Birds in a China Shop

This is over a week late as well. What can I say? Busy busy busy. So I finished the 3^rd in David Brin’s Uplift Series, The Uplift War. You can see my review of the second book here.

This book kind of takes place around the second book. As stated in this one nothing happens at the same time over the vast distances of space, so the exact timing is of some question. What is not is that the events of this book happen primarily as fallout of the discovery the Streaker’s crew made before the beginning of the second book.

The book takes place on and around Garth. Garth is a troubled planet that was given to the wolfling humans because no one else wanted it. Apparently it is similar on all the worlds leased to humans See the previous caretakers caused a huge ecological disaster that threatens to cause the planet to decline into barrenness. Lo and behold the humans are making a name for themselves as ecological wizards on all the galaxies, and Garth is no different. That was until Streaker found their burden. Now the Gubru have shown up at the backwater outpost of Earth with the hope they can take it hostage in order to force the surrender of Streaker or it’s information. So now the few free humans and their even fewer galactic allies must survive and fight against a much stronger enemy.

This was a worthy third entry in the series from Brin. It quickly becomes a page turner that doesn’t want you to put it down. Brin also manages to work in some good subtle subplots and intrigue into the mix to keep you interested and prevent dullness. Brin puts in the standard plugs for making Humanity seem to be better than we or anyone expected of a wolfling race. I always appreciate a book with short chapters and sections that allows you to read in spurts when you get small bits of time. Yet again this is a recommendation to all Science Fiction fans.