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  _Infinity's Shore_

   • s******j@**.com
     28/08/1996 00:00:000 UTC

     _Infinity's Shore_ by David Brin

     "Part Two of a New Uplift Trilogy"

     Well, I just finished reading my review copy.

     _Infinity's Shore_ follows up on the events of _Brightness Reef_. Far

     off in another galaxy, six refugee races have hunkered down on

     Jijo, a world that was supposed to have been left "fallow" while

     natural processes and destructor machines clean it up for the next

     set of inhabitants. At the beginning of _BR_, unscrupulous human "gene

     raiders" and their faux patrons, the Rothen, descend on the world

     to look for presapient species to uplift. They're also looking for

     something else . . . coincidentally, something Brin fans have been

     waiting to turn up for about thirteen years. At the end of BR, the

     Rothen have all but been taken care of when the bad-ass Jophur show up
     with

     a ship the size of Boston.

     Bad news is that it's the middle book of a trilogy. The "story thus far"

     stuff is handled fairly well, but there's no avoiding the horriffic

     CLIFFHANGER that has characters . . . well, in deep shit.

     Minor bad news is the explanation for the Egg, the holy relic that is

     the immanent expression of the faith that holds the six (or is that

     eight?) races of Jijo together.

     Good news is that this book rocks, especially in comparison to

     _Brightness Reef_, which spent too much time setting things up. Lots of

     action, lots of surprising revelations, and a neat twist that could

     set Galactic society on end. (Hint: A symbol: Nine spiral rays with

     a oval superimposed on them.)

     --

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