A novel set in Brin's Uplift universe, where all races are 'uplifted' into intelligence by others, all the way back to the now-mythical 'Progenitors.' SR takes place two hundred years after Sundiver, Brin's first uplift novel. A human and neo-dolphin ship has found evidence of an extremely ancient race, before they can take the knowledge back to Earth, they are attacked by various fanatic Galactic races who also want the knowledge, and crash land on a water planet.
The story starts after the crash landing, allowing the previous story to come out while following the survival and escape of the terran crew. The interactions within the crew, and the use of three levels of language in dolphin thinking, are all well worked out and interesting. It's well paced, with good changes in narrative threads, and much more interesting than Sundiver.
Review by Paul Silver, 1997
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