Now complete, the Uplift Trilogy (Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, and Heaven's Reach) continues the stirring saga that began with Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War. The entire series is available now in paperback from Bantam Books.
The Uplift saga hasn't ended! I've just released a companion to the series. Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide To David Brin's Uplift Universe is a fun tour of the many alien races in the Uplift Universe.
BONUS!!! I've also posted two short stories based in the Uplift universe. "Aficionado," which first appeared in Popular Science, details the very beginnings of Earth's Uplift Project. "Temptation," which first appeared in Robert Silverberg's anthology Far Horizons, features the adventures of a female dolphin on the faraway world, Jijo, who must escape from two of her own kind and then penetrate a deeply dangerous ancient secret. This novella will be a core element of the next Uplift novel... and answers several unresolved riddles left over from Heaven's Reach.
Look for Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe. Created around the wonderful drawings of Minneapolis artist Kevin Lenagh, this book makes more vivid nearly a hundred of the alien and Earthling species that appear in the Uplift novels like Startide Rising, Sundiver and Brightness Reef.
Contacting Aliens has already generated excitement among fans of the Uplift worlds. Early drafts were snapped up by gamers who wanted to apply its wide range of aliens to their scenarios. Stefan Jones has revised and re-released his legendary GURPS Uplift Game.
Exclusive on this site: View sample images from Contacting Aliens.
Those new to the Uplift saga may want to begin at the beginning, with the first three novels set in the Uplift universe. In Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, Book 1), the first book in the Uplift series (and my first published novel!), I introduce a future universe in which no species has ever reached for the stars without the guidance of a patron -- except perhaps mankind. Did some mysterious race begin the uplift of humanity aeons ago? And if so, why did they abandon us? Under the caverns of Mercury, Expedition Sundiver prepares for the most momentous voyage in our history, a journey into the boiling inferno of the sun... to seek our destiny in the cosmic order of life.
Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Sundiver.
Recorded Books has produced a full audio version (9 cassettes) of my first novel, Sundiver. (To order, call 800/638-1304).
In the second book of the Uplift series, Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, Book 2) (WINNER: 1983 Nebula, Hugo, and LOCUS Awards for Best Novel), the Terran exploration vessel Streaker, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history, has crashed on the uncharted world of Kithrup. Above, in space, armadas of alien races clash in a titanic struggle to claim her. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret -- the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.
Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Startide Rising.
In the third book of the Uplift series, The Uplift War (The Uplift Saga, Book 3) (NY Times Bestseller; WINNER: Hugo and LOCUS Awards for Best Novel, 1988; NOMINEE: 1988 Nebula award for best novel), as galactic armadas search the Five Galaxies in quest of the Streaker, bearer of the secret of the Progenitors, a brutal alien race seizes the planet of Garth, an Earth colony. Humans and their Uplifted allies must battle their conquerors or face ultimate extinction. At stake is the existence of Terran society and Earth, and the fate of the entire Five Galaxies.
Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from The Uplift War.
The first book in the Uplift Trilogy, Brightness Reef (The Uplift Trilogy, Book 1), chronicles life on the planet Jijo. A million years ago, the advanced Buyur civilization held sway on Jijo. Then the Buyur abandoned the world, leaving it to rest and restore its ecological balance. Now the vast civilization of the Five Galaxies uses patrols, guardian machines, and sanctions of law to prevent resettlement until the planet is once more ready for civilized life.
But over the centuries it has been resettled. Groups of sapient beings, fleeing persecution or neglect, have ignored the laws and evaded the patrols, landing in secret. After years of warfare and mistrust, a new society has evolved on forbidden Jijo, based on tolerance and respect among its six intelligent races: the mysterious hoon, the crablike qheuens, the centaurlike urs, the wheel-borne g'Kek, the multiple-personality-bearing graeki, and last of all to land on Jijo, humans from Earth, bringing with them a new technology allowing civilization to blossom in the wilderness. They all now live in hiding under canopies of camouflage, in dread of Judgment Day, when the Five Galaxies will certainly discover their illegal colony.
Then the unthinkable happens. A strange starship arrives in Jijo's skies, landing near the settlers' holiest place. The passengers' appearance is familiar, their manners friendly. But do they bring long-feared judgment, or something far worse? Are they willing to destroy the six races of Jijo to cover their crimes?
As secrets, plots, and schemes unfold, life on Jijo enters a time of great peril. A scientist will find his most cherished beliefs put to the test. A young girl will flee a brutal outlaw tribe, drawing on her deepest reserves of courage and cunning. One woman will search for hope amid the chaos of language. And a group of exuberant youngsters from four races, bent on having the adventure of their lives, will discover wonders beyond all imagination.
Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Brightness Reef.
A comprehensive (if unofficial) time-line and breakdown of Brightness Reef (along with the rest of the Uplift Trilogy) has been created by archivist Alberto Monteiro, who also explains the calendar units and many other interesting facts about planet Jijo.
As a special closeout, copies of the hardcover first printing of Infinity's Shore are now available at $10.00 each! Special arrangements for bookstores. A few other rare editions are also available. See my new Brin's Offers page for more information.
In the second book in the Uplift Trilogy, Infinity's Shore, it is truly the beginning of the end for the fugitive settlers of Jijo. As starships fill the skies, the threat of genocide hangs over the planet that once peacefully sheltered six bands of sapient beings. Now the human settlers of Jijo and their alien neighbors must make heroic -- and terrifying -- choices.
A scientist must turn against the benefactors she's been trained to love. A heretic must rally believers for a cause he never shared. And four youngsters find that what started as a simple adventure -- imitating exploits in Earthling books by Verne and Twain -- leads them to the dark abyss of mystery. Meanwhile, the Streaker, with her fugitive dolphin crew, arrives at last on Jijo in a desperate search for refuge. Yet what the crew finds instead is a secret hidden since the galaxies first spawned intelligence -- a secret that could mean salvation for the planets and its inhabitants... or their ultimate annihilation.
Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Infinity's Shore.
In the final book in the Uplift Trilogy, Heaven's Reach, the brutal enemy that has relentlessly pursued them for centuries has arrived. Now the fugitive settlers of Jijo -- both human and alien -- brace for a final confrontation. The Jijoans' only hope is the Earthship Streaker, crewed by uplifted dolphins and commanded by an untested human.
Yet more than just the fate of Jijo hangs in the balance. For Streaker carries a cargo of ancient artifacts that may unlock the secret of those who first brought intelligent life to the Galaxies. Many believe a dire prophecy has come to pass: an age of terrifying changes that could end Galactic civilization. As dozens of white dwarf stars stand ready to explode, the survival of sentient life in the universe rests on the most improbable dream of all -- that age-old antagonists of different races can at last recognize the unity of all consciousness.
Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Heaven's Reach.
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I still do science, but civilization seems more interested in my perspectives on the future. (Who am I to argue with civilization?) Let's face change with agility and hope, and meet the challenges ahead.
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