second book set in the Uplift universe...

short plot description: the surveyship Streaker, manned by a mostly uplifted-dolphin crew (with one uplift-chimpanzee and a handful of humans) makes an important discovery which may well change galactic history. Unfortunately some other factions begrudge the humans this discovery and after an ambush which damages the ship the crew takes refuge on the planet Kithrup, trying to repair their damaged ship and find a way to escape the aliens. But the dangers are not only external, some members (both human and uplifted) have their own agenda and the planet itself also has some surprises in store...

my thoughts: actually quite good,the Uplift universe gets some further fleshing out with both more insights into the alien races (patrons and clients) and the human-uplifted species.

Minor gripes: the plot felt in places weighed down with too many subplots, some parts could have been cut out (maybe published as short stories ?), also the plot felt in places overly complicated and the permanent point-of-view jumping was sometimes getting on my nerves, especially when we jump, get 5 lines of text and then jump again.
The characters felt mostly believable but some felt flat and the "ultracompetent" cliche is also found.