David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include The Postman, Startide Rising, and the Uplift War. He consults for NASA, companies, agencies, and nonprofits about the onrushing future. His first nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award. His newest book is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood.

Startide Rising won both the Hugo and the Nebula in 1984 - one of a very short list of books to win both awards! If you haven't read it yet, here's the setup:

Startide Rising follows a spaceship from Earth, named Streaker, that is primarily crewed and captained by dolphins. The main conceit of Brin’s uplift series is that humanity has ‘uplifted’ dolphins and chimpanzees by speeding up their evolution. Streaker’s crew has discovered something of great interest to the entire galaxy, and is trying to get back to Earth with the information. Unfortunately, the galaxy is not a friendly place, and when word gets out about what Streaker is carrying, the entire galaxy converges on Streaker to try and stop them. Streaker is damaged and lands on an ocean planet to hide and buy time to repair themselves, while meanwhile the forces of all the other galactic civilizations battle it out in the solar system above them, trying to be the last one’s standing so they can capture Streaker. It’s a plot driven space opera, with each chapter following one of many different characters (even including a few aliens) as the crew of the Streaker races to repair their ship, to understand the strange planet they’ve crashed on, and tries to come up with a plan to escape and get back to Earth.

If you want to learn more about David Brin's recent books: 

• davidbrin.com/vividtomorrows.html
• davidbrin.com/outoftime.html
• ringoffirepress.com/shop/melody-of-memory

Or you can watch the show on YouTube here if you prefer video. Happy reading y'all!