Product Description

In 2130, an alien spaceship, Rama, entered our solar system. The first product of an alien civilisation to be encountered by man, it revealed many wonders to mankind - but most of its mysteries remained unsolved . . . Sixty-six years later, a second approaching spacecraft was detected; four years on, the Ramans are definitely returning. But this time, Earth is ready. And maybe now, with the arrival of Rama II, some of the questions posed by Rama will at last be answered.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164757 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

NEW YORK TIMES
'Arthur C. Clarke is awesomely informed about physics and astronomy, and blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations...'

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION
'For many readers Arthur C. Clarke is the very personification of science fiction'

NEW YORKER
'Arthur C. Clarke is one of the truly prophetic figures of the space age ... The colossus of science fiction'

Customer Reviews

Disappointing and slow follow up
I thought that Rendevous with Rama is one of the best science fiction books of all time. It was mysterious and magical in Arthur C Clarkes great readable style. However I was very disappointed with this follow up.
This was my first book written by both Clarke and Lee and my first impression was that this book was much thicker than RwR. I was quietly shocked to see that Clarkes wonderfuly recongnisable prose style was largely absent. It seems to be watered down by the presence of the other author. I found this book to be a trudge, especially the very slow first half. It is concerned with the characters and it takes nearly a third of the book until we actually get onto Rama at all. One common critism of science fiction is that the charcters are often shallow and poorly developed and this book seems to attempt to answer this. However I found it rather boring at times and was sometimes tempted to skip foward a few chapters to see if things got more interesting.

When the charcters eventually start exploring the new Rama spacecraft things get a little more interesting, but there are some silly details. The lifeforms they discover are sometimes unbelieveable. The disorganised actions of the characters suggest that they are not the super-intelligent group they are supposed to be.

I have now read all the Rama books and this one is the worst. I have read the whole series and found them all to be (except for the first book) a trudge at times, but something compelled me to finish them. I guess I wanted to see what happened and something kept me reading. This book is not awful but it doesn't read like other Arthur C Clarke books. The scientific prose with the uplifting sense of wonder is absent and it reads more like an average book at times. Disappointing but I still enjoyed bits of it.

sadly disappointing
The presence of a second author is evident from page one. It seems that Gentry Lee is actually the dominant author here, as Clarke's familiar style is barely discernable. The contrast between Rendevous and II is stark and uncomfortable. The former book being at the pinnacle of Sci-Fi literature, the latter being a less-than-average pulp novel and certainly not what you would expect from a giant of the genre.

The plodding and laboured descriptions of the most mundane and irrelevant elements make for frustrating reading if you've been hooked into the mystery and pacing of Rendevous. Background information that Clarke could condense effectively into a single line in Rendevous seem here to be painfully spread out over half a page or more at times.

It is saddening to see what I consider one of the best sci-fi novels of all time have its legacy soured by this and the following series of weak books. I would rather have never known Rama's secrets at all than have them delivered like this.

In fact, if Clarke still has it in him, I'd love to see him write just one Rendevous-sized follow-up that replaces the Gentry Lee sequels and reinstates the mystery and suspense for future generations to enjoy.

Where's the Sci-Fi?
I'm a huge Clarke fan, but the problem with the novelist is that he skips so frequently between the absolute pinacle of science fiction (2001, Rendevous with Rama) to the lowest soap opera drivel (3001 for example.

I read the first Rama and was gripped by the fasinating scenario; the exploration and wonder of the Rama craft was original and exciting. The book mixed the greatest of sci-fi and great action and was an excellent read -- Rama II is none of these things.
What was Clarke thinking? I agree with him that the characters needed fleshing out, but not put in place of the science. We learn almost nothing new about Rama or its inhabitants. The few creatures we do meet are ridiculously simplistic and can be found in any cheap hollywood flick. The narrative is rambling to the extreme; at one point one of the characters has to enter a 50 digit code, but instead of getting on with the story Clarke rambles on for two pages and descibes to us how the character came to decided on each digit of the code! Ridiculous!

The story goes in depth into a possible conspiracy within the crew; we get chapters and chapters of clues and hints as to who is the culprit and then the story ends...nothing! We never even find out if there is a conspiracy!

Arthur's trademark desciptions of the space voyages are missing here. One minute you are at a party and you litterally turn the page and they are at the space ship. What happened?!

In conclusion, this -- if it were by another author -- could be considered okay; but as this is one of he greatest sci-fi writers even, this novel is pure drivel. If you liked the original, don't ruin it by buying this.