The Uplift War
Encyclopedia
The Uplift War is a 1987 science fiction
novel
by David Brin
and the third book of six set in his Uplift Universe
. It was nominated as the best novel for the 1987 Nebula Award
and won the 1988 Hugo
and Locus
Awards. The previous two books are Sundiver
and Startide Rising
.
by overhunting all large indigenous species. The ecologically sensitive galactic civilization killed all Bururalli, demoted their patrons, the Nahalli, to clients of the Thennanin, and began working to preserve and repair the remaining ecosphere
of Garth. Several decades before the start of the novel, Earthclan
acquires the lease on Garth in return for their expert assistance in biosphere
recovery. The Z'Tang complete a final ecological survey before the planet is passed on to EarthClan.
The novel begins in the year 2489 C.E.
http://www.reocities.com/Area51/Corridor/8611/brin.htm with the avian Gubru planning to invade Garth, Earthlings on Garth preparing to defend their claim to the planet, and ambassadors from other races getting ready to depart. The Gubru, a conservative and somewhat humorless alien race, attempt to hold Garth hostage in an attempt to learn more about the discovery that the dolphin
spaceship
Streaker
made in Startide Rising
about the Progenitors.
The Gubru invade and overpower Garth's weak space forces, a battle that is witnessed by neo-chimp soldier of Earthclan, Fiben Bolger. Having easily overcome Garth's token resistance in near-planetary space, the Gubru engage a small portion of their ground force in ritualistic combat against Earthling forces. Because they take relatively high losses, Earthlings successfully defend their legal right to the planet under the punctilio of Galactic law. However, the Gubru immediately take hostage most of the human population using pre-planned subterfuge consisting of poisonous gas
. The Gubru, used to galactic norms
, believe that the neo-chimp population on Garth will be easily controlled without their human patrons to guide them. Some humans and a few chimps are killed by the hostage
gas
while en route to receive the antidote; the surviving human population is sequestered on an island and kept isolated.
Taking advantage of resentments that fester among the lower social strata of the neo-chimp population, those with limited rights to breed, the aliens subvert some of the neo-chimps in and around Port Helenia, the capital city
. A large group in the mountains, led by Robert Oneagle, son of planetary coordinator
Megan Oneagle, and Athaclena, the teenaged daughter of Tymbrimi ambassador Uthacalthing, engage in guerrilla warfare
. Their combination of “wolfling” ingenuity
and galactic diplomacy allow them to inflict significant damage, both psychological and physical, on the Gubru. Fiben Bolger, in town on a fact-finding expedition for the Resistance, runs afoul of one of the conspirator neo-chimpanzees known as Irongrip.
Elsewhere on the planet, Athaclena's father Uthacalthing, the Tymbrimi ambassador, and the Thennanin ambassador, Kault, are shot down while fleeing the Gubru invasion. The two ambassadors land safely, but must trek several hundred kilometers back to civilisation. The Tymbrimi are allies of Earth and well-known for a low sense of humor that, along with a yen for surprise, motivates much of their behavior. By contrast, the Thennanin are portrayed as dour, supercilious, physically unprepossessing protectors of the rights of animals and species. Hoping to fool Kault with an elaborate and ultimately costly practical joke, Uthacalthing secretly instructs a furtive neo-chimp to create false evidence pointing to the existence of Garthlings — a fabled race of pre-sentient creatures that were rumored to have survived the Bururalli holocaust. Uthacalthing also plants evidence about the Garthlings in his diplomatic cache — which is, after being disturbed by Fiben Bolger, stolen by the Gubru.
The three Gubru co-commanders (suzerains) overreact to most situations. When the Suzerain of Cost and Caution is fortuitously killed in an accident set up by the neo-chim resistance movement, the other two suzerains exploit the situation and further their own goals. The Suzerain of Proprietary seizes on the Garthling myth and builds an enormously expensive hypershunt on Garth. If Garthlings can be found, the Gubru will be able to use the hypershunt to adopt and indenture the race for 100,000 years in exchange for uplifting them to sentience. Coincidentally, the Gubru and others find evidence of secret uplift in the mountains, and come to believe that Earthclan was hiding a secret effort to uplift Garthlings.
The Gubru commanders (suzerains) are unable to resolve their internal power struggles and begin scheming against one another. Fiben Bolger begins to fear that Earthclan's well-known naivete at Galactic punctilio could imperil the entire neo-chimpanzee population, both on Garth and on Earth. Some of the key neo-chimpanzee characters are eventually forced to choose between following the legal representatives of the surviving Planetary Government, or to follow their original leaders, Robert Oneagle and the young Tymbrimi Athaclena. Many of the major characters fall in love and must weigh their personal feelings against patriotic duties and greater responsibilities. There is a confrontation between Fiben Bolger and Irongrip, with the fate of all of neo-chimpdom hanging in the balance. In the end, Uthacalthing's joke succeeds beyond his wildest imaginings, with Uthacalthing being as much in the dark as those he had been trying to fool. The Gubru are ejected from Garth, and as the book come end, Uthacalthing's maneuverings have brought desperately needed assistance to Earthclan and its allies out on the starlanes.
Robert Oneagle - Playboy son of the Planetary Coordinator, who enters into a complicated interspecies relationship with the Tymbrimi teenager Athaclena as well as being one of two free humans left alive and uncaptured on the surface of Garth. he undergoes a tremendous physical and mental change over the course of the book as the invasion occurs and he becomes the last free human of garth.
Megan Oneagle - Planetary coordinator of Garth, who finds herself powerless in an undersea redoubt after the Gubru arrive, with all plans for organized resistance foiled by the Gubru's gas attack.
Neo-Chimpanzees
Fiben Bolger -
Sylvie -
Gailet Jones -
Max -
"Irongrip" a probie chen outcast -
Galactics (Friendly)
Athaclena - tymbrimi
Uthacalthing - tymbrimi, the tymbrimi are startlingly humanoid in shape and anatomy. they have two features that make them distinct among the galactics though. they are their adaption hormones, and their corona. the corona is a set of tentacular threads emitting from the head upward, it is a probability organ fitted to construct emotional glyphs that convey a specific emotion. These glyphs then can take on a mind of their own, in a sense, as certain ones are used for everything from scouting other creatures in the dark to trying to implant a thought in someone else's mind. The adaption hormones are a special ability they have; under physical stress, the body releases a flood of hormones to the parts of the body, causing the stress and alters them. It can make skin thicker, nails harder and longer, widen the nostrils for better air intake, change the placements of nerve endings and body part placements, etc. Also, the tymbrimi feature a rather unusual quality amony galactics; they are tricksters. They play practical jokes on each other as a part of their civilization, and have an extraordinary sense of humor, much like humans but 100-fold stronger.
Kault - thennanin
Galactics (Unfriendly)
Gubru - a race of avian (birdlike) creatures governed by the triumvirate, a selected 3 officials representing the army, church, and economy of their race. An interesting point about them is that they are all un-sexed until the mating consensus, meaning that all three officials need to reach complete agreement on all three subjects before one of them is able to become a female or queen.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
and the third book of six set in his Uplift Universe
Uplift Universe
The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.His books which take place in this universe:* Sundiver...
. It was nominated as the best novel for the 1987 Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
and won the 1988 Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Locus
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
Awards. The previous two books are Sundiver
Sundiver
Sundiver is a 1980 science fiction novel by David Brin. It is the first book of his Uplift trilogy, and was followed by the Hugo and Nebula award winning novel Startide Rising in 1983.-Plot summary:...
and Startide Rising
Startide Rising
Startide Rising is a 1983 science fiction novel by David Brin and the second book of six set in his Uplift Universe . It earned both Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel...
.
Plot summary
50,000 years ago, the planet Garth was leased to the Bururalli who nearly destroyed its ecosystemEcosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
by overhunting all large indigenous species. The ecologically sensitive galactic civilization killed all Bururalli, demoted their patrons, the Nahalli, to clients of the Thennanin, and began working to preserve and repair the remaining ecosphere
Ecosphere
Ecosphere has several different meanings:* In ecology the term ecosphere can refer to the Earth's spheres, a planetary ecosystem consisting of the atmosphere, the geosphere , the hydrosphere, and the biosphere....
of Garth. Several decades before the start of the novel, Earthclan
Uplift Universe
The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.His books which take place in this universe:* Sundiver...
acquires the lease on Garth in return for their expert assistance in biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
recovery. The Z'Tang complete a final ecological survey before the planet is passed on to EarthClan.
