Rendezvous with Rama
Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Alien Contact
3.9
(265)
Arthur C. Clarke
Astronauts explore an alien spacecraft hurtling toward the sun in this Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel—“a stone-cold classic” of hard sci-fi (The Guardian). An enormous cylindrical object has entered Earth’s solar system on a collision course with the sun. A team of astronauts are sent to explore the mysterious craft, which the denizens of the solar system name Rama. What they find is astonishing evidence of a civilization far more advanced than ours. They find an interior stretching over fifty kilometers; a forbidding cylindrical sea; mysterious and inaccessible buildings; and strange machine-animal hybrids, or “biots,” that inhabit the ship. But what they don’t find is an alien presence. So who—and where—are the Ramans? Often listed as one of Clarke’s finest novels, Rendezvous with Rama won numerous awards, including the Hugo, the Nebula, the Jupiter, and the British Science Fiction Awards. A fast-paced and compelling story of an enigmatic encounter with alien technology, Rendezvous with Rama offers both answers and unsolved mysteries that will continue to fascinate readers for generations. “Mr. Clarke is splendid . . . We experience that chilling touch of the alien, the not-quite-knowable, that distinguishes SF at its most technically imaginative.” —The New York Times
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More Details:
Author
Arthur C. Clarke
Pages
256
Publisher
RosettaBooks
Published Date
2012-11-30
ISBN
0795325754 9780795325755
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"It was good, but left a lot of unanswered questions."
B S
Bill S.
"I can understand why this book made such an impact to science fiction. An impact so great, scientists in 2017 almost named an unidentified cigar shaped object after the ship, Rama. Everything abiut the spaceship Clark created was so incredibly fascinating and, to a layman, so scientifically sound I couldn't help but be drawn in. But that's where it stops. The ship is the best character.
All other human characters are so incredibly flat and (unfortunately) a product of his time. It was hard to get through. Not to mention Clark's "incel"-y views regarding women, which he does not even attempt to hide. It comes off as something he feels so strongly about he HAD to add in, even if the book could flow perfectly fine without it (which it absolutely could)
Don't bother. There are plenty of newer science fiction novels with rounded out characters that are far more inclusive. "
"Considering this is the gold standard for first contact novels, I enjoyed the historical relevance this books holds in the annals of sci-fi. But that being said, it was a little slow moving. It also was light on character development, and as a modern millennial reader, I’m just not satisfied unless I genuinely care about the characters. <br/><br/>That being said, I enjoyed the look at an early example of classic sci-fi by a master of the genre. It aged fairly well, all things considered, though I probably won’t be reading the rest of the series."
A P
Allie Peduto