The Uplift War

Stats

The Uplift War by David Brin

1988 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: E-book from the Library

636 Pages

I began listening to this as an audiobook but stopped half-way through because, I just wasn’t feeling the reading and I didn’t want to ruin the experience, so I quick grabbed up the e-book which my library makes available through amazon (in a lot of cases too…which is awesome).  Anyway, I just wanted to admit that I didn’t necessarily read all 636 pages in this case, but I’m counting them in my overall page count because I don’t know how to split that up and I actually started prior to the halfway mark.  I’m not sure if that counts or matters.  Whatever.

Remember the Gubru from Startide Rising?  Ha ha (sorry I have to laugh at them).  The avian species chasing the wolfling races of Earth throughout the galaxy to steal a possible artifact of the progenitors of all galactic sentience.  Turns out they’re still at it and in The Uplift War they make an attempt at takeover of another of Earth’s assets in order to gain some leverage/bargaining power.  Turns out they totally underestimate Neo-chimpanzees.  Turns out they totally bite off more than they can chew…again.

Brin’s universe

For me, Brin’s universe is something to get lost in thought over.  You know I loved how silly Startide Rising could be and with the focus of this one on the chimpanzees, there’s definitely more of Brin’s wry humor here.  But in The Uplift War, Brin added some depth to his ultra-mega-huge universe.  It’s huge, it’s paradoxical, it’s dangerous, it’s hilarious.

And the parts that get me most, are the paradoxical.  Regarding uplift, it’s so strange.  You’d think, in a universe where for millions of years sentience has been encouraged and coaxed out of so many species of all types, that such a universe would be pretty dang egalitarian.  Maybe it’s just me but it seems like an understanding that all races/animals have the potential for greatness would make you think twice before subjecting your will over another sentient.

In The Uplift War, you really get a flavor for how hierarchical the uplift process has become (well, except in humanity’s case but I’ll get to Brin’s optimism later).  When you have been space faring for hundreds of thousands of years there is some disdain for those that have only been uplifted for hundreds of years, as in the case of the Neo-chimpanzees.  Well, not all species share the disdain but in any case, the client species’ price of being uplifted is generally 100,000-years of servitude.  It’s not how I would have imagined such a thing, but I like how Brin handles it and it had me putting the book down a moment and thinking on numerous occasions.

My favorite paradox though was the Neo-chimpanzees.  Humanity uplifted the chimps about 300-years ago and they’ve become really great specialists in genetics and the selection process.  Nevertheless, they still struggle with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity over their comparatively recent introduction to the world of sentience.  I loved this self-doubt more than anything else in the book, and that battle with primitive urges didn’t stop with the Neo-Chims:

And for as long as they lived thereafter, the chims who saw it talked about what they saw: a pale green figure in loin cloth and beard, swinging through the trees, meeting fully armed Talon Soldiers with knife and garrote.  There seemed to be no stopping him, and indeed, nothing living withstood him.

Pg 609

For the record, he was green for camouflage.  I said my favorite paradox was the Neo-chims struggle, but really it was an issue taken up by nearly every character in the book and I just loved it (I guess I’m still too close to it, because I’m struggling to find words other than love here). There is one particular scene when Fiben (my favorite chim) is caught up in the moment and finds himself stuck in a feedback loop of frustration and exasperation that descends into primal rage:

Thunder pealed, setting the fence rocking.  The slats squeezed Fiben between them, and he howled in agony.  When they let go he fell, half-numbed with pain, to the ground near Sylvie.  But he was on his feet again in an instant.  Another electric ladder lit the glowering clouds.  He screamed back at the sky.  He beat the ground.  Mud and pebbles flew up as he threw handfuls into the air.  More thunder drove the stones back, pelting them into his face.

There was no longer any such thing as speech.  No words.  The part of him that knew such things reeled in shock, and in reaction other older, sturdier portions took control.

