Mass Market Paperback, 243 pages
English language
Published Aug. 13, 1990 by Bantam Books.
"At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge. It weighs more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system as inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for man's first encounter with alien intelligence." P. [4] of cover.
... that is, it's 50% description of a docking maneuver, and 50% setup for an exciting book.
I guess that makes it one of those books you should read once, but I didn't manage to enjoy it much.
the characters were a bit no-nonsense and technical, but the setting was immensely good
До этой книги я честно считал, что hard sf стареет медленно: научные парадигмы сменяют друг друга, техника мельчает и ускоряется, но считать, что мы приходим в жанр за достоверными прогнозами — это... слишком функциональный ответ. Для меня хороший hard sf это исследование загадки, в котором процесс важнее и правдивости результата и достоверности условий.
Проблема с Rendezvous with Rama: вы в любой момент впереди автора на восемь шагов. У вас больше вопросов, и у вас куда более интересные ответы. Мы знаем, что книга собрала все важные sf-награды и считается классикой жанра. Неуежели, всё, что определяет выдающийся sf — это новизна?
Потому что кроме не годящейся уже на эпизод телесериала центральной интриги здесь ничего особенно и нет. Герои почти всегда определяются своей основной функцией в рамках повествования, а в моменты, когда нет... Моя рабочая теория: списаны с рекламных материалов сигаретных брендов. В наличии проницательный историк, ещё пара каких-то Работающих Над Важной Проблемой …
До этой книги я честно считал, что hard sf стареет медленно: научные парадигмы сменяют друг друга, техника мельчает и ускоряется, но считать, что мы приходим в жанр за достоверными прогнозами — это... слишком функциональный ответ. Для меня хороший hard sf это исследование загадки, в котором процесс важнее и правдивости результата и достоверности условий.
Проблема с Rendezvous with Rama: вы в любой момент впереди автора на восемь шагов. У вас больше вопросов, и у вас куда более интересные ответы. Мы знаем, что книга собрала все важные sf-награды и считается классикой жанра. Неуежели, всё, что определяет выдающийся sf — это новизна?
Потому что кроме не годящейся уже на эпизод телесериала центральной интриги здесь ничего особенно и нет. Герои почти всегда определяются своей основной функцией в рамках повествования, а в моменты, когда нет... Моя рабочая теория: списаны с рекламных материалов сигаретных брендов. В наличии проницательный историк, ещё пара каких-то Работающих Над Важной Проблемой выдающихся учёных, целеустремлённый посол, атлет-олимпиец, и капитан корабля, мужчина решительный и имеющий двух жён на разных что ли планетах; "прекрасно ладящих друг с другом", как не забывает уточнить автор.
Вместе с генетически модифицированными суперобезьянами, выполняющими тяжёлую работу (подлежат эвтаназии в нештатных ситуациях), и гордыми милитаристичными колонизаторами жарких внутренних планет эти закадровые женщины (капитан с хитрецой: шлёт одинаковые письма, правя только имена, поди ж ты) видимо должны формировать общую утопическую картину; не могу избавиться от впечатления, что получается практически идеальная in-universe книга из обновлённой серии Wolfenstein.
Довольно тошно.
Interesting and classic first contact story, Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama distinguishes itself in the way that the first contact almost feels like a dud. The tension of the encounter with Rama and its surprising interior is captivating and well-executed. The brilliance of the novel is that the aliens do not care about humanity and simply passes us over, on the way to somewhere else. That we are completely insignificant, even to the point of being completely ignored by the first intelligent life encountered, is a masterful reversal of our own self-centeredness
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 …
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 quickly dignified with a name instead of a mere number. Long ago, the astronomers had exhausted Greek and Roman mythology; now they were working through the Hindu pantheon. And so 31/439 was christened Rama.''
2) ''There was a rustle of excitement among the other scientists on the committee. Most of them had felt that the astronomer, with his well-known cosmic viewpoint, was not the right man to be chairman of the Space Advisory Council. He sometimes gave the impression that the activities of intelligent life were an unfortunate irrelevance in the majestic universe of stars and galaxies, and that it was bad manners to pay too much attention to them. This had not endeared him to exobiologists such as Dr. Perera, who took exactly the opposite view. For them, the only purpose of the universe was the production of intelligence, and they were apt to talk sneeringly about purely astronomical phenomena. 'Mere dead matter' was one of their favorite phrases.''
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 …
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 plot itself is so slow that it lost me. It just plods along. Do A, then do B, then done and gone. On the one hand, I enjoyed discovering Rama, as much as we were allowed to see. But in the end, it left me with a feeling of "is that all there is?" So, not a bad book, but certainly not the big deal a lot of people seem to make out of it. I am glad I read it, for it had some interesting moments, but I will likely be skipping the sequels.
