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From: romkey@MIT-CSR@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Startide Rising
Message-ID: <4347@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Aug-83 01:54:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.4347
Posted: Thu Aug 25 01:54:17 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Aug-83 05:32:37 EDT
Lines: 44

From:  John L. Romkey <romkey@MIT-CSR>


	Recently I was wandering around trying to find "White Gold Wielder"
in paperback because someone mentioned that it was out. I never found it
(which is just as well because I didn't really want to get depressed again),
but I did find "Startide Rising" by David Brin, which had also been mentioned
recently.

	"Startide Rising" takes place hundreds of years in the future.
Mankind has "uplifted" dolphins and chimpanzees into sentience, and has
found (or been found by) other races in the galaxy. These races are called
the "Galactics", and some have been around for billions of years. Galactics
have a habit of uplifting presentient species, genetically modifying them to
suit their (the Galactics') own needs, and then indenturing them for
millions of years to pay back the favor. The race which does the uplifting
is the "patron" and the uplifted race the "client".

	There is a considerable amount of tension over the fact that humans
seem to have no patron, and a number of Galactics would like to change that.
Of course, we have other ideas. Unlike Galactics, we did not indenture
dolphins or chimpanzees. Instead, they have become a part of the culture,
though at times there is still some amount of "racism".

	The starship Streaker has a crew of ~150 dolphins, 7 humans and 1
chimpanzee, and made a most fascinating discovery. In fact, the Galactics
are so interested in it that zillions of them come trying to wrest the
secrets of the discovery away from Streaker, and it detours to the world of
Kithrup for repairs while trying to avoid the Galactics. And I think that
much more information would constitute a spoiler.

	I thought "Startide Rising" was one of the freshest books I've read
in ages. It's great! The characterization and plot were both very well done,
and all of the characters seemed quite real, even human. There were several
sources of tension throughout the book, and they were well handled. The
contrast between Galactics and humans (and humans' clients (and "current"
humans, though not mentioned explicitly)) was interesting and well handled.

	I recommend it. It was a more than ample replacement for WGW (which
I still haven't found). And anyone who thinks that SF name space is
exhausted should take a look at the book.

	- John Romkey
	  romkey@mit-csr