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Originally Posted by DixieGal
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Originally Posted by GlennD
If memory serves me correctly I believe at least part of "Startide Rising", by David Brin, is written from the point of view of the dolphin captain.
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No kidding? I MUST read that book! |
You should.
_Startide Rising_ is part of the Uplift series by Brin.
The premise is that mankind has developed FTL travel and ventured out into the galaxy. It has also used genetic engineering to raise dolphins and chimps to human level sentience, and one of humanity's exploration ships has a dolphin commander and mostly dolphin crew.
Humanity discovers there is a billions of years old galaxy wide civilization. Intergalactic, in fact, which extends though five galaxies, and once extended to fourteen. Billions of years ago, a species known as the Progenitors became the first to achieve sentience. They built ships, developed FTL travel, and went looking for other sentient species. Because they were the first, they didn't find any. They
did find worlds with species which might
become sentient with a little help. The Progenitors provided that help, began the tradition of Uplift, and vanished millennia ago.
Uplift has become the closest thing to a religion the galaxies possess. Many galactic species believe the Progenitors will one day return, and seek to make the galaxies the sort of place they think the Progenitors desired. When humanity comes on the scene,
every known sentient species has been Uplifted by an older species. Species who are Uplifted become Clients who owe their patrons 10,000 years of indentured servitude in return, and status in the galaxies is measured in part by how many species your race has Uplifted.
Along comes humanity. We appear not to have had a Patron. This is anathema to half the galactic clans, because attaining sentience on their own is a holy act only the sainted Progenitors could achieve. But if we
had a Patron, whoever it was dropped the project and disappeared halfway through. This is anathema to the other half of the galactic clans, because Uplift is a sacred responsibility you do not simply drop in the middle. And humanity arrives with two already Uplifted Clients of its own and instant status.
Half the galactic clans think humanity should be extinct on general principle. The other half think we need 10,000 years or so of proper seasoning as someone's Client, preferably theirs.
And that Dolphin crewed exploration ship may just have found out what happened to the vanished Progenitors...
Lots of fun.
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Dennis