Don't Forget to Read a Book!

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  The Postman. The Short of It Plot: Society has already collapsed. But someone needs to deliver the mail...  Page Count:  339 Award:  1986 Locus SF  Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  (Plot, World, or  Character )  Bechdel Test : Fail (Slim chance that there's a technical pass, but... I don't think so.) Technobabble:  Minimal to moderate. Review:  I am a sucker for a good grifter, and Gordon Krantz is one of the best. He's one of the few "full" characters here - but I was rooting for him the whole time. The natural evolution of his role is believable; it keeps the story moving. His interpersonal interactions are also good - and the few other characters who are more developed are nicely done. The Postman  stumbles when it tries to expand this small-scale story of a survivor to a broader world - pacing, plot, and character all suffer in the home stretch. Can be preachy about Am...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  The Uplift War. The Short of It Plot:  It's all-out war pitting the Earthlings (both human and chimp) and their allies against the Gubru, a race of birdlike aliens... with no sense of humor. Page Count:  638 Award:  1988 Hugo, 1988 Locus SF  Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  ( Plot, World, or Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  Everything that makes the concept of Uplift delightful is still here. This is a good follow up to Startide Rising  - but not a necessary one. Quality of writing is better, but pacing fluctuates, an overwhelming cast of characters can be hard to track, and deuses jump out of machinas frequently. This does add more depth to the mechanics of Uplift, but not to the broader ideas that made Startide Rising so cool. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Sorta! Spoilers for Startide Rising  might be included. I liked this book. I'm not...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  Startide Rising. The Short of It Plot:  Things quickly get out of hand when a ship crewed by humans, dolphins, and a chimp stumble upon a massive armada of abandoned spaceships, escalating to galactic-level drama. Page Count:  498 Award: 1984 Hugo, 1984 Nebula, 1984 Locus SF  Worth a read : All aboard the hype train! Toot toot! Primary Driver:  ( Plot, World, or Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  Sweet kittens and milk is this thing excellent. It's not a perfect book - characters can be hard to keep track of, relationships can be forced, some parts drag, and the machina has a whole bunch of deus. But there are so many good ideas in here. Uplift is brought to the fore: that a species needs another to bring it to the galactic scene. But what does that mean? How do we recreate other species in our own image? What debts do we owe each other? What if attempts to he...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  Sundiver. The Short of It Plot: Somehow, the Galactics missed a species - sentient creatures living at the edge of the Sun. It's up to humanity to investigate. Page Count: 340 Award:  Book 1 of the Uplift Trilogy - Books 2 and 3 won awards. Worth a read : Skip this one but read the next two. Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or Character) Bechdel Test : Fail Technobabble:  Frequent. Review:  At the core of this book is a great theme: to join the broader galaxy of enlightened species, populations must be "Uplifted" - brought into the fold via a sponsor, and civilized. There's a key question - which race Uplifted humans? All of this is fun, and well done. It is also still at the heart of the sequel, which is a much better book. The plot of this is... fine. Characters are bland, interactions are stilted, relationships unbelievable. This isn't exactly a bad book - but it has nothing on the sequel, and is ...