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Arthur C. Clarke is one of the big three of science fiction. He is the writer of 2001: Space Odyssey that talked about evolution, the perils of technology, as well as a wonderfully realistic look at space travel. He also wrote 3001: The Final Odyssey in which he went on a tirade about circumcision. Why you ask? Because he was a cranky old legend and he will write what ever he Damn well pleases! Anyway, Rendezvous with Rama falls somewhere toward the 2001 spectrum. It is a bit dated and not very suspenseful. You have to understand that a lot of the basic sci-fi concepts we take for granted in this story are making their first appearance. It just seems like Clarke got a bit bored half way through the story. It is realistic to the point of anticlimax. It is also clear fairly soon in the narration that he is not going to explain any of the mysteries found in the ship. He basically states "Wow this is a giant ship based on centripetal force to maintain gravity." And that's it. He does a cursory description of city-like things, and giant complex artistic gallery-like things, giant engine-like things and factory-like things and and ocean. And that is basically all you get. Multiple teams are running around exploring and that's all you get. Reading this book is like driving a model-T car. Certainly it is a truly great car that we owe a lot of credit for the foundation of modern automobiles. However, you would never drive one today. This novel reminds me of a Michael Crichton novel with no character development, no suspense, and no explanation of any of the mysteries he sets up. I understand that this book won every award imaginable at the time. The world has moved on and gotten better.Read full review
An SF classic that took home no fewer than five awards as the best novel of its year, Rendezvous with Rama is hard science fiction at its most fundamentally pure. Written at a time when Clarke was still enjoying the rush of success from 2001: A Space Odyssey, this novel carries a similar, though markedly less metaphysical, sense of awe about the incalculable mysteries the human race will be confronted with amid the vastnesses of space. In the 22nd century, an early warning system set up to protect the earth from devastating meteor strikes detects a large object hurtling our way at great speed; what's more, close examination determines the anomaly could very well be artificial, a suspicion that is soon confirmed. Christened Rama, the object is a massive cylinder, rotating rapidly on its central axis. As quickly as possible an expedition is sent to investigate the amazing artifact; its astronauts manage to penetrate the interior, and discover that Rama is some sort of "space ark," whose rotation provides gravity along the inner surface as well as a breathable atmosphere. The vast inner surfaces seem to house "cities," whose odd structures no one seems able to penetrate, and even a frozen "sea." The bulk of the novel is given over to the myriad unexplained wonders lurking within Rama, and it is a fascinating choice on Clarke's part to leave much of what our explorers find just that: unexplained. Only guesses can be made as to the means of propulsion Rama uses. The nature of the Ramans themselves remains utterly shrouded in mystery, and right up to the ending of the novel, Clarke has his intrepid explorers unearthing even more bizarre wonders that raise more questions than they answer. While most hard SF seeks, like science itself, to explain phenomena, in this novel Clarke presents us with the astronomically inscrutable and the utterly alien...and whereas this approach might be insanely frustrating in most any other work of hard SF, here it serves to put the reader into the very shoes of the cast of explorers. We are right there with them at all times, making discoveries as they do. There is no omniscient godlike narrator drawing us a roadmap in bright red crayon. Still, so as not to lose his readers entirely in cosmic ineffability, Clarke throws in a few well-placed tidbits of traditional suspense to notch up the excitement. A one-man expedition to the virtually inaccessible southern section of the cylinder meets with near-disaster in a good bit of white-knuckle storytelling. Then there is the additional nuisance of a thermonuclear warhead that has been fired at Rama by the paranoid colonists of Mercury, who incidentally haven't bothered to give the astronauts aboard enough advance notice to clear out in time. Thanks! But apart from those scenes, Clarke eschews traditional narrative much in the same way he did in the 2001 script. This novel contains no fat: no lame and obligatory romantic subplots, no predictable scary monster lurking in the shadows. And as for characterization, although it first may seem just a bit too light , one quickly realizes that Clarke's approach is very well suited to the type of story he is telling here.Read full review
The story is pretty nice. There is not a lot of action. It's all very intellectual.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned