(Or that’s where the name Uplift came from)
Once a few years back, I read this book: Sundiver by David Brin.
The book that originated the term for Uplift Science Fiction is Sundiver, the first book of David Brin’s series about Uplift of species. This series gave the name to the genre of Uplift science fiction. It was a terrific read. What a creative mind!
There is even a whole Wikipedia page about Uplift in science fiction. Read it if you dare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplift_(science_fiction)
Later books in the series delve deeply into other uplifted species and the politics of the world created by this technology. I continued reading those, many of which were quite war-like and showed the big picture politics of that world. Those books were a bit less appealing to me. But the first book had an exciting pace and very real characters in deep and dangerous situations. I highly recommend it.
This idea of uplift really intrigued me. Over the years, I dove deeper. (pun intended!)
And I came to see that it was actually a part of many of the books that I have loved over the years. In The Lord of the Rings, “uplift” or altering the mental capabilities of another species is featured for the Orcs and the Uruk–hai — though not with benign intent. In Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, the dragons were created by the people that first arrived on the planet. I only realized this in later Dragonrider books. Also, Flowers for Algernon. (A review is coming on this one.) I used to think of it as purely literary fiction. My mind was opened!
So in the most wonderful tradition of classic books, my thoughts were changed and inspired by the ideas of David Brin.
~Lizzy
Plato’s POV: Uplift in Skydiver.
Who? With a universe full of intelligent, “Uplifted” species and cultures, humanity sticks out as not having had a Progenitor. Every other species has been around for 100,000 years +.
Why? There are two possibilities of humanity’s origins: Darwin-like evolution or uplift by some other species. As a very science- and reality-focused author, this wasn’t a “god” book. So that leaves other interesting options…
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