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Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2)

David Brin

Why we're reading this: Hugo Winner 1984
Nebula Award Winner 1983
[close] Hugo Winner 1984
Nebula Award Winner 1983

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May 23, 2019 Ash rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019-read, science-fiction, audiobook, 0-hugo-nebula, space-aliens, hard-sf, first-contact, 0-locus, challenge-sf

Mixed feelings about this book.
What I liked:
1. World building was amazing. The author has created so many alien species, a water world planet, sentient dolphins and chimp.
2. Uplift was a great concept to read about. In this world, sentient beings can genetically modify other species and make them sentient. This is called Uplift. The uplifted beings are called clients while those who uplifted them are called patrons. Humans however do not have a patron so they claim to have evolved on their own. Mixed feelings about this book.
What I liked:
1. World building was amazing. The author has created so many alien species, a water world planet, sentient dolphins and chimp.
2. Uplift was a great concept to read about. In this world, sentient beings can genetically modify other species and make them sentient. This is called Uplift. The uplifted beings are called clients while those who uplifted them are called patrons. Humans however do not have a patron so they claim to have evolved on their own. I loved reading about Uplift and it’s ramifications. Like racism that humans show to the species that they have uplifted etc. This was the concept that made me want to continue reading.
3. Cool science like how do you design a spacecraft where dolphins and humans can coexist? How can dolphins explore an alien planet on their own? The science was fascinating.
4. Dolphins in space. You should read this book just for this cool concept.
5. Library which has all the info collected by other galactic species. Reminded me of Encyclopedia Galactica (from Foundation series).
6. Strong female characters- for a novel written in 1980s, I was pleasantly surprised to see that many significant characters in this book were women/female dolphin.

What I did not like:
1. Writing - it was dull and boring along with haiku thrown in. It took me forever to read this book mostly because of the bad writing. I even listened to audiobook towards the end as I couldn’t read it.
2. Plot - it was almost nonexistent. Humans are stranded on an alien planet and are trying to escape from it. That’s the entire plot and it takes around 500 pages to culminate. It’s way too slow paced and hardly anything exciting happens.
3. Characters: flat. I couldn’t distinguish between the dolphins or between dolphins and humans. I had imagined some dolphins to be humans at the beginning of the book.
4. Horny dolphins and men: every male dolphin or male person is thinking about sex all the time which was something I did not like.
5. No paperback version available. I had to read from a mass market paperback, a format I loathe. ...more

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