From Amazon.com
Gentry Lee, who has inherited the
Rama mantle from SF legend Arthur C. Clarke, continues the story he began in
Bright Messengers. In the first book, mysterious clouds of sparkling white particles beckon Beatrice and Johann into a strange craft that whisks them, and nine other colonists, from their homes on Mars to a deserted island inside a huge alien sphere. Beatrice dies after delivering a child, Maria.
As Double Full Moon Night begins, Maria has just turned 8. Their idyllic island life is suddenly ruined when a deadly creature threatens their lives, so Johann leaves his little paradise to find the other colonists. Their happy reunion is short-lived when they are transported to a strange place where they must start over and learn to survive. Lee effectively captures the sense of mystery and excitement that characterize the Rama universe. This long-awaited sequel will please fans of his first solo Rama book. --Adam Fisher
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Bizarre aliens and mysterious technologies are rife in this sequel to former NASA scientist Lee's first solo novel, Bright Messengers. Lee got his start in SF by co-authoring four novels with Sir Arthur Clarke, three of them sequels to Rendezvous with Rama, and the two books he's written on his own are both set in the Rama universe. In Bright Messengers, a group of colonists was rescued from certain death on Mars by a gigantic and mysterious alien spacecraft. Deposited on several islands within the spacecraft's inner sea, the humans have barely survived, fighting off hostile aliens as well as their own worst impulses. Now, led by Johann Eberhardt, former engineer and champion swimmer, the colonists are transported to a distant, seemingly benign planet with two moons. Eberhardt, however, is in periodic communication with someone or something that claims to be his long-dead love, Sister Beatrice of the Order of St. Michael, and this apparition has warned him that their new world will turn deadly in the near future when the two moons are full simultaneously. The colonists' survival evidently depends on Johann's ability to convince them that he has indeed spoken with Beatrice. Although this novel may appeal to admirers of the earlier Rama books, there's little here to attract new readers. Lee's prose is leaden, particularly his dialogue, and he exhibits a poor sense of pacing. Neither Johann nor any of the other colonists comes alive on the page?a flaw that robs the novel of emotional depth or power, despite its handful of moderately successful action sequences.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
