David Brin's bold newest novel explores the ultimate question: Billions of planets may be ripe for life, even intelligence. Is Existence: an uplift 'prequel'? In many ways, yes. The stirring saga that begins with Sundiver continues in Startide Rising, and climaxes in The Uplift War.Ī second uplift series begins with Brightness Reef, continues with Infinity's Shore, and concludes with Heaven's Reach. Should its inhabitants be allowed to exist?

But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind? Earth has no known link to the Progenitors - and that terrifies client and patron species alike. The uplift series of novels and short stories is set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being 'uplifted' (genetically brought to sapience) by a patron race, which then 'owns' the uplifted species for 100,000 years. The second book in the Uplift series, Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, Book 2), was WINNER: 1983 Nebula, Hugo, and LOCUS Awards for Best Novel. Below, Streaker's crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret - the fate of the Progenitors.

Above, in space, armadas of alien races desperate to possess the knowledge of the Progenitors clash in a titanic struggle to claim the right to capture the prize. They appear to belong to the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.īearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history, Streaker crashes on the uncharted world of Kithrup. The Terran exploration vessel Streaker, crewed by 150 uplifted dolphins, 7 humans, and one uplifted chimpazee, discovers a derelict fleet of spaceships - each the size of a small moon.

Startide rising by david brin