Plot Outline and Major Themes
Ecology and stewardship of genetic diversity are major themes in the Uplift books. Religious orthodoxy and the behavior of static societies are also themes.
The first book in the Uplift series, Sundiver (1980), is essentially a detective story and occurs only decades after humanity's first contact with the Five Galaxies. In this story mankind discovers the sun's inhabitants and a plot to overthrow a patron race. This is the only novel to directly involve Earth.
The second book, Startide Rising (1983), occurs centuries later. It follows the Earthclan space ship Streaker (crewed by uplifted dolphins and their human patrons) which has discovered a colossal derelict fleet. The Streaker is pursued as rumors spread throughout the Five Galaxies that Streaker has found the remains of the Progenitors.
The third book, The Uplift War (1987), occurs around the same time as Startide Rising but in another part of the galaxy. An intergalactic war, sparked by the events of Startide Rising, results in a successful invasion of the Earthclan colony on the planet Garth, heavily populated by uplifted chimps. This book also introduces uplifted gorillas.
In 1995 Brightness Reef was published, the first book in a new Uplift trilogy. The "Uplift Storm" trilogy follows the survivors of the space ship Streaker as they continue to evade the various galactic powers. Along the way they encounter a hidden planet which has been inhabited by six races which have illegally settled and dropped out of the civilization of the Five Galaxies. They eventually make contact with the other orders of life.
The second and third books in the new Uplift trilogy are Infinity's Shore and Heaven's Reach.
The short story "Aficionado" or "Life in the Extreme" is set earliest of all the currently written work and gives an account of the early days of the human uplift program before Contact. The novella Temptation was set just after the ending of Heaven's Reach, and tells what happened to some of the characters from the trilogy after the main story ended.
Read more about this topic: Uplift Universe
Famous quotes containing the words plot outline, plot, outline, major and/or themes:
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“In the larger view the major forces of the depression now lie outside of the United States, and our recuperation has been retarded by the unwarranted degree of fear and apprehension created by these outside forces.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)