Book Review: The Uplift War

The Uplift War

David Brin

1987

Awards: Hugo, Locus
Nominations: Nebula

Rating: ★ ★ – – –

SPOILER ALERT

The Uplift War re-enters the universe of Brin’s earlier novel Startide Rising. Both books are set in the future, at a time when spacefaring humans have joined thousands of alien races across the known Five Galaxies in subscribing to a common set of principles governing diplomacy, trade, colonization, and combat.

                                       

One of the most important of these principles is that of “Uplift.” The idea behind Uplift is that no modern species developed intelligence on their own. Every existing sapient race was “uplifted” by an earlier patron race that saw their potential, selectively bred them, educated them, made whatever biological changes they thought were necessary, and eventually, after thousands of years, declared them fully “uplifted,” free of guardianship and able to be a patron race in their own right.

Every existing sapient species was uplifted this way, that is, except humans. Humans appear to have inexplicably uplifted themselves.

Uplift is a system of respect, hierarchy, and propriety that keeps younger client races in line and obedient (some might say enslaved) to their master patrons. Many patron species therefore believe that anything that challenges Uplift is a tremendous threat. This means that many of the other sapient races in the universe are at least skeptical of, and at worst lethally hostile towards, humans. Humans constantly have to defend themselves, both politically and militarily, against aliens that want to destroy them for what they represent.

To make matters worse, the upstart humans have already just about finished the process of uplift on two client races of their own: dolphins and chimpanzees. And they allow their two client races to have horrifyingly high levels of freedom and initiative.

The Uplift War takes place on the planet Garth, a planet leased to Earth after it was all but destroyed by its previous owners. Humans and chimpanzees have been living on Garth for many years, settling towns and cultivating farms and setting up libraries and building science labs. And secretly uplifting a third client race, gorillas, without permission.

                                                                             

At the beginning of the book, the residents of Garth hear of the exploits of Streaker, the Earth ship central to the plot of Startide Rising. On its last mission, Streaker found a mysterious something that is so important and desirable that it has several alien races chasing the dolphin-captained spaceship at top speed across the universe as it flees desperately home.

                                            

One of the pursuing alien races, the bird-like Gubru, decide to hold Garth hostage in case they are unable to capture Streaker. So they send an invasion force to the planet to take it over and quarantine all the humans onto islands off the coast of the capital city. The Gubru then impose martial law on the chimpanzees left in town, thinking that, since the chimps are just a client race of somewhat suspect patrons, they pose relatively little threat.

                                             

Luckily, however, the human planetary governor and her ally, the Tymbrimi ambassador, are able to send their children (son Robert and daughter Athaclena, respectively) off into the safety of the inland mountains. There they meet up with Fiben, a chimpanzee fighter pilot who was shot down early in the invasion, and the three of them join with other refugee chimpanzees and the semi-sentient gorillas to form a resistance movement.

What follows is a long, involved guerilla war between the resistance in the mountains and the Gubru invaders in the city. The story focuses primarily on Fiben, and to a lesser extent on Athaclena and Robert, as they each adapt to a wartime lifestyle and learn things about themselves and each other that make them into strong, capable adults of their respective species. And, rest assured, the possibilities for jokes about gorillas as guerillas are anything but ignored.

I very much like the motivation behind this book. I appreciate the empathy and perhaps even love that Brin has for our fellow Earth sapients and semi-sapients. I admire his efforts to incorporate them into a future universe that recognizes their abilities. I love the idea of finding out what dolphins, chimpanzees, and gorillas would be like if we were able to communicate with them.

                                                                   

But I didn’t have the patience for the story. It was short on action and long on the agonized internal monologues of the main characters and the minutiae of the negotiations and plans of the Gubru leadership.

And I found most of the main characters really tiresome. Fiben the chimpanzee was my least favorite. He was crass and often abrasive, with a less than subtle sense of humor. He was constantly getting himself into scrapes and getting out only by luck or reversion to primeval chimp rain dances, and he protested just a little too much whenever his comrades wanted to reward him for his heroism. The story dwelt for what seemed like an incredibly long time on Fiben’s stint in a Gubru jail, while there were plenty of other chimps out and about that I would have preferred to follow.

                                                                     

The humor was also often very forced. There were times when certain jokes or puns, such as the ones about the gorilla guerillas, would have been cute if they hadn’t been being forced down our throats (usually in the form of hilariously guffawing chimpanzees).