The novel begins in the year 2489 C.E.
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
http://www.reocities.com/Area51/Corridor/8611/brin.htm with the avian Gubru planning to invade Garth, Earthlings on Garth preparing to defend their claim to the planet, and ambassadors from other races getting ready to depart. The Gubru, a conservative and somewhat humorless alien race, attempt to hold Garth hostage in an attempt to learn more about the discovery that the dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
spaceship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
Streaker
Streaker (David Brin)
Streaker is the name of a fictional starship from David Brin's Uplift Universe. It first appeared in Startide Rising, that tells what happens when Streaker tries to hide from the extraterrestrials in the Ocean of Kithrup...
made in Startide Rising
Startide Rising
Startide Rising is a 1983 science fiction novel by David Brin and the second book of six set in his Uplift Universe . It earned both Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel...
about the Progenitors.
The Gubru invade and overpower Garth's weak space forces, a battle that is witnessed by neo-chimp soldier of Earthclan, Fiben Bolger. Having easily overcome Garth's token resistance in near-planetary space, the Gubru engage a small portion of their ground force in ritualistic combat against Earthling forces. Because they take relatively high losses, Earthlings successfully defend their legal right to the planet under the punctilio of Galactic law. However, the Gubru immediately take hostage most of the human population using pre-planned subterfuge consisting of poisonous gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
. The Gubru, used to galactic norms
Norm (sociology)
Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...
, believe that the neo-chimp population on Garth will be easily controlled without their human patrons to guide them. Some humans and a few chimps are killed by the hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
while en route to receive the antidote; the surviving human population is sequestered on an island and kept isolated.
Taking advantage of resentments that fester among the lower social strata of the neo-chimp population, those with limited rights to breed, the aliens subvert some of the neo-chimps in and around Port Helenia, the capital city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
. A large group in the mountains, led by Robert Oneagle, son of planetary coordinator
Coordinator
Coordinator may refer to:*In academics: one who administers the research and teaching activities of the other professors.*Coordinators , genetically engineered humans in the Gundam SEED series...
Megan Oneagle, and Athaclena, the teenaged daughter of Tymbrimi ambassador Uthacalthing, engage in guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
. Their combination of “wolfling” ingenuity
Ingenuity
Ingenuity refers to the process of applying ideas to solve problems or meet challenges. The process of figuring out how to cross a mountain stream using a fallen log, build an airplane from a sheet of paper, or start a new company in a foreign culture all involve the exercising of ingenuity...
and galactic diplomacy allow them to inflict significant damage, both psychological and physical, on the Gubru. Fiben Bolger, in town on a fact-finding expedition for the Resistance, runs afoul of one of the conspirator neo-chimpanzees known as Irongrip.
Elsewhere on the planet, Athaclena's father Uthacalthing, the Tymbrimi ambassador, and the Thennanin ambassador, Kault, are shot down while fleeing the Gubru invasion. The two ambassadors land safely, but must trek several hundred kilometers back to civilisation. The Tymbrimi are allies of Earth and well-known for a low sense of humor that, along with a yen for surprise, motivates much of their behavior. By contrast, the Thennanin are portrayed as dour, supercilious, physically unprepossessing protectors of the rights of animals and species. Hoping to fool Kault with an elaborate and ultimately costly practical joke, Uthacalthing secretly instructs a furtive neo-chimp to create false evidence pointing to the existence of Garthlings — a fabled race of pre-sentient creatures that were rumored to have survived the Bururalli holocaust. Uthacalthing also plants evidence about the Garthlings in his diplomatic cache — which is, after being disturbed by Fiben Bolger, stolen by the Gubru.
