2006 Book #44 - Uplift 01: Sundiver by David Brin
I found the premise of this book and the series it's a part of intriguing. Not that it hasn't been done before in scifi, but it's an idea I've always liked. Here's the quick blurb from the back of the book:

In all the universe, no species has ever reached for the stars without the guidance of a patron - except perhaps mankind. Did some mysterious race begin the uplift of humanity aeons ago? And if so, why did they abandon us? Circling the sun, under the caverns of Mercury, Expedition Sundiver prepares for the most momentous voyage in our history. A journey into the boiling inferno of the sun...to seek our destiny in the cosmic order of life.

One nice thing of Brin's books is it's not hard scifi. Yes, there's some science in there, but nothing particularly hard. The story reads a little more like a mystery novel sometimes than scifi. Kind of like the Orient Express hurling into the sun. :D The tension and the politics between the humans and the other species of the universe who are so much older than humans is pretty interesting. How humans are treated because of their weird circumstances makes for a big motivator in the events of the book. Thanks to having attempted to "uplift" chimps and dolphins, the alien species have given humans a status equal to some of the older species to try and fit them into their hierarchy of the universe. Without that, humans would've probably been paste. And you know that this special granting of rank is bound to piss off someone who doesn't think humans have worked for it or deserve it. So when ships start exploding, encounters of the third kind are happening left and right, and things in general are going to hell in a handbasket, you know there's going to be a lot of finger-pointing.

I really liked this book. At first I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it because I wasn't catching onto the main character, not feeling much to relate to, but my interest perked when all the other people and species got into the mix. I'm actually interested in how species try to undermine the status of humanity, so I'll probably pick up the next book in the series sooner or later. As soon as I get straight once and for all which is book two. Am I the only one that wishes all series books would put on the cover "book # such and such of the such and such series"??

8/10