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.