspenseful #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Exciting and imaginative

I came across book 3 of Brin's Uplift Saga entirely be chance, but the moment I put it down, I was compelled to find more by him. I was delighted to see that it was part of a series! This is an excellent introduction to the concepts and particulars of Brin's notions of the future. Beyond simply being fascinating, I have also found this series to have wonderfully tense moments and a generous sprinkling of wry humor. Book 1 (Sundiver) is no exception.

Good Book, Average Narrator

Was distracted more often than I would have liked by the Narrator pausing to swallow. Story was great and other than the swallowing Narrator did a great job.