Heaven's Reach
by David Brin

This is the third book in Brin's second Uplift trilogy. If you haven't read the first two (Brightness Reef and Infinity's Shore respectively), you will be definitely lost when you read this book.

If you are planning to read this book, and don't wish to see spoilers later in this review, let me say straight away that this book is filled with a lot of amazing stuff and worth it's weight in paper. It resolves many of the questions raised by Brin's earlier books in the first set of Uplift books (Sundiver, Startide Rising and The Uplift War) as well as raising many more.

For the uninitiated, a brief recap on Brin's universe. He posits a universe filled with varied sapient life. However, species can become intelligent only by 'uplift' where they are genetically modified by a 'patron' alien species. The uplifted species become 'indentured clients' for many thousands of years before being judged mature enough to become patrons and continue the process of uplifting other species. The original patrons which started the whole process of uplift, the "Progenitors", were thought to have set up the Galactic Institutes and then left for a much higher plane of existence.

Into this mix comes 'Earthclan' (humans with their client species; dolphins, chimpanzees and, possibly, dogs) who are considered 'wolfling' and unusual as no patron for humans have ever been found. Humans believe they have no patrons and evolved intelligence naturally. This, of course, makes many of the fanatical patrons angry.

The anger becomes war when an Earthclan ship, Streaker, with a crew of dolphins and humans encounter what appears to a derelict fleet many millenia old. Images of the ships cause the fanatical patrons to try to seize Streaker and wage war against Earth and its allies. This was all covered in the first Uplift books.

In this book, the crew of Streaker once again barely escape capture after seeking refuge on Jijo, a world that is suppose to lie fallow (no alien species to inhabit it) but houses Sooners, aliens who escape there to seek 'redemption' (devolution back to pre-intelligent states). From Jijo, they are chased through the galaxies and witness events that indicate that a time of immense change is coming to the five galaxies that are connected together via hyperspace.

Brin throws in an immense amount of detail and action (shown through many viewpoints) in this book, making it very dense with events happening almost on every page. But the amazing thing is that despite the book feeling 'improvised' (as if the author made things up as he wrote the book), the details all hang together very well. There is some stretching of credibility when characters separated at the start of the book are somehow still able to reunite at the appropriate moments.

Despite this, I found the book wonderful to read. I found the ending somewhat puzzling and inconclusive with lots of unanswered questions that hints at possibly many more books in the series to come. If you like 'hard' SF mixed in with intergalactic space-opera, this book will make up for the 'pedestrian' feel of Brin's earlier books in the trilogy. But be warned; make sure you remember every important detail or else you may miss many massive clues as to what is happening in Brin's universe.

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Heaven's Reach by David Brin

Heaven's Reach
by David Brin