David Brin

Startide Rising "The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed on the uncharted water-world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. 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 wisdon throughout the stars." Original Publication: Bantam, September 1983 This Edition: Bantam, September 1983 Cover Art: Jim Burns Format: Paperback Notes: Review:

Earthclan "It is held throughout the Five Galaxies that the first sapient species - the Progenitors - arose billions of years ago. They bestowed the gift of intelligence upon countless other races, and then mysteriously disappeared into time and space. In their name, Uplift has become a sacred tradition. Over the course of history, innumerble patron species have helped worthy pre-sentients take their place among the starfaring races. In return, the clients are indentured to their patrons for 100,000 years - modest payment for a priceless boon. Unless the patron race is careless, or cruel. There have been incidents of clans that ruthlessly exploited or destroyed helpless clients...cases of patrons abandoning clients for no apparent reason. But Uplift has long been the way of galactic society; a clan's honor and status are based on the number and quality of its clients. Until homo sapiens upset the apple cart. Human beings had apparently not only uplifted themselves without a patron, but also two other species, chimpanzees and dolphins. The very idea amazed - and some cases outraged - senior clans. And now, adding injury to insult, the upstart humans have inadvertently led the rest of the galaxy into war! The terran ship Streaker, crewed by 150 neo-dolphins, seven humans and one neo-chimpanzee, had been poking through a small gravitational tidepool when she found a derelict fleet: 50,000 ancient ships, each the size of a moon - vessels possibly dating from the time of the Progenitors. Thrilled by the discovery, unaware of its implications, the dolphin captain, Creideiki, had psicast to Earth for instructions - with the whole galaxy listening in. The Terragens Council had answered in code: "Go into hiding. Await orders. Do not reply." But how long can they survive on the hostile water world called Kithrup, with fanatical Galactics battling furiously for the privilege of "debriefing" them?" Original Publication: Nelson Doubleday/Science Fiction Book Club, December 1987 This Edition: Nelson Doubleday/Science Fiction Book Club, December 1987 Cover Art: Richard Powers Format: Hardback Notes: Contents: Startide Rising and The Uplift War Review:

Otherness "From multiple-award-winning author David Brin comes this extraordinary collection of tales and essays of the near and distand future, as humans and aliens encoutner the secrets of the cosmos - and of their own existence. In "Dr. Pak's Preschool" a woman discovers that her baby has been called up on to work while still in the womb. In "NatuLife" a married couple finds their relationship threatened by the wonders of sex by simulation. In "Sshhh." the arrival of benevolent aliens on Earth leads to frenzy, madness...and unimaginable joy. In "Bubbles" a sentient starcraft reaches the limits of the universe - and dares to go beyond. These are buy a few of the challenging speculations in Otherness, from the pen of an author whose urgent and compelling imaginative fiction challenges us to wonder at the shape and the nature of the universe - as well as its future." Original Publication: Orbit, June 1994 This Edition: Bantam Spectra, September 1994 Cover Art: Donato Giancola Format: Paperback Notes: Contents: The Giving Plague, Myth Number 21, Story Notes (Transitions), Dr. Pak's Preschool, Detritus Affected, The Dogma of Otherness, Sshhh..., Story Notes (Contact), Those Eyes, What to Say to a UFO, Bonding to Genji, The Warm Space, Whose Millennium?, Natulife, Piecework, Science versus Magic, Bubbles, Story Notes (Cosmos), Ambiguity, What Continues...And What Falls... and The Commonwealth of Wonder Review:

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