Startide Rising (review)

All species had patrons, of course. Nobody reached spacefaring intelligence without the intervention of another spacefaring race. Had not man done this for chimps and dolphins? All the way back to the time of the Progenitors, the mythical first race, every species that spoke and flew spaceships had been raised up by a predecessor. No species still survived from that distant era, but the civilization the Progenitors established . . . went on.

• Title: Startide Rising
• Author: David Brin
• Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera
• Year: 1983

The first three books set in David Brin’s Uplift Universe are often referred to as a trilogy, but they are only loosely connected, sharing no characters in common and being far removed from one another in place, and can be read in any order. Startide Rising is the second book of the ‘trilogy’ and, in my opinion, the best, and it made a huge splash with its debut, netting both the Nebula and Hugo awards and propelling David Brin to the top tier of a new generation of science fiction writers. To my mind, it is the perfect introduction to his work and, more specifically, to his Uplift Universe; a page-turner of a book with something for any fan of the genre, from fantastic space opera conflicts to hard science extraterrestrial mysteries, all wrapped up in a crowded universe based around the central concept of Uplift: the raising of pre-sentient creatures to full sentience by genetic and biological engineering.

Startide Rising beings in mid-action and never relents, with the embattled crew of the earthship Streaker hiding from a horde of hostile aliens on the mysterious world of Kithrup. Streaker, an exploratory vessel, has made an astonishing discovery — a dead fleet of fifty-thousand starships each the size of a small moon which may be a remnant of the fabled first race of the Progenitors — and the rest of the universe wants to get their hands on the location of this lost fleet. The Galactics, as humanity and its clients term the multi-alien civilization that spans several galaxies, have sent their forces in pursuit of the lone Streaker, and these mutually hostile alien fleets immediately begin warring with one another once in the Kithrup system in order to determine who will eventually secure the prize of the earthship for themselves. As if things weren’t bad enough for the terrans, Streaker’s crew is racked with internal tensions and under a dangerous strain because of what it represents — the first independent command for a dolphin captain and crew.

A word, then, about uplift. For billions of years the galactic community has existed as something of a cultural unity, bound together by certain protocols and a central repository of knowledge called simply the Library. The most essential and sacred institution of this community is that of uplift, the process by which one race brings another to full sentience and, after a one hundred thousand year period of indenture, full independent status whereupon the uplifted species will, in turn, uplift other species. But the ‘wolfling’ race of humanity came late to this arrangement, and represents something never seen before — a species with no patron. What’s more, humanity didn’t just apprantely achieve sentient, starfaring stauts all on its own, it also went ahead and uplifted two species right alongside itself. In galactic terms, mankind had already achieved patron status, and thus were free from being handed over to another species for ‘improvements.’ To many in the galactic community, then, humanity represents the ultimate threat to the old order, maveriks that have no patron, no manners, and don’t even hold their own clients to terms of indenture. Humanity has a lot of enemies, purely because of what it represents.

Streaker is primarily crewed by neo-fins, uplifted dolphins with extensive modifications. Brin creates a thoroughly compelling class of characters in these dolphins, rational beings that must contend with animal impulses, and who have an extensive cultural and linguistic traditon that makes them much more than just ‘men in dolphin suits.’ Only five hundred years old as a species, neo-fins are an ongoing project, and the danger of reversion under heavy stress is very real. This is compounded by different strains of neo-fin, some of whom are of a more ‘experimental’ nature . . .

Headed by Captain Creideiki, a neo-fin gifted with a rational genius and held in awe by his crew, the earthlings explore the metal rich world of Kithrup for materials neccessary to repair Streaker, and work on a plan of escape. The planet presents new mysteries, and even contains a promising pre-sentient species the terrans are eager to study. While scientists unravel the planet’s secrets — and the ship’s lone chimp, the monomaniacally enthusiastic planetologist Charles Dart, is repeatedly denied permission to set of small nukes in Kithrup’s crust to study it’s seismic properties — others begin to formulate means of evading the swarm of hostiles that surround them. Tom Orley, a human, devises a scheme to make use of a crashed alien vessel, a risky plan opposed by many in the crew. As the tension mounts, the strain begins to take its toll on the fens, and certain atavistic tendencies create the potential for a real mutiny.

While Streaker’s crew is busy on the planet’s surface, Brin intersperses the action with a glimpse at the space battle raging above. Here is space opera in all its glory, with a variety of strange and intriguing alien species wielding a bizzare array of weapons and technologies. One example is a species with a powerful psychic client capable of altering reality — a useful, if insanely dangerous, ability to have. The Galactics form shifting alliances and coalitions, only to backstab one another and reform along different lines. Brin creates a truly memorable array of antagonists for the wolfling terrans, alien species that are key players in his other uplift novels.

I won’t spoil any more of the plot, as it’s the interleveled mysteries and shifting action that make this such a page-turner. For this seamless melding of elements from space opera and hard science fiction, its greatly realized non-human characters, and the novel dynamics of a maverik humanity and its allies dealing with a universe of uplifted sentient species, Startide Rising should be read by every fan of science fiction.

• Startide Rising at Amazon
• David Brin’s website