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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780553577778
ISBN number: 0553577778
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 688
Printing Date: November 03, 1997
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: November 03, 1997
Sale Popularity Level: 143686
Studio: Spectra
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Continuing the story begun in 'Brightness Reef', Brin returns to the planet Jijo where six bands of sapient beings, formerly deadly enemies, now coexist. But when their alliance is tested, venerable laws topple. Now many feel free to plunder, or carry out grudges--including genocide for one of Jijo's races and possibly death for all. Ads in 'Locus'. Online promo (http: //www.bantam.com/spectra)
Amazon.com Review:
This second volume in David Brin's new Uplift trilogy is an epic tale that artfully combines dozens of unique characters and their individual stories. The planet Jijo, which has been settled by six separate races despite a decree that it remain barren for a million years, is about to change. The exploration ship Streaker, on the run since discovering the secrets of a two-billion-year-old derelict fleet, has arrived with virtually the entire universe in pursuit. Overnight the peaceful, technologically backwards Jijoan society erupts into civil war, creating a chaotic tapestry of grief, sorrow, joy, love and, ultimately, hope.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is the 2nd reading of this series for me, the very first being nearly 20 yrs. ago. I returned to the UPLIFT SAGA's, now in my 50's, only to read them in succession this time, all in a span of less than a month. My summer reading list was finished by mid July. The very first time I read Brin, I felt I needed a degree in astrophysics. Not much has change that opinion since, however Brin does it with ease. He makes it easy for you to enter his universe & partake of the stories. To the point of wishing they went on for even more books. I'd be perfectly happy with this universe. His science faction approach gives me hope for the future of mankind. He is the ONE author I'd truly love to meet in person, although don't have a clue what I'd say to him. I certainly would be at a loss for intelligent conversation. I could listen to him for hours on end. He unlocked thoughts I have had all my life, yet never have been able to express. He coalesces my mind through his reading, to form educated opinions, question what needs questioning & creates a sense of satisfaction. Infinity's Shore tied together many aspects of the story I had previously left disconnected before reading it. I was so anxious to continue reading I immediately purchased HEAVEN's REACH. I haven't been left with such joy reading his books since I was a child. The satisfaction I gained when finished serves to his credit & deserving of all the awards he's received. The world of Jijo is now a place I would love to visit & live. His mix of species serves as a model for us today. His characters come to life in a way no other author has made me feel ever. His mystery writing is unique, yet ads to the overall story. He combines many theories, styles & characters in a way you simply cannot put down. I found myself lost for hours on planet Jijo, & his universe in general. Would that mankind lived in such a universe. Perhaps we do? We can hope. Brin is not an easy author to read at times. The very first time I read them I felt heady & confused. I thought I needed a degree in astrophysics. Now I feel that's part of their charm. The challenge I get reading him now, serves only to his credit, as I feel way smarter now that I have finished them. I also feel more complete, knowing things about the universe I hadn't known prior. For the FIRST time in my life I'd want to live parts of my own life over again........this time being an astrophysicist myself. No other author has ever made me feel this way. Although I'd probably be like RETY, the hick gurl from the outback with no knowlege of anything. Her quest to leave Jijo hit very close to home. Now more than ever I wish to leave planet earth & travel the stars. I would love more, continued stories in this universe of his.
John Warner,Clinical Research Nurse
Silver Spring, MD
Rated by buyers -
...I couldn't either, but the second series creates more questions than it answers. Infinity's Shore offers as much filler as it does substance but despite that it is still some of the better science fiction you will read. Brin's imagination is worth the price of admission by itself. I get the feeling that the second Uplift series is more about setting up a third series, that I very much look forward to.
Rated by buyers -
After a dismal 4th book, Brin's back. With such a complex menagerie of characters, species, and places, it helps to have not only a map, but a listing of characters, a listing of species, and a glossary. Believe me, you'll need all of them. I was constantly referring back as I read.
Infinity's Shore is a gripping ride of thrills. Brin is constantly throwing in the unexpected, with sly references to previous SciFi, both overt and covert. Characters are well developed and not flat, and the plot moves forward dramatically from where he left off. More importantly, they're clear, as we are repeatedly told which species is which. Brin even fills in a lot of the developments from Book 4 so that you can finally understand what happened. Of particular interest are multiple points of view, which lead to multiple cliff hangers, but show alien and human perspectives as well as non-overlapping technologically advanced and primitive perspectives. And finally! The dolphins are back, whom I have always found to have the most interesting psychological development. This book brings back more of the genius of this series- looking at the peculiar culture that might be raised if certain Terran species gained intelligence, and how they might interact with humans and others.