Now there was only the storm.  The wind and rain.  The lightning and thunder.  He beat his breast, lips curled back, baring his teeth to the stinging rain.  The storm sang to Fiben, reverberating in the ground and the throbbing air.  He answered with a howl.

This music was no prissy, human thing.  It was not poetical, like the whale dream phantoms of the dolphins.  No, this was music he could feel clear down to his bones.  It rocked him.  It rolled him.  It lifted Fiben like a rag doll and tossed him down into the mud.  He came back up, spitting and hooting.

Pg 444

At this point, my brain exploded (at least I have an excuse for my stupidity now?).  Seriously though, it was such a powerful moment in the progression of Fiben’s self-doubt and despite the uncontrollable primal rage, it was his most human moment in the entire book, and it really deeply moved me.  Maybe that sounds strange, but maybe after reading it, you’ll agree.

Brin’s Environmentalism

Wolfing humans are the greatest environmentalists.  We were on the brink and nursed our planet back to health.  But throughout the universe it is understood and one of the most important rules of uplift, that the ecosystem of a planet is not to be damaged.  When nearly the entire animal species of a planet is a potential uplift candidate, you just don’t want ruin another species future potential.

There is an environmental message running throughout The Uplift War though I’m not sure it was entirely coherent, but because I had loved Startide Rising so much and for the most part, Uplift War too, I was excited to see how that loosely woven thread might come together.  In the end, I think Brin’s message may not have gained much more cohesion than a general optimism and I was looking for more.

If I had to make comparisons, I would point out that there were some really strong connections to the controversial brand of environmental optimism of Gregg Easterbrook.  Then, the prologue specifically notes his attempt at an infusion of environmentalism in which he attempted to depict “a new view of life”, one that disavows the view of humans as a poisonous, detestable, and destructive force wreaking havoc on the earth.  I’m not entirely sure whether the prologue was written for the initial printing in the 80’s or if it was recently added, but Easterbrook would attempt to say much the same thing in the early 2000’s and well, it really didn’t go over too well then and coming from Brin didn’t make a very good impression on me either.

I don’t want to use this forum as a soapbox, so I won’t go into more detail than to reiterate that it is really difficult to downplay the extent of environmental damage that humans have accumulated over the years and while a positive attitude is great, reason and science would argue there is a long way to go before that optimism resembles anything like realism.  Frankly, I just don’t understand Brin’s anger over the environmental movement and I think the attitude decrying humanity as “a foul, evil, murderous, rapacious canker on the lip of creation” is some kind of straw man.  I’ve never heard of such an attitude.

Nevertheless, Brin’s environmentalism really takes a back seat to the rest of the fun and especially without the prologue could probably just be forgotten.  In fact, I hope I will do just that because I liked the rest too much to let this ruin it.  Plus, despite my general aggravation over the specific message, it was nice to see an explicitly environmental message in a Hugo Winner, so I guess he deserves some props for that at least.

Recommendation

Of the two Uplift Trilogy books to win a Hugo, I think this one was my favorite, which seems crazy considering how much I enjoyed Startide Rising.  I know I’m bordering the clichéd but this book literally had me laughing, crying, pondering, fuming.  Everything.  This is a book (the whole series, really) that I envision myself coming back to again and again.  I couldn’t get over so many great quotables (“This universe is a goddam awful place”), hilarious jokes and really odd sexual moments, and oh yeah, Brin has inspired some really great art too!  I could go on forever but as it is, this review is already much too long.  Please read and enjoy.

HEP SCORE

Universe 5/5

Social/Political Climate 4/5

Dialogue 5/5

Scientific Wonders 5/5

Characters 5/5

Overall 24/25

Well folks, that wraps up the 80’s!  But before I start in on the 90’s, it’s on to those posts that I love to do so much (The charts!  I love the charts!).

