This is the third in David Brin’s “Uplift” universe, the most famous one being Startide Rising. Thousands of species from five galaxies have been uplifted from pre-sentience. As each race reaches a certain point in development, it is allowed to uplift others that it may discover. Humankind has become sentient independently, but the Five Galaxies bureaucracies finds autonomous intelligence so unbelievable that it decides, and eventually convinces most humans, that humanity had a patron race who for some reason chose to remain anonymous.

Throughout the novel earthlings—humans, chimps and dolphins—are perceived as troublesome near-anarchists who are contemptuous of rules. But it is the chimpanzee character that we come to know and appreciate best, and Brin does an excellent job of creating a young and very irreverent intelligent species that is influenced by, but dissimilar to, humans. Though Brin is an astrophysicist rather than an anthropologist, chimp social structure, mating habits and psychology ring very true.

Within the story of war, oppression and rebellion, individuals of all species are used as fodder for war, economic gain, and species advancement.

A few individuals from these species fight for justice—no species as a group is portrayed as perfect, or perfectly dastardly—but only single individuals seem to be able to perceive a cause higher than group interest. Through these characters Brin asks if any group, no matter how democratically advanced, has the right to use totalitarian means to manipulate others for even such a great end as uplift.

Though the author’s questions are good, his answers are sketchy—probably because he is playing with several issues—environmentalism (abusing the environment is stupid), freedom (the means versus ends debate), plus another very fascinating point. If we look at other animals closely, we see that they share our worst traits. Animals are not perfect, kindly, natural beings, and humans are not unnatural aberrations. Back-to-nature enthusiasts to the contrary, intelligence is not a cure, but a blessing, not a cause of our problems but a means of solving them.

Brin’s universe, his characters, and some of his dialogue are similar in some ways to L. Neil Smith’s. A vision of a universe with a multitude of intelligent species is a fascinating one to share.