Rendezvous With Rama: A Novel

Very good book. I really enjoyed this book. The characters were interesting and well written. Clarke brings home the all too familiar idea that humans will try to destroy anything that they don't understand. Similar to the extreme urge to step on or otherwise kill insects. Sure, there are a lot of people who want to study the unknown, but there will always be people who panic and just want to kill the unknown. This is shown by the people who are living on Mercury who feel threatened by Rama because "It's to close to our territory". The story is very well written and well thought out. The premise is plausible, in the future, but not with our current technology. The story takes place in the distant future, so it's not dated yet. I highly recommend this book and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

This feels like one of those books where I waver between four and five by mood alone. Resting on four now, as there were times whilst reading it that I felt slightly bored, but this feels like more of a 'me problem' rather than any problem with the text. 'Lot going on right now. Anyhow, who doesn't love a getting a classic science-fiction novel for Christmas?? Clarke has been on my list for as long as I've been aware of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and with the recent news that Rendezvous with Rama may be Denis Villeneuve's next project after he's finished with Dune, what better time for such a sweet gift? I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed this novel. There is always a slight worry—at least for me there is—that classic novels will not hold up to the scrutiny of a contemporary gaze. Not so with Rama. Not so at all. Clarke weaves his unknowable cosmic journey with a not-at-all-concealed intelligence and a wry wit that combines into a cohesive package offering frequent moments of casual brilliance that will please readers new and old. It's true that the character work is nothing to write home about, but that simply wasn't Clarke's focus. Rama is hard sci-fi of the highest order. It is one hundred percent about the science, and yet Clarke keeps things fun and engaging (science is fun? who knew). And clocking in at just over two hundred pages, he keeps the pace up, too. There are no real lulls here, as the crew of the Endeavour explores a brand new world. Clarke's strongest offering here is the sheer sense of exploration the reader gets. The reader himself is a discoverer of an alien artifact of unimaginable magnitude. The reader herself embarks on an unknowable cosmic journey as a sleeping giant awakes. It's a ride worth taking.

Arthur C. Clarke was a master. I’ve read this one several times now, but probably not for about twenty years. As time goes by, science fiction from the classic era gets filtered over and over until not too many books are still standing. This is definitely one of them, in a small group that maybe also includes Clarke’s Childhood’s End and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Much of this one is an adventure story, a throwback for current readers to a time when the wonder of space exploration and first discoveries of alien life was all you really needed or looked for. We passed through, hopefully, an era of high action, high pace where plots hit you with cosmic scale catastrophe and intrigue every chapter. By comparison, Clarke’s plot here rides a fairly even keel. An object has been detected, passing through our solar system. At first it is thought to be an asteroid or comet, but its orbit and behavior give it away. It’s technological. It’s headed for a high speed pass around the sun, and we’ve detected it early enough to mount an exploratory mission, in this year of 2131 when much of the solar system has been colonized and interplanetary space flight is relatively routine. Commander Norton, through whose eyes much of the story is seen, commands the Endeavour to a docking with the object, now named Rama. Rama is a large, cylinder-shaped object 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide. That’s big. Big enough to be a generational ship of some sort, or who knows what, given that we have no idea of its origin or purpose. The story is the story of Norton’s crew’s mission to explore Rama and determine as much as they, and supporting scientists, can during the time it is safe to fly along with Rama, as it approaches the sun and then either heads back out of the solar system or alters course in some to-be-determined way. The plot peaks are mostly produced by Rama — its unexpected and enigmatic features and behavior. The plot is also sustained by political and personal conflicts and agendas among the politicians and scientists on Earth and its colonies. To be honest, on my reading, those conflicts and personalities are background, I won’t say background “noise” but close to it, buzzing around the adventures of the Endeavour and its crew. There’s no superhero stuff, although some heroics certainly, and no monsters, although there is certainly danger as well. To really get into the spirit of the book, you have to let yourself fall into the experience of first contact and the wonder and mystery of a truly alien encounter. Not to give too much away, but we don’t meet the Ramans themselves. Also in my reading, that’s a strength of the book (as it is in Clarke’s 2001). As readers we are left to imagine the Ramans, with an uncertainty of 100%. That’s the thing about aliens and their artifacts. They are alien. I can’t let this go without mentioning the parallels between Clarke’s story, written more than fifty years ago, and the real-world passage of ‘Oumuamua through our solar system in 2017. The parallels are eerie, especially if you buy into Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb’s claims that ‘Oumuamua exhibited signs of a technological artifact itself (I don’t).

Here I am, decades later, catching up on novels I should have read long ago. Arthur C Clarke is terrific at world-building, but I needed a little help to visualize this 50-km-long alien spacecraft. Fortunately, if you do an image search using the title, there are many images that clarify the strange interior of this world. I kept my favorite one in a tab and referred to it several times as I read. Helped a lot. Be advised, this is not a space opera. Other than a couple main characters, the people are less important than the setting and the plot, and therefore they aren't fleshed out. There are important conflicts among the leaders of human colonies on Mercury, the Moon and Mars, but they are political in nature. The main conflicts could best be described as "man versus the environment" and "man versus the unknown." Also be advised, although the novel concludes in a satisfactory way, you won't get all your questions answered. It's quite possible some are saved for the three sequels. It's fun to read about what life might be like a couple hundred years from now. I enjoyed this a lot, and I'll probably read the whole series. Highly recommend, even if you don't typically read science fiction.

Ce livre est pour moi l'un des meilleurs de Arthur C. Clarke. Il nous raconte la découverte et la visite d'un vaisseau spatial à la dérive dans une ambiance très immersive. Cette ambiance ainsi que des images fortes sont gravées dans ma mémoire. J'ai lu ce livre en version originale, et je le recommande à ceux qui découvrent la lecture en anglais: c'est court et d'un niveau très abordable.

Incredible story that was easy to follow. Intriguing premise then makes you ask questions along the way.

Originele plot, goed geschreven. Mooie wendingen en verhaallijn. Aanrader voor Clarke liefhebbers. Helaas, ondanks de pseudo internationale setting, geschreven vanuit de Amerikaanse (militaire) cultuur.

Clarke is always totally original, as demonstrated in this hugely enjoyable flight of fantasy. The exploration of the interior of the first world - sized spaceship to enter our solar system is gripping, believable, exciting and rich in technological detail. The last sentence of the book is classic!

When you read Arthur C. Clark, you feel like a time traveller. This classic is awesome. I recommend it... enjoy!