''Startide Rising'' is a 1983 science fiction novel by American writer

David Brin Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo Award, Hugo,

, the second book of six set in his Uplift Universe (preceded by '' Sundiver'' and followed by '' The Uplift War''). It earned both Hugo and

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pr ...

s for Best Novel in 1984. It was revised by the author in 1993 to correct errors and omissions from the original edition. An early work by David Brin, it was extremely well reviewed when it was published, has remained popular, and served as the seed for three more novels which revolved around the crew of the Earthship '' Streaker'' (the ''Uplift Storm Trilogy''). Parts of ''Startide Rising'' were published as "The Tides of Kithrup" in the May 1981 issue of '' Analog''. ''The Tides of Kithrup'' was an early title of the novel; uncorrected proofs of the novel that still bear that title have become collector's items.

Plot summary

In the year 2489 C.E., the Terran spaceship ''Streaker'' — crewed by 150 uplifted dolphins, seven humans, and one uplifted chimpanzee — discovers a derelict fleet of spaceships the size of small moons in a shallow cluster. They appear to belong to the Progenitors, the legendary "first race" that uplifted the other species. The captain's gig is sent to investigate but is destroyed along with one of the derelict craft — killing 10 crew members. ''Streaker'' manages to recover some artifacts from the destroyed derelict and one well-preserved alien body. The crew of ''Streaker'' uses psi-cast to inform

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

of their discovery and to send a

hologram Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interf ...

of the alien. When ''Streaker'' receives a reply, it is in code. Decrypted, it says only: “Go into hiding. Await orders. Do not reply.” Attempting to comply, ''Streaker'' is ambushed at the Morgran transfer point and pursued by opposing fleets belonging to a number of extremist galactic clans and species (most or all of them devout of the quasi-religious "Alliances") — 'crusaders' seeking to claim the dead fleet for themselves for various religious reasons. The novel begins about one month after the discovery in the cluster as ''Streaker'' arrives on the planet Kithrup, which has vast oceans, offering an ideal environment for the neodolphin crew to attempt to hide and repair their damaged ship. Almost immediately, the crusaders begin to arrive — dashing ''Streakers hopes of hiding for very long, but some time remains for repairs when the armadas begin fighting each other for the right to capture ''Streaker''. A Thennanin

dreadnought The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an effect when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", ...

is damaged during the fighting and crashes into the ocean near ''Streakers hiding place. The resultant

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

strands several crew and causes several of the neo-dolphins to panic and revert to an instinctual, pre-uplifted mental state. Some of the stranded crew encounter pre-sentient natives (called Kiqui). Meanwhile, on ''Streaker'', several crew members secretly plan a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

and defection while the officers plan to salvage parts from the Thennanin wreck. ''Streaker'' cannot be moved for fear of detection and because of the ongoing repairs, and so the salvage team uses undersea transportation to get to the wreck. The salvage team discovers the wreck's hull is mostly undamaged, and the Terrans form a plan to hide ''Streaker'' inside the Thennanin dreadnought hull and make their escape. As a bonus, several crew members salvage the Thennanin dreadnought's micro-branch of the galactic library for comparison with the ''Streakers own copy, as Earth suspects their libraries have been sabotaged, with certain information redacted "for the greater good" of 'primitive' humans. The mutinous crew, led by Takkata-Jim, sabotage equipment, leading to Captain Creideiki becoming brain damaged, although he later recovers somewhat. Before he can be caught, Takkata-Jim flees in a shuttle, but the shuttle has been sabotaged by the loyal crew, and he is sent into the middle of the battle over Kithrup with his radio disabled and his weapons set to fire when any ship approaches. Takkata-Jim unintentionally draws off the two largest remaining fleets. In the confusion, ''Streaker'' almost escapes without incident hidden in the Thennanin hull, but is confronted by several ships belonging to the Brothers of the Night (Brethren). ''Streaker'' is saved when six Thennanin ships, saving one of their "own", fight off the Brethren warriors. ''Streaker'' then flees to the transfer point, but before fleeing, sends a mocking transmission to the crusading armadas. The dolphins in the novel speak three languages: Primal, Trinary and Anglic. Primal and Trinary are represented as

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

-esque poems (two of the human characters quote

Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and Painting, painter of the Edo period. He lived from 1716 – January 17, 1784. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing ...

), while Anglic is a hypothetical English-derivative (not to be confused with the actual Anglic family of languages containing

modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...

, its ancestors, and its close relatives like Scots), rendered for the reader as standard English. The book shifts point of view frequently from character to character, ranging from humans, to dolphins, to a number of the alien races that are trying to destroy, capture, or help the ''Streaker''. This allows the reader to get some idea of how the crew of the ''Streaker'' fits within the larger context of Galactic affairs. All of the alien races described in this book, and numerous others, are further described and illustrated in the book ''Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe''.

Film version

In 1998 a screenplay, written by Trevor Sands and based on the book, was in development at Mace Neufeld Productions. However, according to Trevor Sands, the option expired and the screenplay has been tabled.

Translations

* Bulgarian: ''""'' ("A star wave is rising"), 1994. * Chinese: ''星潮汹涌'', 1998; ''星潮闪电'', 2001 * Danish: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1988. * Dutch: ''""'' ("Battle between the stars"), 1995. * Finnish: ''""'' ("Nebula fills up"), 1987. * French: ''""'' ("Stellar tide"), 1998, 2001. * German: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1985, 1993, 2000. *

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1999 * Hungarian: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1996 *

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

: ''""'' ("The Tides of Kithrup"), 1985. * Korean: ''""'' ("The Rising Planet"), 1992. * Polish: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1997. * Romanian: ''""'' ("Stellar tide"), 2014. *

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1995, 1998, 2002. * Serbian: ''""'' ("Startide Rising"), 1988. * Spanish: ''""'' ("Star Tide"), 1986. * Swedish: ''""'' ("On the beach of the sea of stars"), 1990.

Reception

The book received a number of reviews, including: * by Dan Chow (1983) in '' Locus'', #270 July 1983 * by Thomas A. Easton y Tom Easton(1983) in '' Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact'', November 1983 * by

Baird Searles William Baird Searles (1934–1993) was a science fiction author and critic. He was best known for his long-running review columns for the magazines ''Asimov's'' (reviewing books), '' Amazing'', and ''Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (reviewing films, ...

(1983) in ''

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...

'', Mid-December 1983 * by Frank Catalano (1984) in '' Amazing Science Fiction'', January 1984 * n Frenchby Élisabeth Vonarburg (1984) in ''Solaris'', #56 * by Ken Brown (1984) in '' Foundation'', #32 November 1984 * by

Norman Spinrad Norman Richard Spinrad (born September 15, 1940) is an American science fiction author, essayist, and critic. His fiction has won the Prix Apollo Award, Prix Apollo and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo Award and multiple N ...

(1984) in ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', December 1984 * n Germanby Hans-Ulrich Böttcher (1985) in ''Science Fiction Times'', April 1985 * n Serbianby Miodrag Milovanović (1988) in ''Alef'', #10 * by John Gosling (1996) in ''The Zone'', Summer 1996 * by Darrell Bain (2005) in ''My 100 Most Readable (and Re-Readable) Science Fiction Novels'' * by Penny Tesarek (2022) in ''Paperback Fantastic, Volume 1: Science Fiction''

References

External links