Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Arthur C. Clarke is one of the “Big Three” of classic science fiction, along with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, and this is one of his best. It won the Hugo, The Nebula, and a bunch of other awards. and it recently gained some interest when an interstellar visitor named Oumuamua paid us call in much the same way as the fictional Rama. Rama is a large object, assumed at first to be natural. Clarke had postulated an asteroid impact in the late 2000’s leading to the establishment of a deep space warning system, which first detects the object. But when they do flyby it is clearly artificial, and an expedition is mounted to investigate further.

Inside Rama is an alien world inhabited by creatures part biological and part machine, which is coming to life as Rama approaches the Sun. But eventually it passes the Sun and goes off into interstellar space again. But Clarke put in a classic cliff-hanger line at the end about Ramans doing everything in threes, implying two more objects, though he has said he had no plans when he wrote this, it just seemed like a good ending.

Any time you have one of the best novels by one of the best writers, you should take a look.



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