SF. 1st in Uplift series. Fair story

Catching up on some classic SF novels. Some wear their age better than this. It's filled with interesting ideas that apparently are expanded and used to good effect in follow-up stories. But I found this one hindered by 'first novel' issues. Too many ideas and only some of them critical to the plot. A lot of 'white room' dialog: the interiors of the Sundiver ship and Mercury base never materialized in my mind's eye, despite the inclusion of helpful diagrams (the layout also didn't make much sense to me - too much open space). A lot of jumping around of viewpoint and interior monologuing and sophomoric psychobabble. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end, which explains everything. ( )

pur si simplu nu a reușit să mă captiveze deloc.
Personajele sunt de desene animate, povestea ne-pasionantă, scriitura anchilozată (sau poate traducerea), aparatura low-tech foarte slab imaginată (pe o navă din soare se vorbește la telefon ridicând receptorul, bibiloteca e pe hârtie... da, în nava spațială etc.).
Reușite sunt doar ideea de bază (da, originală) și partea de hard-tech, să zic așa (nava în sine, de ex.). ( )

Science fiction is a genre full of common tropes, some of which are more-or-less franchised. If you are going to write a robot story, you are always working in the shadow of Asimov. Likewise, if you want to write a story about uplifted animals, you are in David Brin’s territory. Sundiver, the first book in the first Uplift series, begins in medias race. Jacob Demwa has already jumped off a space elevator. Dolphins and chimps have already been uplifted. There is already an interstellar market for whale songs (just in case you thought Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) was especially original). Most writers would have used these ideas in short stories and novellas to set up the series of novels, but as far as I know, Brin was happy to leave all the backstories hanging. Humanity is an upstart species who, as far as anyone knows, have not been themselves uplifted. Older galactic species have a hard time coming to grips with the idea of independent evolution. The plot of Sundiver involves a murder on a multispecies expedition to explore the surface of the sun. David Brin is one of those hard science fiction writers whose character development and prose are frequently slammed by critics but whose work cannot be ignored. 4 stars. ( )

3.5 stars. The cover is a thing of beauty, of course ( hint : it isn't ). ( )