Mass Market Paperback, 340 pages
English language
Published March 26, 1980 by Bantam.
Weirdly compelling psychological mystery, trying to answer questions about obligation, guilt, and society's power to criminalize thought or passion ... stumbles over all that plus 1980s casual misogyny.
This book felt like if Heinlein wrote young adult books. 12 year old me probably would have loved it but it’s just not for me anymore.
I picked this book up for like $2 in a ferry terminal book rack (alongside the pulp romance novels as you would expect), and wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I knew Brin was well-respected.
As such, it far exceeded my expectations - this book was fantastic. Engaging, well-written, lots of interesting characters, a mystery plot that twists and turns and caught me off guard more than once, and some really fascinating creatures and exploration of some interesting ideas.
The great thing about this book is that there are so many different elements, and they're all very strongly written, such that each of them could probably stand on its own as a shorter story, but they're all here working together to tell an engaging story that much better.
The uplift social dynamics from which the saga takes its name is well thought out and has lots of interesting consequences, for …
I picked this book up for like $2 in a ferry terminal book rack (alongside the pulp romance novels as you would expect), and wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I knew Brin was well-respected.
As such, it far exceeded my expectations - this book was fantastic. Engaging, well-written, lots of interesting characters, a mystery plot that twists and turns and caught me off guard more than once, and some really fascinating creatures and exploration of some interesting ideas.
The great thing about this book is that there are so many different elements, and they're all very strongly written, such that each of them could probably stand on its own as a shorter story, but they're all here working together to tell an engaging story that much better.
The uplift social dynamics from which the saga takes its name is well thought out and has lots of interesting consequences, for humans and aliens alike. The motivations and interactions of the characters are great - I always love when sci-fi writers actually make use of the fundamental differences between the species they conjure up, rather than just describing them and then treating everyone more or less as differently-shaped humans. The characters are interesting, varied, and easy to care about and get tied up with.
Lots of brilliant stuff excellently written makes for a book that's easy to read, hard to put down, and an enjoyable jaunt through the realms of science fiction for your brain.
I picked this book up for like $2 in a ferry terminal book rack (alongside the pulp romance novels as you would expect), and wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I knew Brin was well-respected.
As such, it far exceeded my expectations - this book was fantastic. Engaging, well-written, lots of interesting characters, a mystery plot that twists and turns and caught me off guard more than once, and some really fascinating creatures and exploration of some interesting ideas.
The great thing about this book is that there are so many different elements, and they're all very strongly written, such that each of them could probably stand on its own as a shorter story, but they're all here working together to tell an engaging story that much better.
The uplift social dynamics from which the saga takes its name is well thought out and has lots of interesting consequences, for …
I picked this book up for like $2 in a ferry terminal book rack (alongside the pulp romance novels as you would expect), and wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I knew Brin was well-respected.
As such, it far exceeded my expectations - this book was fantastic. Engaging, well-written, lots of interesting characters, a mystery plot that twists and turns and caught me off guard more than once, and some really fascinating creatures and exploration of some interesting ideas.
The great thing about this book is that there are so many different elements, and they're all very strongly written, such that each of them could probably stand on its own as a shorter story, but they're all here working together to tell an engaging story that much better.
The uplift social dynamics from which the saga takes its name is well thought out and has lots of interesting consequences, for humans and aliens alike. The motivations and interactions of the characters are great - I always love when sci-fi writers actually make use of the fundamental differences between the species they conjure up, rather than just describing them and then treating everyone more or less as differently-shaped humans. The characters are interesting, varied, and easy to care about and get tied up with.
Lots of brilliant stuff excellently written makes for a book that's easy to read, hard to put down, and an enjoyable jaunt through the realms of science fiction for your brain.
I picked this book up for like $2 in a ferry terminal book rack (alongside the pulp romance novels as you would expect), and wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I knew Brin was well-respected.
As such, it far exceeded my expectations - this book was fantastic. Engaging, well-written, lots of interesting characters, a mystery plot that twists and turns and caught me off guard more than once, and some really fascinating creatures and exploration of some interesting ideas.
The great thing about this book is that there are so many different elements, and they're all very strongly written, such that each of them could probably stand on its own as a shorter story, but they're all here working together to tell an engaging story that much better.
The uplift social dynamics from which the saga takes its name is well thought out and has lots of interesting consequences, for …
I picked this book up for like $2 in a ferry terminal book rack (alongside the pulp romance novels as you would expect), and wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I knew Brin was well-respected.
As such, it far exceeded my expectations - this book was fantastic. Engaging, well-written, lots of interesting characters, a mystery plot that twists and turns and caught me off guard more than once, and some really fascinating creatures and exploration of some interesting ideas.
The great thing about this book is that there are so many different elements, and they're all very strongly written, such that each of them could probably stand on its own as a shorter story, but they're all here working together to tell an engaging story that much better.
The uplift social dynamics from which the saga takes its name is well thought out and has lots of interesting consequences, for humans and aliens alike. The motivations and interactions of the characters are great - I always love when sci-fi writers actually make use of the fundamental differences between the species they conjure up, rather than just describing them and then treating everyone more or less as differently-shaped humans. The characters are interesting, varied, and easy to care about and get tied up with.
Lots of brilliant stuff excellently written makes for a book that's easy to read, hard to put down, and an enjoyable jaunt through the realms of science fiction for your brain.
