The Uplift War

The final book of a mind-opening trilogy that's especially difficult to read at a time when humankind seems determined to plunge the future of life on Earth into uncertainty.

One of David's Brin's most fascinating habits as an author is his tendency to play interesting but strictly unnecessary facts and worldbuilding tidbits close to the vest. Each successive book reveals so frustratingly little of the broad universe that acts as the backdrop for Brin's very local dramas—even if the narrative results of those dramas will clearly have effects that go on to change all of galactic society for good.

Definitely worth reading—I'm glad I finally got around to this series!

Re-reading this for the first time in 20+ years. It was great! Brin has a fantastic way of weaving anthropology into his science fiction in a way that makes for super interesting characters and situations you just don't see elsewhere.

The Uplift War takes place in the timeframe immediately after Startide Rising and details a conflict between (mostly) the Neo-Chimpanzees (and a few individual humans and Tymbrimi) and the Gubru who have laid siege to the planet Garth, which is a new Chimpanzee lease world with a huge recovery effort necessary to redeem it from previous mismanagement and ecologic disaster.

Really nice change in story pacing after the first two books!

Really nice depiction of galactic civilization races with all their differences and cultures, and great story building in general.

This is the third novel in David Brin's Uplift series, the longest so far, and the first one that I actually enjoyed reading. It describes another crisis situation, but this one is set on a pleasant Earthlike planet, and the situation is difficult and dangerous, but not as desperate as in [b:Startide Rising 1059134 Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2) David Brin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1180631095l/1059134.SY75.jpg 251634]. There are plenty of characters of various different species, and a surprising amount of humour in what is primarily a serious story. All this is good, from my point of view.However, I reread books mainly because I enjoy particular scenes, or characters, or the scenario as a whole. In this case, I don't enjoy particular scenes, characters, or the scenario enough to reread it often. I enjoyed reading it this time because I last read it three decades ago, so I'd completely forgotten the story: it was all new to me again. Thus, I can happily give the book three stars, but I try to reserve four stars for books that I reread more often.The story has a rather surprising climax near the end, which works nicely in terms of drama but seems to me implausible and insufficiently explained. Why and how do the gorillas behave as they do in that climax? It's a dramatic surprise because we've seen nothing to suggest that they're capable of it. But that also makes it hard to believe.