The Uplift War

The Uplift Saga, Book 3

By: David Brin

Narrated by: George Wilson

Length: 27 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1988

David Brin's New York Times best-selling novels thrill listeners with their stirring adventures and intriguing speculation about humanity's future. Set in a universe where no species has reached sentience without the "uplifting" help of a patron race, the books delve into the greatest mystery of all: Who uplifted humankind?

Earth has been allowed to colonize the planet Garth only because its previous occupants went berserk and wiped out virtually all life there. But now humans, chimps, and their alien allies on Garth are being held hostage in a conflict that could affect the fate of the entire Five Galaxies. As a ragtag group of freedom fighters wage a desperate guerilla war, their only hope for victory lies in unravelling the elusive truth behind the legend of a hidden native species that could prove a powerful ally.

The Uplift War provides entertainment in the grandest tradition of science fiction, with exotic aliens, visionary action, and universe-encompassing mysteries.

©1987 David Brin (P)2001 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1988

"The Uplift books are as compulsive reading as anything ever published in the genre." (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)

The Uplift War

Excellent book, in my humble opinion at least as good or better than Startide rising his Hugo award winning Novel.
I just wish there were more in the same Universe available here...............................DJ

One of Brin's best.

Great book. I read this book in back in the 1980's and had to add it to my Audible collection. The audio book really brought the characters to life.

A little long and meandering, but good overall.

A little long and meandering, but good overall. Very good performance given the numerous voices and species.

BIG ENTHUSIASTIC WOW

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

Very good book. Definitely worth listening to...

A very original sci-fi concept (uplift), very good story and good narration.

Not liking this . . .

Well, I don't know if this is because I skipped the first two books in this sequence or I am just not a fan of simians as the star of the book (I don't think that is it, since I am a fan of the original Planet of the Apes movie), but I am not enjoying this book. It is another book that I am listening to at double speed, in an effort to get through this as quickly as possible. I am getting to a point where there the story is starting to show some potential (3/4 if the way through) . . . however, I doubt that I will be reading any more in this series. I had about a 25 hours of driving from Lauderdale to Toronto with a pitstop somewhere just west of NY City, and I still did not make it all the way through this book. I would not think that this would be considered a glowing recommendation.

Inteligent

Intelligent & thought provoking - I like his world; A future with altruism and good breeding ;^)

Uplifted chimps against evil aliens

The Uplift War is the final installment of the Uplift Saga trilogy by David Brin. While book 1 dealt with humanity's early contact with the myriad aliens populating the five galaxies along with the mystery of how humanity was uplifted without a patron race as well as their own uplift projects and book 2 dealt mainly with uplifted dolphins, book 3 is focused on uplifted chimps on a formerly abandoned planet that becomes the leverage for an alien race to negotiate for location of the presumed progenitor fleet found in book 2. Following an invasion, the chimps, along with a few humans and a couple of alien allies manage a guerrilla action and eventually overcome the invaders.

Brin continues the theme of a universe, extending back millions of years where every sentient race has been uplifted from pre-sentience by someone else, all the way back to the progenitors who are long gone. The universe is governed by oppressive protocols that makes the European Union look like the wild wild west. Humans again are bending the rules and beginning to uplift gorillas (without permission). The invading race is an odd set of three leaders from the the three branches of their government where competition and success determine eventual procreation rights. There is much emphasis on cultural variation across races as well as significant cultural gaps that lead to much confusion. There's also a bit of dissonance as humanity operates on our time scale, while the rest of the universe behaves as if getting around to something in a couple of centuries is hurried.

The same narrator from previous volumes performs an exceptional job with a good range of characters as well respectable alien accents. Pacing is a bit on the slow side.

great narration

The narrator did a wonderful job. He brought to life a favorite book of mine.

A Satisfying Continuation

What made the experience of listening to The Uplift War the most enjoyable?
The mild hints the story drops regarding the events of Startide Rising made me smile; Startide was a better book, but not by too much.

What did you like best about this story?
The Uplift mechanic is lovely, and this book cleverly explored it from a more human perspective than Startide. However, the novelty of Startide is more powerful.

#Witty #Mindbending #Clever #tagsgiving #sweepstakes