Pros: fun to read, full of alien objects, mysteries suspense and awe in a gripping story
Cons: A little short for the massive concepts. Could have used another fifty pages!
The Bottom Line: Finest quality adventure. Read this book to co-discover an alien microcosm, filled with both the authors fine imaginings, and your own speculations. One of my all-time favorites!!
snpmurray's Full Review: Arthur Charles Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama
Rendevous with Rama, winner of the 1973 Nebula award, 1974 Hugo and Campbell awards, was able to sweep the boards because it is such fantastic writing. Sci-fi fan or not, you can't fail to find this book fascinating!
This book is set in our near future. Mankind has begun to explore his local celestial environment in earnest, but is still alone, no contact has ever been recorded with any other intelligent race. Suddenly, early signs of what may be a giant comet or asteroid turn to frantic planning....this is no asteroid...this is a two kilometer long spacecraft weighing no less than ten trillion tons! The human race christens the craft "Rama", and prepares for rendevous!
The ship is on a trajectory which will take it through our solar system, but there is no sign of it stopping here. Resultantly, the spacecraft Endeavour is quickly given a well-rounded crew, and they are dispatched to learn as much about the ship as is possible before it heads on out into deep space. Clarke wastes no time in cutting to the action...he gives us what we want, and the crew is quickly making their entry. Every single step they take from this point forth is crammed with suspense, intrigue and awe. When first aboard their exploration is dark and cold, making their way gingerly, by artificial light, they explore with bated breath and no idea of their surroundings. As time passes, and the ship comes closer to our sun, its enormous automated systems turn the lights on, and the adventurers and the reader are treated to amazing vistas and undreamed-of technologies, in a completely different paradigm of exploration.
The shortage of time available ensures that the crew struggle constantly against the crushing understanding that they have to get the most from this massive epiphany in a very limited timeframe. This constantly builds suspense, and Clarke plays on this wonderfully...the hunger for knowledge, played against the restraint required in such an unknown environment, which may never be seen again works wonderfully!
The ship is also inhabited. Alien robots of myriad forms teem across the surface of the vessel, adding dangers, and endless mysteries...what is the purpose of this vessel? What exactly are all these things doing?? Where is this vessel going, and why? The reader is sucked into this inquisitiveness utterly...there is a strong feeling of exploring the ship WITH the scientists. Your guess often seems as good as theirs as to the purpose of the many artifacts and happenings. This is where this novel excels, in my opinion. Scarcely, in all the worlds I have explored has an author so intelligently left the important questions without answers. You will be forced to co-invent an understanding of Rama, thereby making it live uniquely in the memory of every reader according to his/her own ponderings.
This novel is above all, enormous fun to read...it is, as I have hinted, packed with artifacts, happenings adventures and mysteries. It is all-time classic Clarke...full of quickly-narrated action, awe-inspiring story and a sense of wonder.
Other elements of the story are equally entertaining and thought-provoking. Mankind has now inhabited a number of the planets of the solar system, and the cultures of the colonies are strongly influenced by their surroundings....this profoundly effects their response to the visitors, and somewhat hostile responses by the stoic inhabitants of Mercury (I can see how living on Mercury would tend to get you down!)add furthur tension to the story.
This book is a great introduction to the genre of science fiction. Indeed, it was for me. Actually, I read very little fiction of any kind before this book, let alone science fiction. This book changed me. It may change you too, if you are in a similar situation. I was powerfully reminded by this beautiful little book that short of the company of equals, one of the greatest pleasures in our lives can be the contemplation of the possible. Arthur C. Clarke has devoted his lifes work to the contemplation of the possible. And this is his finest example. As other reviewers have asked, why is this not made into one of the greatest Science Fiction movies of all time?
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