Existence

David Brin writes books that are chock full of ideas and make you think. Existence is a case of too many ideas condensed into a single volume, in my opinion. There were enough ideas in this book to fill a good sized trilogy.

There are many characters and they are developed fully, yet they also seem to fall by the wayside as the story moves into its final progression. I loved the idea of finding an alien artifact that seems to be a communication device. However, I did not like the idea that all of technologically advanced civilizations destroy themselves. After the wild build up, I found this to be a let-down.

This is a huge book with enough ideas to spin off many separate books. It is also a dense read because of this. Also it seems to be a sort of prequel to his famous uplift novels. David Brin promises to return to the uplift universe soon. I for one will be anxiously awaiting those.