A review by outcolder
Sundiver by David Brin

3.0

"The Library" is sort of a bad guy, frowning on innovation and independent research? A talking tree that tinkles? Dolphins that tell dirty limericks? A macho space hippy that meditates so much that tens of pages of psychedelic guided imagery actually move the story forward? I want to love it, but the adventure-detective plot (complete with helpfully named "parlor scene") didn't grab me and there wasn't enough awe or big questions to make up for that like in other science fiction. The author is a for-real astrophysicist but he piled on so much inscrutable alien-tech that the magic outweighed the hard SF bits, so I also didn't finish it thinking, "I would like to know more about plasma physics," or anything. Basically, a great premise that didn't deliver to my expectations. But my judgement might be impaired because I have been in pain.