Rated by buyers 
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Evaluating this book presents some special challenges, since without the very first and third volumes of Brin's Second Uplift Trilogy, this book doesn't begin to stand by itself. While the preceding volume, "Brightness Reef", closed a specific chapter of the planetary conflict without actually resolving anything, "Shore" ends on a cliffhanger that essentially obligates the reader to continue on to "Heaven's Reach". And while the three books together form a single story, there's no question that "Reef" is the most complete by itself, and boasts the delightful introduction to the idyllic planet of Jijo and its fascinating diversity of sapient alien races. "Shore", on the other hand, doesn't present us with anything like a conclusion to the multifaceted conflict that is described at such extreme length and in so much pointless detail. What we do get is a fascinating series of adventures, as we follow the fates of a dozen-odd major characters introduced in "Reef" as well as in the very first trilogy's "Startide Rising".
In this volume the fallow world of Jijo is invaded for a second time, this time not by the clever and manipulative Rothen ("Brightness Reef") but by the fierce and brutal Jophur. In something of an excess of melodrama, the Jophur openly threaten to commit genocide against the wheeled g'kek and forcibly re-make their own cousins, the ruminative Traeki. Fairly early in this volume, Brin drops his biggest bomb - the tie in between Jijo and the starship Streaker which was featured in "Startide Rising", and whose fate had never been resolved. And assuming any resolution is better than none at all, Brin delivers - not in this book, but in the concluding volume "Heaven's Reach".
Unfortunately, "Reach" is rather a disappointment, which really undercuts the power of the work presently under discussion. Again and again, this reviewer found himself asking in wonderment, `How is Brin going to tie all this together? How are all these entertaining characters and exciting plotlines going to merge into a single thread that resolves the questions that were left hanging by "Startide" and haven't been addressed since?' But the fact of the matter is that "Reach" finds Brin desperately over-reaching, and is ultimately unable to provide a satisfying conclusion to the story of which this book is the thrilling middle. If "Reach" had been better, this book would surely rate 5 stars for its action and adventure. But as it is, it's almost a book without an ending. There's no point in reading this one and not going forward with the final volume, but if you find yourself disappointed by the conclusion, don't say you weren't warned. Your best bet - petition Brin to re-write "Heaven's Reach" in such a way that better synthesizes the multitudinous characters and storylines that he spent so much time developing before he realized he didn't have any use for them and had to bring in whole new tons of gobbledy-gook just to keep them busy. As it stands, this book goes nowhere and takes too long to get there.
Rated by buyers -
The illegal, backwater colony of Jijo has been thrown into turmoil. Six sooner races inhabit this Galactically-proclaimed fallow world...knowing their colony would oneday attract the attention of Galactic society. Now they have...and it is nothing like they thought it would be. Instead of official representatives from the Galactic Migration Institute coming to mete out long overdue justice, Jijo has attracted those who would stop at nothing to hunt down the dolphin-crewed Streaker, still on the run after narrowly escaping the bickering clans fighting over her above the ocean world Kithrup (read Startide Rising). Streaker has come to Jijo to lick her wounds...and determine the subsequent course of action in an endeavor to get the cargo they are carrying back to the Terragens Council, or at least someone neutral, someone who won't use what Streaker discovered in the Shallow Cluster to take control of a Galactic Civilization now in turmoil. In the midst of all this, the technologically inferior inhabitants of Jijo must not only deal with the worst Galactic civlization has to offer, but must also deal with the growing fissions within their own peaceful culture.
Infinity's Shore was a bit of a surprise for me. Coming off Brightness Reef, which at times tended to drag on a bit and get mired in minutiae not particularily related to the story, this book was an easy page turner. But more importantly than that, it began to establish links between characters and plotlines the previous book stubbornly refused to do. The inhabitants of Jijo introduced to us in Brightness Reef -- Alvin and his friends as well as Sara, Dwer, Lark, Rety -- began heading in a coherent, if not always unified, direction. While the characters native to Jijo finally took steps toward their "destiny" (a.k.a what Brin has in mind for them), the characters aboard the Streaker begin to connect to the environs around them, if a bit circuitously at very first (i.e. automated scouts sent to "sniff" out the Jijoan culture).
What it all boils down to is a plain old good book. Character and plotline development is much better than its immediate predecessor, "stuff" happens that makes you want to see what happens next, and like any good trilogy, there is just enough left frustratingly out of reach for the final book. The one gripe is that there really is no conclusion to Infinity's Shore, probably quite irksome when it very first came out and the subsequent book, Heaven's Reach was a couple years away, but now it was only slightly annoying, seeing as how Heaven's Reach was sitting on top of my pile of to-read books waiting to be picked up as soon as this installment was completed. This story is a fine addition to the Uplift universe and I now anticipate completing the final installment with due haste.
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