Rendezvous with Rama

, #1

Paperback, 252 pages

Published Feb. 27, 1991 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-1-85723-158-8
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(276 reviews)

Written in 1973, a massive 50 kilometre long alien cylinder begins to pass through the solar system provoking a hurried effort to intercept it. The closest available ship rushes to rendezvous so as to have a quick study before it gets too close to the sun. Able to enter via an airlock on one end of the ship, the crew explores the huge world found inside, a world full of wonder and mystery. As usual, the science is spot on. This is the best novel of Clarke's since 2001 and Childhood's End and is a truly grand adventure full of puzzles and ideas that lead you asking more questions than are answered. Enough questions in fact to lead to numerous inferior sequels, but enough answers to leave you satisfied. Don't pass up this gem of hard science fiction.

49 editions

Review of 'Rendezvous with Rama' on 'Goodreads'

I love stories about alien artifacts and Rendezvous with Rama is always heralded as one of the classics of that particular subgenre. The problem is that it is not a good book. There is basically no characterization and the utopian future Clarke describes feels so silly that it's painful to read. That these world-building parts feel forced in does not help.

I started the book with high expectations but was disappointed about 40 pages in. I felt no connection to any of the characters; mainly because there are none. They are just names that drive the story. So I gave up and read the summary on Wikipedia. If you are curious about this book, I suggest you skip it entirely and be content with the summary.

Review of 'Rendezvous with Rama' on Goodreads

1) ''Then the orbit was calculated, and the mystery was resolved---to be replaced by an even greater one. 31/439 was not traveling on a normal asteroidal path, along an ellipse which it retraced with clockwork precision every few years. It was a lonely wanderer among the stars, making its first and last visit to the solar system---for it was moving so swiftly that the gravitational field of the Sun could never capture it. It would flash inward past the orbits of Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, gaining speed as it did so, until it rounded the Sun and headed out once again into the unknown.
It was at this point that the computers started flashing their 'We have something interesting' sign, and, for the first time, 31/439 came to the attention of human beings. There was a brief flurry of excitement at SPACEGUARD headquarters, and the interstellar vagabond was …

Review of 'Rendezvous with Rama' on 'Goodreads'


I am sad to say that this was the first of Clarke’s novels that I’ve ever read, especially since I enjoyed it so much! That’s an especially amazing feat since this novel of a brief encounter with an alien civilization didn’t involve any aliens, had plenty of unexplained exploration, and at the end you have more questions than answers. I find myself curious not only about Rama II but about the 17 years between the writing of Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II.

Review of 'Rendezvous with Rama' on 'Goodreads'

This is one of those classics of science fiction that you would think I would have read by now. Well, I am hoping to get to it now. I found my copy really cheap in the second hand store. We'll see how it goes.

* *

It was not as riveting as I thought it would be. While the science is good, i.e. Clarke does pay attention to the science in the story, overall, the story itself moves very slowly. In a way, reading this book was like playing the game Myst, and I am not saying that as praise. That game is great visually, but that is about it: it's a puzzle that looks pretty, but in the end, remains a puzzle. This book is pretty much like looking into a puzzle, a mystery. In that sense, it immerses the reader. The environment of Rama is great. However, the …

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