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

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To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer

1972 Hugo Award Winner

Got it from: Bought the Kindle book

220 Pages

Sir Richard Francis Burton died in 1890.  He was resurrected along with every other human being that ever lived, hairless and naked in a vast river valley on an unknown planet in an unknown time.  Burton eventually bands with an unlikely group which includes a prehistoric Neanderthal, an adolescent girl, and alien from Tau Ceti and a number of others from varying places and times.  Armed each with a towel and “grail” (I pictured a metal trash can that provides food and supplies when placed under a mushroom shaped “grailstone”), the group sets out to find out what exactly is going on.

Strange fruit

The best way I can describe this first installment in Farmer’s Riverworld Saga is to say that it is ripe.  With people from all times and places resurrected in one place, an epic river adventure, mass promiscuity and some gratuitous violence, what could possibly be off limits?  Within just four short chapters of beginning this book, the juice of possibility was dripping down my arm like an over-ripe peach.

Leaning heavily on all that is possible, the story eventually develops a good head of steam which culminates in a river battle with a group of slaveholders led by none other than Herman Göring.  To that point, there had been something Zelazny-esque about the journey that despite little more than a vague conception of the goal or possible outcome, nonetheless moves forward determinedly and is punctuated by alternating periods of despairing self-examination and then of ultra-violence.

Like Zelazny’s Hugo winners, the more that is uncovered along the way, the more questions readers are left with, which creates a kind of slow building and eventually snowballing tension which could have no other outlet than a violence that would have you convinced that real people fought and died.  The river battle with Göring’s minions is sweaty, bloody, disturbing and represented the high-point in the book for me.

The fruit sours

I found Burton’s incessant references to the breasts or beauty of every woman he comes across or his many other brands of bigotry to be rather annoying and it sometimes derailed my full enjoyment of the journey.  There is also a lot of attention given to what is generally thought of as pretty sub-par and awkward writing as far as Hugo winners go (io9 said something like “the worst since Fritz Leiber’s The Wanderer”).  I was less bothered by this than by how muddled Farmer’s conception of rights, responsibilities and basic human nature become.

The River begins with an unmistakably Hobbesian view of the human condition as “Nasty, brutish and short” and central authority as the only escape from our “state of nature.”  It seemed within hours of resurrection, the “lazuri,” degenerate into a warlike state that rivals any zombie thriller for its portrayal of nothing short of abject fear of our neighbors.  There was actually a time that I thought I’d stumbled upon some sort of satire on social contract theory, but then Burton walks himself through a rationalization for stealing a bow from a stranger that (combined with a few similar experiences) just served to throw a wrench in any cohesive sense of Farmers conception of human nature.  I found myself scratching my head more than a few times wondering what could he possibly be trying to say here?

Recommendation

I had a little trouble getting into this one.  The Riverworld had such great potential, but I found myself put off by Burton and what struck me as a somewhat confusing world.  Add to that the fact that anything the narrative had going for it, comes completely unglued after the group is taken captive and diverges from about 150 pages of steady pacing and leans heavily on haphazardly dumping info on readers.  In the end, I guess it is a novel of extremes – of tremendous potential and occasionally supreme disappointment.

HEP SCORE

Universe 2/5

Social/Political Climate 5/5

Dialogue 3/5

Scientific Wonders 3/5

Characters 3/5

Overall 16/25

This week’s book is The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.  Can she go 2 for 2?  Probably.

Next week’s book is The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.  Another one that comes to me highly recommended and will allow me to cross another major author off my list (though that could be said nearly every week).

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break

Well, I’m finally getting around to a book for Stainless Steel Droppings’ Once Upon a Time IV Challenge!  I actually finished this a few weeks ago but with my computer temporarily dead and no way to make regular posts in absentia compotator, I was a little delayed in finally getting this out.  For those not aware, the rules for the Once Upon a Time IV challenge are as non-existent as the previous Sci Fi Experience.  The difference being that this challenge calls on readers to explore Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Folklore and Mythology.  The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break is kind of a weird one so I’m going to assume it counts somewhere between mythology and fantasy.  Double credit? Eh?  Well, maybe not, but let’s get to it.

