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

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.

The start of a great science fiction series

This is one of David Brin's earliest works, I believe his first novel. Although it does not have the richness and depth of his later works, it is an astonishing debut. I have to wonder how much of what came later in his "Uplift" trilogies was in his mind as he wrote this one. Remember, his next book (and sequel to this - Startide Rising) won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

There were a couple of passages that dragged a little bit, but the payoff of the story is worth it.

Highly recommended!

Great concepts, but damn narrator's mouth noises!

Classic great scifi. Credible source. Unexpected sophistication. Great science explanations. Good ethical considerations. Less relevant than contemporary transhumanism, but in the neighborhood.

Narrators mouth noises anger me. I don't pay to hear you swallow. You just cost the author my continued listening of this series.

Vassalage through uplift: book for hard s/f fans

Any additional comments?

I guess I'm too young to have read Brin when his Uplift books were first published. I discovered him through his much more recent Existence and wanted to check out his earlier work. I was not disappointed.

While the premise of the story revolves around humans "lifting" animal species to sentience, this is a minor subplot of the book. The novel belongs to the hard sci-fi gene, with numerous alien spaces, new technologies, societies and ideas. The reader is early introduced to the concept that most species in the universe was "lifted" and that feudal-like hierarchies exist around the facts about who lifted whom.The ambiguous and controversial position of humanity in this hierarchy is the real kernel of the book and is the theme around which the intrigue revolves.

The book will appeal to anyone who is into hard sci-fi, like me. While his recent Existence did remind me a bit of writer like Asimov, Sundiver is even closer to Asimov's style of writing and story development. Still, I would say Brin's characters are slightly more developed than the generic male superheroes in Asimov. Most of Brin's personae are actually quite interesting and believable, I particularly enjoy his depictions of alien individuals and their difficulties with human behavior.

1980 is 34 years ago and while the novel's ideas and premises do not feel dated, some of the gendered interaction does. It strikes me how far contemporary sci-fi has come in depicting gender-equal societies, when a writer like Brin still struggled with this aspect in 1980. Helene deSilva is captain of a starship, but goes irrational and submissive when she falls for the protagonist, a male ubermensch who "couldn't be broken by anything". And when some aliens seem to lack gender, they are simply called "he", even though human authorities prefer to have women as space explorers. Oh, well...

If you can ignore these gendered tell-tale signs of its age and if you like space opera/hard sci-fi, you will like Sundiver. I am looking forward to reading the other books in the Uplift saga and hope that they will approach the excellence I found in Existence. I would not say Sundiver reaches those heights, but it is an early work by the author and the book is still pretty darn good.

Slow start of a great Saga

Like the first book in most Sagas (like Fellowship), there are large amounts of world building going on, so it can be a bit of a slough at times, I absolutely love the Uplift universe.

Interesting but not gripping

The ideas were interesting but unfortunately the characters were two dimensional and story telling lackluster. Made it difficult to become invested in the story. Some parts were difficult to follow, not because of complexity but insufficient prose.