David Brin has been turning out award-winning books since Startide Rising in 1983. Yet there is still something youthful and fresh about his latest novel, Kiln People. When most sf writers let their future speculations fall into either cyberpunk or galactic exploration standards, he found a completely new idea for a technology that could transform human society. In Kiln People, ordinary citizens can make short term copies of themselves, send them on errands for a day, and then choose whether or not to collect the memories when the copies' animating force expires. The result: society-wide transformation, based on a technology no one else had even imagined coming.

Kiln People's protagonist gives us a tour of some of the fascinating results of this technology as he pursues a mystery. Soon, his original self is at risk, as copy after copy disappears. It's a great story, featuring page-turning suspense, competent and likable characters, and highly original speculation. What more could you ask?

The most celebrated of Brin's novels fall into the Uplift sequence: Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Heaven's Shore, and Infinity's Reach -- two trilogies, in that order. Uplift is the process of bringing a species to civilized intelligence. Nearly intelligent species are the five galaxies' most precious resource. A species uplifted by another has a duty to their uplifter, called their patron. Humans, on leaving our planetary system, find themselves in a byzantine, five galaxies-wide civilization, where lines of patronage create alliances and rivalries, and our lack of a patron inflames the more belligerent faction against us. Galactic extremists would like us annihilated before our independence gives their client races ideas. Fortunately, as we have already uplifted chimps and dolphins, the moderates think we show worthwhile promise. Unfortunately, the extremists seem to be better armed...

The novels each focus on a few characters within this wider conflict. Brin's characters are largely optimistic and competent. The dolphins are particularly enjoyable -- bringing their singing and playfulness along as they use their enhanced speaking and manipulating abilities to work beside human. And their three-dimensional navigation abilities are very helpful as they pilot starships from water-filled rooms with careful air/water lock passages to the human quarters.

So, David Brin gives us a galaxy where some are for us, some are against us, and some may even be our friends. He offers the tantalizing possibility that we could enjoy and profit from meeting alien diversity. And the tales are great, adventurous fun.

His other books include Earth, a big near-future novel, Glory Season, a look at relations between the sexes under changed political forms, The Practice Effect, an alternate universe story where inanimate tools improve as they are used, and The Postman, a post-apocalyptic novel that was made into a not very faithful movie. I enjoyed them all.

Where to start? The Postman, Kiln People, and Startide Rising all make accessible entry points.

Behind all his novels is a belief that we can create a better future -- currently being discussed at length in his blog. This fascinating, wide-ranging discussion is further proving Brin to be one of our most important futurists. He's not willing to stop at cataloging our problems. He takes a good look at them, and still finds ways to tread the complexities of modern life on a line leading to ever better futures. I highly recommend this discussion as well.