Heaven's Reach Audiobook

" This was my favorite of the Uplift books. "

" So I've finished the second Uplift trilogy and I'm still a bit underwhelmed. First, what was good: Mr. Brin delves into some interesting concepts regarding the nature of sapience and ecological stewardship. He also investigates questions of tradition versus innovation in a long-term galactic civilization. Mr. Brin tries to portray a billion-year-old galactic civilization with an all-encompassing Galactic Library that believes that there is nothing new under the many suns. To his credit, he does a decent job but many of the stodgy alien races end up coming off like the elderly curmudgeon down the block. His setting also supposes that only the mythic Progenitors evolved into starfaring sapience by themselves and that every single starfaring race since then has been "uplifted" to sentience by a benevolent patron race. So when the feral "wolfling" Terrans arrive on the galactic scene, claiming to have had no assistance from a galactic patron race, hilarity ensues. Mr. Brin ends up taking the innovative, boot-strapping Terrans versus the hide-bound Galactic Civilization thing a bit too far. The Earthlings end up a little too clever and the aliens a little too easy to surprise. Then again, that seems to have been much of the author's point. The storytelling and characters were decent, but no standouts come to mind. The writing style is quite competent but lacks the flair of other SF authors such as Charles Stross or Iain Banks. "

" Nice wrap-up to the series, but I think it was a bit silly towards the end. It was like a Russian doll set in reverse, every small problem kept being swallowed by an even bigger problem, followed by an even BIGGER problem. After a whole book of that, it was a bit implausible and exhausting. "

" Unputdownable. (And I've read it before. So that should tell you something.) "

" It ultimately did not pay off the "epic" story that was built up in the first two books. "

" Although I read these Uplift books a long time ago, I seem to recall that this final volume was pretty hot. "

" Satisfied immensely with this final book in the trilogy. "

" I think I was probably way too young to understand this book when I read it. Oh well. "

" An ending, not a conclusion - we don't get all the answers in the end, but really, isn't that life? I found it to be a fitting and satisfying end to this story arc, but I hope that Mr. Brin ends up writing more in this universe in the future - I still do want those answers..... "

" I read the first books in this series maybe 5 years ago; don't know why I never read the last one. Brin has very interesting ideas, but he's sort of facile and simplistic in what he does with them. It's good interesting fun, but not *quite* top-tier sci-fi. "

" A fantastic ending to the second uplift trilogy although there were a number of loose ends that could be tied up (in a third trilogy, perhaps :) "

" A great read. I really enjoyed the whole series, and was left wanting more. The Uplift Universe made me fall in love with Space Operas over and over again. "