Product Description

On the distant planet of Jijo, six exiled races live side by side. Only ancient relics from their home planets, fragments of half-forgotten stories and the crumbling ruins of the mysterious and god-like Buyur remind the dispossessed of a more noble past, whe they were full citizens of the Five Galaxies. The races of Jijo, it seems, have been forgotten, along with whatever crimes thay committed. But for how long? It is at the time of the Gathering, the council of the sages, when the spacecraft is first spotted. For some, it offers a new hope. For others, it heralds a time of reckoning. Brightness Reef is the compelling story of a world threatened by its past and fighting for its future. With a gallery of extraordinary characters, and awealth of thought provoking ideas, it is a novel fuelled by the spirit of adventure and discovery. David Brin at his very best.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204544 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 705 pages

Review
'Exuberant... suspense filled... delightful... I couldn't put it down.' INTERZONE 'The Uplift books are as compulsive reading as anything ever published in the genre.' John Clute, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION 'BRIGHTNESS REEF is multi-layered, tightly plotted and... excellently written.' SFX

About the Author
David Brin is the Hugo and Nebula award author of 12 novels, possesses a doctorate in astrophysics and has consulted for NASA. He lives in California.

Customer Reviews

The first of the 2ndUplift trilogy, with many new threads
A good start to the second Uplift trilogy. Jijo is a fascinating construction and the many races represented there are also well realised. Most importantly, however, we get to learn more about the way that the Galactic society works. A good book.

A trip into a wonderful Universe.
Brightness Reef opens the trilogy of the Uplift universe of Brin presenting us with Jijo, a strange, barred planet where six races hide themselves from the rest of the Five Galaxies.

I will not tell much more here about the subject because anything told can spoil the continuos flow of surprises and thrilling events that David Brin will give you in this (and in the following two) books. If you are searching for the "good old" science fiction, scientifically sound and which can give you the "sense of wonder", here you have a very good book. The Uplift universe of David Brin is the best thing I read in the last ten years; this trilogy is a real five-star recommendation for anyone. A bit inferior to "Startide Rising", but that was a six-star book.

Just a negative note: the five galaxies are addictive. You will end checking every other week to see if David Brin published something new...

Second Trilogy is a real three volume story
This is the first novel in the second Uplift trilogy. The books of the first Uplift Trilogy are only loosely related to each other and can be read independently in any order. Do not make that mistake with the second trilogy. These are a tightly connected three volume story such that reading the later ones first will be confusing and spoil the earlier books. There are also some links to Startide Rising (Uplift), the second book of the first trilogy, but the major cross over characters are fairly minor parts in the Startide Rising, and it's not strictly necessary to read any of the previous trilogy to enjoy this one.

The second Uplift trilogy, or the Jijoian Trilogy is set in a universe where species are raised to sentience by a Patron race, to whom they then owe one hundred thousand years of servitude as a thank you. Humanity, having already raised Chimps and Dolphins to sentience stumble out into the galaxy at large without a patron race, making them rare "wolflings" generally doomed for extinction lacking protection in what is often a dangerous and violent galactic society.

The majority of the trilogy is set on a Sooner colony called Jijo, where half a dozen outcast races live together striving to return to "blessed presentience" avoiding larger galactic society. The story follows this colony as the wider universe comes crashing in.

I tremendously enjoyed these books, they're well written with a wide range of characters. The galactic society is startling different from most simple Utopian or "mankind stands alone" situations often found in fiction. Groups centered on uplift clans or religious beliefs fight wars within the constraints of stability within the larger society. The differences between the collective cultures of the mixed races of Jijo and the interactions of the parent races out in the Five Galaxies form a large part of the subtext. Both the overarching plot and the development of each character is handled well and Brin doesn't leave minor loose ends dangling at the end of the tale. He has left himself with a few hooks for another series if he wants it though.

The 2nd and 3rd books of the Trilogy are Infinity's Shore (Uplift) and Heaven's Reach (Uplift).