Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide To David Brin's Uplift Universe

Author: David Brin

When the black monolith appears in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, A Space Odyssey, or the demons in Childhood's End, that is Uplift. But what if humanity has reached into space and yet somehow avoided uplift? That is the premise of David Brin's Uplift sequence.In the universe of the six novels that make up this sequence, galactic civilisations uplift races that are capable of space travel. In a highly structured and hierarchical society, the patron races then have certain rights over the races they have uplifted. But humans have no patron, though it remains unclear whether their patron abandoned them or whether they achieved interstellar travel all on their own. The lack of a patron makes humans the weakest of the many races that make up the Civilisation of the Five Galaxies, but because they have themselves uplifted chimpanzees and dolphins, they have become a patron race in their own right and therefore are theoretically free of interference by other races.It's a crowded universe, with many different races each vying for territory and for status, which means that the novels tend to revolve around duplicity, betrayal and conflict, with the rough and ready, anti-hierarchical approach of the humans tending to win out, though often only with the help of their chimpanzee and dolphin companions. It is skilful, varied and convincing portrayal of so many different aliens, each with their different customs and motivations, that is the real strength of this series.The series begins with Brin's first novel, Sundiver, but this really acts as a prologue to the series with the action confined to our solar system. It is with the second book, Startide Rising and its sequels, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore and Heaven's Reach that the series really gets going, with continuing characters and a canvas that takes in many different worlds and races. Startide Rising won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards, while The Uplift War also won the Hugo and Locus Awards. It was a big series that marked the arrival of a major talent on the sf scene.

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Brin has established himself as one of the most significant of contemporary hard sf writers, but even within that compass his work has been interesting because of how varied it is. There is, for instance, the post-apocalyptic scenario of The Postman, in which a wanderer in devastated Oregon finds a postman's uniform and puts it on for warmth. But as a symbol of the old world, he becomes a focus around which the struggling communities can begin to cohere and build towards a renewal of civilisation. The novel added to Brin's impressive tally of awards with the Locus and John W, Campbell Memorial Awards.

Or there's Kiln People, set in a world where people can manufacture cheap, short-lived duplicates of themselves ("dittos") which can be used for boring, routine or dangerous tasks. At the end of the day you can download all the memories of the ditto, then manufacture a new one next morning. The story involves a detective investigating the suspicious death of the person who founded Universal Kilns, only to unravel a conspiracy that takes him right to the heart of the organisation.

If the galaxy-spanning hard science of Brin's Uplift sequence appeals to you, you shouldn't miss the majestic Galactic Center sequence for Gregory Benford, beginning with In the Ocean of Night. It starts with an astronaut discovering alien artefacts on an asteroid heading for Earth, and leads to communication with an alien species who confirm that organic life is inherently unstable and eventually commits suicide, but the machines they leave behind live on. As the series progresses humans, or rather a species of post-humans, spread out across space, but always in conflict with the Mechs.