Has almost nothing in common with the previous trilogy, which contained rapid progress for mankind, exciting new alien races trying to annihilate them in the progress, and interesting characters. And when I say "previous trilogy", I mean for the most part "Startide Rising". The other two books were "normal" science fiction, while "Startide Rising" was truly spectacular. So in all fairness, it's no wonder this book couldn't live up to the huge expectations I had. Still, much of the appeal of the previous trilogy was based on the awe-inspiring ultra-high tech the aliens were using and that humankind was rapidly gaining from them, and in some cases, even inventing better stuff for themselves, and just the grand scale of things. Fleets of ships the size of moons etc. The transition from that to Brightness Reef's petty wars between humans and half-horses using slings and nets is just too much. I guess what I'm getting at is that the book resembles part XVI of some pulp fantasy saga, with elves changed to hoon, dwarves to qheuen, and some minor science fiction parts thrown in. Then the heroes and villains run through forests, ambushing each other, and mystic robots deliver fiery death from the skies above. Not exactly what I want to see in the Uplift-series.