Rendezvous With Rama: Amazon.ca: Arthur C. Clarke: Books

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An all-time science fiction classic, Rendezvous with Rama is also one of Clarke's best novels--it won the Campbell, Hugo, Jupiter, and Nebula Awards. A huge, mysterious, cylindrical object appears in space, swooping in toward the sun. The citizens of the solar system send a ship to investigate before the enigmatic craft, called Rama, disappears. The astronauts given the task of exploring the hollow cylindrical ship are able to decipher some, but definitely not all, of the extraterrestrial vehicle's puzzles. From the ubiquitous trilateral symmetry of its structures to its cylindrical sea and machine-island, Rama's secrets are strange evidence of an advanced civilization. But who, and where, are the Ramans, and what do they want with humans? Perhaps the answer lies with the busily working biots, or the sealed-off buildings, or the inaccessible "southern" half of the enormous cylinder. Rama's unsolved mysteries are tantalizing indeed. Rendezvous with Rama is fast moving, fascinating, and a must-read for science fiction fans. Clarke collaborated with Gentry Lee in writing several Rama sequels, beginning with Rama II. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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"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 --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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4.4 out of 5 stars (171 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A daring look into the possibility of alien contact., Oct 4 1997

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rgw97t@timon.acu.edu (Abilene, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rendezvous with Rama (Mass Market Paperback)

Perhaps you think that a sci-fi book about an alien contact without aliens might fail to intrigue. Perhaps you're nuts! In Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke charts humanity's response to the arrival of a mysterious alien artifact. All the elements of exploration, terror, and elation are bundled into a novel worthy of inclusion in the annals of great science fiction.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Same ingredients as CHILDHOOD'S END, but better result, Jun 13 2004

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Andrew McCaffrey "The Grumpy Young Man" (Satellite of Love, Maryland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rendezvous With Rama (Hardcover)

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA showcases a lot of things that must fascinate Arthur C. Clarke, or at least a lot of concepts that he likes revisiting in his fiction. Once again, we have mankind's first contact with extraterrestrials, human colonies on the moon and on other solar planets, academic and political in-fighting, and, of course, a healthy dose of science. But the ingredients do well together here. This is, as you surely already know, one of the so-called classic science fiction novels, yet I only just got around to reading it recently. I'm happy to say that it matched my expectations, both compared to other Clarke novels and to its own lofty reputation.

An unknown object has entered Earth's solar system in the year 2130, and a rocket ship is dispatched to study this alien artifact (dubbed Rama) and report back on its findings. That sentence is a summary of almost the entire plot. But RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA is not a story that is wholly concerned with plot. It's more a series of set pieces: the decision to explore, the examination of the immediate inside, the voyage across the interior's sea, etc. Each one is interesting on its own, but not all of them contribute much to the overall story.

The purpose these set pieces serve is to invoke a sense of wonder at this unknowable alien object. I'm reminded of Jules Verne's voyage-type stories, where his protagonist(s) would become engaged in a multitude of individual adventures. But instead of exploring (and inventing) Earth's wonders, Clarke is showing us a completely fictional environment. It's quite fun. Clarke put most of his effort into creating this landscape, and it becomes the focus and centerpiece of the whole novel. This entire endeavor would flop completely if Clarke had been unable to sustain the suspense for the full length of the novel. But he does it.

Character development is not one of this book's priorities. Too much time is spent developing the setting to provide us with people of any great depth. Clarke gets away with it here (while other science fiction novels have crashed and burned on this point) because he has set the book up as a mystery, with the setting as its question. Squandering time on the human characters would merely be a distraction, when all the reader is really interested in is Rama itself.

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA is now over thirty years old, but this science fiction novel isn't showing its age (although some of the aside mentions of polygamous relationships are attempting to sound modern and forward-thinking, yet instead end up seeming rather quaint). I've heard mixed things about the sequels which follow on from the end of this book. Given how much I enjoyed the first in the series, I think I'll probably at least try one or two of them. Maybe I won't like them as much as I did RENDEZVOUS, but that's a high standard to reach.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A classic of hard science fiction, Feb 14 2011

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Andre Farant (Ottawa, Ontario) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rendezvous with Rama (Mass Market Paperback)

Written by Arthur C. Clarke, author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (among many, many others), "Rendezvous with Rama" is considered by many one of his finest works and a contemporary classic in the genre of hard science-fiction. It tells the tale of a ship and its crew tasked with docking with and exploring the interior of a mysterious alien vessel nick-named Rama. The story approaches such a momentous event from a variety of perspectives, including the political, scientific and philosophical. It mostly withstands the test of time and offers an interesting mystery that keeps the reader wondering.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that proves why Arthur C. Clarke is still a Master!
This book, even today, is as fresh and fascinating as it was when it was first published several years ago. Read more

Published on Jun 18 2004 by Eric

4.0 out of 5 stars Arthur C. Clark at his best...
Although it has been almost two years since I read "Rendezvous With Rama," I clearly remember how the novel entertained and impressed me. I recall that Arthur C. Read more

Published on April 5 2004 by Niko