Sundiver by David Brin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Back in the old days, when the Uplift war had just been published, I was just then reading all of Brin for the first time and LOVING it. When I thought to myself, "Hey, how did Sundiver stack up against Startide Rising or Uplift War, I said, 'It was super solid but it just didn't have that same KICK the others had,' and I was right."

The fantastic science of the Sun's Physics, possible real options to send not just a probe, but ourselves into the photosphere, was enough to carry this novel. Throw in a VAST alien cosmography, a brilliant world-building universe of Brin's, an equally vast future-history of Earth, and not just one but three top-class scientific and old-school mysteries and a unique adventure, and this book easily outstrips most modern SF.

So yeah, when I read this back in the day, I poo'd on it because it wasn't AS brilliant as the TRULY BRILLIANT novels that came later, but this should not make a dent in the objective brilliance of THIS novel.

Honestly. It's one of the greats. I loved it -- AGAIN -- on re-read. I wish all SF could be as rich.

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