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The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill

Audio book read by Holter Graham

9h 4m

Got it from: ‘Neil Gaiman Presents’ series on Audible

The Minotaur, “M,” lives in a trailer park in the South working at a BBQ shack called Grub’s Rib as a line cook.  Oh?  What’s that?  You thought this would be about the same Minotaur trapped in the labyrinth devouring virgins?  Well it is, but now it’s the 1990’s and he’s moved on.  And he has a crush on one of the waitresses…

I know you probably already want to read it so I won’t give out as many details as I normally do.

Beautiful, quiet desperation

Though my brief description may not seem a likely candidate for beautiful description and prose but I can safely say that TMTCB contains some of the most astoundingly beautiful, poetic narrative I have read for years.  Years.

To be sure, and as you might expect when The Minotaur is involved, some pretty terrible things happen and pretty frequently.  Sherrill’s descriptions of people and places, even the most downtrodden and derelict create such a beautiful melancholy setting that there isn’t a moment that isn’t absolutely riveting.  I know that is a word for boring critics and commercials, but this was honestly one of those books that just totally consumed me, every moment of the day.

The Minotaur's “human” condition

While The Minotaur may have once been a fearsome sight, he is now quite a dejected and solitary figure.  He desperately pines for the most basic of human connections with others but if it isn’t his appearance that scares people away, it is his inability to respond appropriately in social situations that drives a wall between The Minotaur and his co-workers and neighbors.  After years of struggling to feel a part of something, to feel human, The Minotaur is not only nervous to the point of paralysis, but when he does manage to insert himself into a social situation, he is invariably disappointed with his awkwardness.

His detachment is so complete that even the narration refers to him most of the time as “The Minotaur.”  He is removed from society, he is removed from responsibility for his actions, and he shrinks away from human contact though there is nothing else he desires more.  He is simply The Minotaur, more object than actor.  And though he is so far from human, it is precisely that disconnect that makes him so human.  We all know what it’s like to be the outsider and The Minotaur’s incongruous human/bull figure makes him so grotesque it’s somehow impossible not to identify with his pain.

Recommendation

Read it.  You have to.  I can’t think of a book with better more thorough and as I’ve said, beautiful descriptions of some pretty depressing shit.  There is no one you will root for and be disappointed than M.  There is also no one you will identify with more.  Well maybe you were popular and in that case come for the amazing story.  It will not disappoint.  I mean how often do I have nothing to gripe about?  Shouldn’t that be a pretty strong indication?

Also, if you get a chance, check out the audiobook on this one.  Holter Graham is probably an actual minotaur in real life.  How else could he pull this off so well?!

Reading With Dad

Getting her hooked young

As I said yesterday, my daughter requested that we spend my extra time after work reading.  She decided to spend the time with her first manga, Ranma 1/2.  It was really cute and I noticed her spend a little extra time on a nudie picture.  

Flipping through the pages.

What could be better than cuddling on the bed each with our own books!  This made my week.

What I Like About Science Fiction

Talk about how much you like science fiction in mixed company and you’re bound to rapidly descend from whatever echelon of the social ladder you thought you occupied.  I think this is because there are two groups of science fiction novels; literature and trash.

I think of it as the difference between the sci-fi channel movies and 2001: A Space Odyssey.  In many cases, science fiction can tell us something really significant about humanity’s place in the world or tries to make sense out of existence and death and the intricacies of our relationships.  Of course, there are stories like Star Wars, which for all the flashing lights would have us believe it is telling us something, but are really just a façade held up by cardboard.

The difference is more often than not, too subtle for most to grasp.  For example, The Mule (last week’s book) was borderline trash to me because in the instant it could have made profound statements about the human condition or even the invented science of psychohistory, the character called the mule revealed his motivation for galactic warfare to be revenge for society shunning him as a child.  Come on.

Science Fiction literature does not enjoy the mainstream popularity it deserves.  I believe it to be legitimate but I think people see in the genre what they see in horror films, that is to say, only the surface.