"The Uplift War" by David Brin, which was first published in 1988, is the third in the "Uplift" series of science fiction novels and was originally presented as the concluding part of a trilogy, though Brin went on to write three further novels in the series. It follows on from "Sundiver," reviewed on this site here, and "Startide Rising," reviewed n this site here. "The Uplift War" won the Hugo award.
Like the first two books in the series, this novel thinks big, asking huge questions about man's place in the universe and coming up with answers - true in the context of the novel - which are quite terrifying, yet it remains entertaining, accessible and easy to read, and manages to address issues of the need to cherish our planet and environment without becoming in the slightest degree preachy.
"The Uplift War" begins in the late 25th century within an imagined and very scary future, 238 years after the events of the first novel in the Uplift series, "Sundiver" and at about the same time as "Startide Rising."
Almost every intelligent species in the galaxy, with humans as a very rare exception - probably - has achieved intelligence by being "Uplifted" by a patron" species, back to the fabled "progenitors" who started the process about 2.8 billion years ago. Status in galactic society depends on having taken part in this process; humanity has so far escaped enslavement because at the time we discovered an alien species we had already "uplifted" chimps and dolphins.
In the Prelude to "Startide rising" the earth exploration ship "Streaker," commanded and largely crewed by dolphins, found a huge deserted fleet of ships the size of worlds, abandoned for hundreds of millions of years. The dolphin captain, Creideiki, sent a message home home for instructions which every other race in the galaxy intercepted and the message touched off turmoil throughout the five known galaxies.
Many races of religious fanatics jumped to the conclusion that these ships belonged to the fabled and long lost "Progenitors" and saw it as their sacred duty sent out their battle fleets either to capture "Streaker" or to attack Earth's colonies to try to force the "wolflings" from Earth to tell them where these starships are.
The events of "The Uplift War" take place on and around a planet called Garth shortly after Creideiki's message. Garth, had suffered ecological catastrophe some 50,000 years ago when it was leased to a newly-uplifted race called the Bururalli who went insane and wiped out most higher life forms on the planet. They were promptly wiped out themselves by the great powers of the galaxy. Garth is now one of Earth's newest and least-well-defended colony worlds, and a powerful galactic race called the Gubru decide to conquer Garth, taking the human and chimp population captive as hostages to try to extract from Earth the location of the lost "progenitor" fleet.
The Gubru prove formidable opponents and soon appear to have conquered the planet and forced almost all the human population to surrender. They had, however, reckoned without the determination and, adaptability of one human being, two alien Tymbrimi allies, and the planet's uplifted chimpanzees ...
A really clever book filled with all sorts of insights, and as with the previous novels in the series, Brin is particularly skilled at writing about nonhuman characters whether aliens or members of other earth species, in this case neo-chimpanzees, appear as credible, intelligent characters so the reader can empathise with them and recognise them as sentient beings without losing sight of the fact that they are not human.
An example of how well this is done: Earth's Tymbrimi allies are famed for their sense of humour and for playing practical jokes on everyone, while many other races such as the Thenannin have little or no sense of humour. At one point the Tymbrimi ambassador, Uthacalthing, who by Earth's standards (and almost everyone else's) is a great joker, makes a humorous remark which Kault, the Ambassador from the Thennanin race, completely misses.
He thinks to himself "Probably this dour creature was selected as an ambassador to an earthling world because he has what passes for a great sense of humour among Thennanin," and that this was the mirror image of the reasons behind his own ambassadorial appointment, as by Tymbrimi standards Uthacalthing is comparatively serious and more capable than many of his fellows of restraint and tact.
Not long afterwards Kault explicitly confirms that this ironic thought was quite literally and precisely correct.
This book, with it's predecessors "Sundiver" and "Startide Rising" are three of the best science fiction novels I have ever had the privilege of reading.
You can buy this book from Amazon at:
There is also a series reference book, "Contacting Aliens" written as if it were a guide for new Earth field agents to the species and galactic institutes of the uplift universe, available in dead tree form or as an ebook. Be aware, however, that it does contain one or two minor spoilers for the plot of this book.
Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe, by David Brin and Kevin Lenagh.
"The Uplift War" and the rest of the series, particularly the opening trilogy, are strongly recommended.
Mitth'raw'nuruodo
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