Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

[james_davis_nicoll]

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I really enjoyed this while reading it (mid 70s), but felt a bit cheated by the lack of answers before the ending. Looking back, I think you are right, there weren't likely to be satisfactory answers to give.

The passage of Oumuamua brought Rama strongly to mind for me, and probably others.

Riderius

[(Anonymous)]

If I recall correctly, simps also occur as a bit of setting background in A Meeting with Medusa - as casualties in the airship crash that starts the story.

[dranon]

Even as a much younger reader, I recognized the characters were cardboard, but that didn't matter due to the sense of awe and mystery. I wish there were more books out there that would scratch that, admittedly very specific, itch.

The thinness of the characters here is definitely a blessing. I picked up the sequel because I enjoyed the first so much. I think that was the first book that I never finished. I actively hated all the characters and didn't care what happened to them, and if this is supposed to be a story about exploring another object, why is it this late in the book and they're still on earth?

[bolindbergh]

Hint: if you're writing a sequel to a book that was criticised for having cardboard characters, turning the interpersonal drama up to soap opera levels in compensation is a temptation to be avoided.

[alexxkay]

Have you tried Kirstein's _Steerswoman_ books?

[james_davis_nicoll]

I reviewed them almost exactly six years ago.

[jreynolds197]

James might have.

[dranon]

I have! They are excellent, and scratch a similar itch of science and discovery and wonder. They also have excellent characters. The one thing they don't have is that is that complete sense of mystery, since the reader can figure out some of the things that the characters simply don't have the knowledge of.

I'm due for a reread of those at some point.

[(Anonymous)]

Just the edition I read (when I wasn't old enough to understand the oscillation reference).

[ba_munronoe]

Definitely a "sensawunda" book that delivers on the sensawunda. The enhanced apes are just a subset of the larger Robot Problem (to think otherwise is Carboncentrism).

(Another thing I find a bit annoying are the inhabitants of Mercury, who are seriously OP for their population in a bad case of Space Makes You Strong. You need large numbers of people to maintain an advanced technological society.)

[kithrup]

This was the book that made me realize Clarke's novels were travelogues.

I did not care for it.

Typo- the book takes place in the early 22nd century.

[connactic]

This only stuck out to me as I didn't remember the book being set that implausibly early for the level of interplanetary capability shown in the book.

Re: Typo- the book takes place in the early 22nd century.

[austin_dern]

I remember thinking that early 22nd century seemed plausible for that level of interplanetary capability. It seemed implausibly early, though, for the level of interplanetary political development. That there might be a United Planets where the population of Mercury could have a diplomatic presence comparable to that of Earth struck me as unlikely. Except maybe as Earth humoring to the point of patronizing the much tinier populations around it.

[kedamono]

It was optioned to be made into a movie by Morgan Freeman, but it's been stuck in development hell ever since. This was in the early 2000s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama#Film

[beamjockey]

To first order, all the SF novels you liked are stuck in development hell forever.

Unless Philip K. Dick wrote them.

V

[(Anonymous)]

I just couldn't figure out the plot; the setting was interesting, I guess, but there was no plot. Childhood's end was even worse in that regard -- there was no plot or setting.

[julesjones]

On first reading and ever since, I thought that leaving questions unanswered was what made it so good. I made the mistake of reading the sequels. Once.