Brightness Reef
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4.1 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
On the distant planet of Jijo, six exiled races live side by side. Only ancient relics from their home planets, fragments of half-forgotten stories and the crumbling ruins of the mysterious and god-like Buyur remind the dispossessed of a more noble past, whe they were full citizens of the Five Galaxies. The races of Jijo, it seems, have been forgotten, along with whatever crimes thay committed. But for how long?
It is at the time of the Gathering, the council of the sages, when the spacecraft is first spotted. For some, it offers a new hope. For others, it heralds a time of reckoning.
Brightness Reef is the compelling story of a world threatened by its past and fighting for its future. With a gallery of extraordinary characters, and awealth of thought provoking ideas, it is a novel fuelled by the spirit of adventure and discovery. David Brin at his very best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This is the first volume in a projected trilogy set in the universe of Brin's Hugo-winning The Uplift War. It's a multivoice narrative concerning the six diverse cultures living on the banned planet Jijo--and what happens to their peaceful society when more humans arrive there via starship, searching for species to ``uplift'' by bringing them to the next level of sentience. Because, long ago, the advanced Buyur civilization declared Jijo off-limits in order to preserve its ecology, the species that have secretly sought sanctuary on the planet have been expecting a ``Judgment Day'' on which the starfaring races will punish them for ignoring the ban. Focusing on narratives from the planet's inhabitants, including the three human children of the paper-crafter Nelo (one a mathematician/linguist, one a religious conservative, one an expert Tracker), and on diary entries from the aliens Asx and Alvin, as well as on the thoughts of a mysterious human starfighter whose memory was badly damaged during his crash-landing on Jijo, the story line follows the characters' attempts to respond in civilized ways to the devastating changes wrought by the arrival of the human starfarers. While the narrative does not so much conclude as simply stop in midstream, it describes a universe that's immensely appealing, leaving readers hungry for more of this exciting, epic adventure.
