Bantam, 1980, $1.95, ISBN: 0-553-13312-8, 340 pages, paperback

Brin’s first book takes us diving into the sun on a journey of exploration. Evidently, the sun houses aliens, and with the help of a few good aliens of other races, we’re off to visit.

I like the way Brin builds a universe. Humans are the Johnny-come-latelies of the galaxy, and great store is set on nurturing sentient species to take their place in the Federation. Libraries, star travel, and other resources are made available. Yet, humans are an anomaly as we found the aliens and not visa versa. So there’s a bit of contention about lineage.

All this behind-the-scenes skullduggery plays out as the equivalent of the Star Wars bar scene boards a spaceship to dive into the sun--for the second time. The first mission using an intelligent chimpanzee blew up. How and why sets the plot a spinning.

Sundiver gets a thumbs up. Every once in a while, the 50-cent bin yields a gem.

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