The Uplift War, by David Brin

I re-read this book a few weeks ago and realized that it is one of my favorite books ever. The Uplift War is part of a series of sorts - or at least that's how it is currently marketed, with Sundiver and Startide Rising being the first two books of a 'trilogy'. I think somebody decided that a trilogy sells, but at any rate this book can easily be read as a stand-alone; you will miss very little besides a few references to the starship Streaker.

The Uplift War is planet-based fiction; it is also (like, say, Downbelow Station) a book with a large cast of characters, and we switch back and forth between them, following the larger story from various points of view.

The human race has been given a lease on an ecologically-devastated planet, Garth. Along with chimpanzees--newly uplifted to sentience--they are working to bring Garth back to full health. Another galactic race--the bird-like Gubru--attacks the planet in a bid to gain it for themselves, and most of the book takes place as the humans, chimps, a couple members of an allied alien race, the Tymbrimi--and gorillas--attempt to fight back against the attackers.

Guerilla warfare, you might say; because the humans have little besides their wits and their better knowledge of Garth, and the Gubru came equipped for the fight with an armada of technologically-superior weapons.

Our heroes include Fiben, a chimpanzee with a wonderful sense of humor, Robert Oneagle, human -- and his partner in arms Athaclena, a Tymbrimi female. One of the strengths of the book is how much we end up liking and caring for these characters.

Anytime you have an alien race as part of your story you have issues of how they differ, both physically and psychologically, from human beings. Brin succeeds with both the Gubru and the Tymbrimi, making them both very alien/different and still understandable/believable.

The Tymbrimi have a 'corona' of tendrils which partly frame their face; with this corona they are able to craft 'glyphs' - half-seen expressions of their feelings and the situation. It's impossible to explain, fascinating to read about.

The Gubru are the bad guys, of course; we don't identify with them, although by the end we have some sympathy for individuals. I have to admit--I ended up imagining the Gubru as looking like Big Bird. It was impossible to shake, they'll be Big Bird in my mind forever.

Incidentally, the current paperback version of The Uplift War sports a really hideous drawing of Athaclena. That's not what she looks like. Seriously. My edition (scanned above) is what she really looks like. My edition is falling apart; I've been planning on buying the new edition and replacing the cover with mine.