The three Gubru co-commanders (suzerains) overreact to most situations. When the Suzerain of Cost and Caution is fortuitously killed in an accident set up by the neo-chim resistance movement, the other two suzerains exploit the situation and further their own goals. The Suzerain of Proprietary seizes on the Garthling myth and builds an enormously expensive hypershunt on Garth. If Garthlings can be found, the Gubru will be able to use the hypershunt to adopt and indenture the race for 100,000 years in exchange for uplifting them to sentience. Coincidentally, the Gubru and others find evidence of secret uplift in the mountains, and come to believe that Earthclan was hiding a secret effort to uplift Garthlings.
The Gubru commanders (suzerains) are unable to resolve their internal power struggles and begin scheming against one another. Fiben Bolger begins to fear that Earthclan's well-known naivete at Galactic punctilio could imperil the entire neo-chimpanzee population, both on Garth and on Earth. Some of the key neo-chimpanzee characters are eventually forced to choose between following the legal representatives of the surviving Planetary Government, or to follow their original leaders, Robert Oneagle and the young Tymbrimi Athaclena. Many of the major characters fall in love and must weigh their personal feelings against patriotic duties and greater responsibilities. There is a confrontation between Fiben Bolger and Irongrip, with the fate of all of neo-chimpdom hanging in the balance. In the end, Uthacalthing's joke succeeds beyond his wildest imaginings, with Uthacalthing being as much in the dark as those he had been trying to fool. The Gubru are ejected from Garth, and as the book come end, Uthacalthing's maneuverings have brought desperately needed assistance to Earthclan and its allies out on the starlanes.
Characters
HumansRobert Oneagle - Playboy son of the Planetary Coordinator, who enters into a complicated interspecies relationship with the Tymbrimi teenager Athaclena as well as being one of two free humans left alive and uncaptured on the surface of Garth. he undergoes a tremendous physical and mental change over the course of the book as the invasion occurs and he becomes the last free human of garth.
Megan Oneagle - Planetary coordinator of Garth, who finds herself powerless in an undersea redoubt after the Gubru arrive, with all plans for organized resistance foiled by the Gubru's gas attack.
Neo-Chimpanzees
Fiben Bolger -
Sylvie -
Gailet Jones -
Max -
"Irongrip" a probie chen outcast -
Galactics (Friendly)
Athaclena - tymbrimi
Uthacalthing - tymbrimi, the tymbrimi are startlingly humanoid in shape and anatomy. they have two features that make them distinct among the galactics though. they are their adaption hormones, and their corona. the corona is a set of tentacular threads emitting from the head upward, it is a probability organ fitted to construct emotional glyphs that convey a specific emotion. These glyphs then can take on a mind of their own, in a sense, as certain ones are used for everything from scouting other creatures in the dark to trying to implant a thought in someone else's mind. The adaption hormones are a special ability they have; under physical stress, the body releases a flood of hormones to the parts of the body, causing the stress and alters them. It can make skin thicker, nails harder and longer, widen the nostrils for better air intake, change the placements of nerve endings and body part placements, etc. Also, the tymbrimi feature a rather unusual quality amony galactics; they are tricksters. They play practical jokes on each other as a part of their civilization, and have an extraordinary sense of humor, much like humans but 100-fold stronger.
Kault - thennanin
Galactics (Unfriendly)
Gubru - a race of avian (birdlike) creatures governed by the triumvirate, a selected 3 officials representing the army, church, and economy of their race. An interesting point about them is that they are all un-sexed until the mating consensus, meaning that all three officials need to reach complete agreement on all three subjects before one of them is able to become a female or queen.
External links
- The Uplift War on Worlds Without End
Translations
- ChineseChinese languageThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 提升之战, 2008 - RussianRussian languageRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: "" ("The War for Uplift"), 1995, 1998, 2002. - GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: "Entwicklungskrieg", 1990 - PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
: "Wojna wspomaganych" ("The war of Uplifted"), 1994 - SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
: "La rebelión de los pupilos" ("The rebellion of the pupils"), 1988 - ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
: "I Signori di Garth" ("Lords of Garth"), 1988 - FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: "Élévation" ("Uplift") - LithuanianLithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
: "Išaukštinimo karas" 1996 - Hebrew "מלחמת הרימום" (The Uplift War) Published 1999