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Rendezvous With Rama | 
| Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Publisher: Lightyear Press
Category: Book
List Price: $35.95
Buy New: $26.24
You Save: $9.71 (27%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  214 reviews
Sales Rank: 454025
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 274
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 0899684491
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780899684499
ASIN: 0899684491
Publication Date: February 1994
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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.
Book Description
In the year 2130, a mysterious and apparently untenanted alien spaceship, Rama, enters our solar system. The first product of an alien civilisation to be encountered by man, it reveals a world of technological marvels and an unparalleled artificial ecology. But what is its purpose in 2131? Who is inside it? And why?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 209 more reviews...
 No region on Earth left for safe celestial target practice July 28, 2008
31 out of 37 found this review helpful
First of all: thanks to the Scandinavian parts of Texas for pointing me to A.Clarke, whom I had previously known only on a 'no name basis' as the writer of 2001 Space Odyssey. I have high respect and liking for the SF genre, but not much knowledge of it, apart from one or the other Verne, Wells, Samjatin, Huxley, Orwell, Bradbury, Asimov, Lem... Of course not counting Douglas Adams, who played another ball game, didn't he?
Rama is a worth while experience. Good Science Fiction is usually also about 'science', but if it is good, it is much about society, about history, usually in the future. The evil cliche term of the paradigm comes to practical use when you read good SF. (The word was invented by evil consultants who needed excuses for the havoc they caused.) SF is about changing paradigms. There is lots of that going on here.
In the 22nd century, the United Planets, which seem to be essentially Earth, Mercury and Mars (which are Earthling colonies) plus some moons are confronted with a scary phenomenon: a huge artificial space body travelling with high speed near the Earth. Luckily the initially silly Star Wars technology had later been developed to the advantage of peaceful purposes and helps arranging a 'rendezvous' with the alien craft, named Rama because the Roman and Greek mythologies have been exhausted in the process of naming space. The process of exploring the strange space body and of thinking through its implications is the actual plot.
Go for it!
 Awesome for 1970s, but not that great today July 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
PROS: Original concept, eye opening ideas, and clear writing. The ending is outstanding.
CONS: I'm sure the pace of the novel was exciting and swift for the 1970s, but today it feels sluggish and slow. I found myself skimming parts in anticipation of the point of the scene.
CONCLUSION: This book won the Hugo and the Nebula award for good reason. For its time, it was the best scifi book around. Today it's still a good read, but there are more entertaining books out there.
 What could it be? June 8, 2008
This is an enjoyable & quick read. I don't read a lot of science fiction but I thought I would try something different. This is a classic of scifi & I can see why. I think this would make a great movie. I don't want to give away any of the plot but I will say it starts off with a strange object heading into our solar system - something that has been traveling for millions of years - page by page some of the mysteries are slowly revealed.
Even though this book is now 35 years old I found Arthur C Clarke's writing exciting & easy to read. I was also amazed that after 35 years it still seems as if it could have been written yesterday. Now to find some more great science fiction.
It would make a great movie! May 19, 2008
Others have said just about everything about this novel, so I'll just add that it would make a wonderful movie. Now that digital technology is up to re-creating the worlds of Tolkien and CS Lewis, just imagine what a great job they could do with this scenario: a team of explorers discovering a huge, mysterious artificial world... experiencing its oceans in the sky, giant electrical lightning makers, hurricanes, weird landscapes beyond comprehension.... why, it would be FANTASTIC!!
Screen writers might even want to tack on a satisfying ending, something that Clarke left out: answering the question "who made Rama and what is it for?"
A Little Disappointing May 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm not a hardcore sci-fi reader, but I do enjoy the genre. I'm currently making an effort to read some of the older sci-fi classics that I probably should have read when I was much younger. RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA is one of those novels, and I must admit some disappointment with this book.
As another reviewer pointed out, Clarke is not particularly interested in plot or characterization. Instead, he is interested in describing (in a rather detailed, grandiose manner) an alien world that humanity has recently discovered. Much of this is certainly interesting, but doesn't get really compelling until perhaps the final thirty pages or so. None of the characters are particularly memorable, which makes it hard to care about them during the novel's repetitive action scenes. The ending is deliberately anti-climactic, which I found something of a letdown.
Still, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA is an intelligent novel filled with big ideas, and is widely considered a classic (it has also spawned multiple sequels). It's a short read, and I don't regret spending the time on it. As with a lot of science fiction, however, it lacks an emotional element that made my reading experience a somewhat sterile one.
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