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Rama Ii (Rama #2)
Humanity has a second date with destiny...
RENDEZOUS WITH RAMA is hailed not only as one of Arthur C. Clarke's all-time bestselling novels, but as one of the most popular classics of modern science fiction. Published in 1973, it is the only sf novel ever to scoop all the major awards - five in the English language, including the Hugo, the Nebula and the British...more
RENDEZOUS WITH RAMA is hailed not only as one of Arthur C. Clarke's all-time bestselling novels, but as one of the most popular classics of modern science fiction. Published in 1973, it is the only sf novel ever to scoop all the major awards - five in the English language, including the Hugo, the Nebula and the British...more
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(first published 1989)
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Though not in the same league as Rendezvous with Rama, this was quite enjoyable. I was surprised that Lee, a scientist with JPL, made this a much more character focused novel. He didn't do a bad job at it or anything but that probably wasn't what most people wanted out of a Rama sequel.
Danielle
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who hate science fiction and just want to read about characters
I'm about 1/5 in and this book SUCKS. Nothing has happened, the pacing is at an absolute crawl, and all I'm getting in the way of story is far too much backstory on all the characters.
Oh, and some of the writing is bad. "She looked up at the lights and Francesca. The gold sequins on the front of the Italian journalist's dress had grouped into a pattern, or so it seemed to Nicole. She saw a head in the sequins, the head of a large cat, its eyes gleaming and its mouth with s...more
Oh, and some of the writing is bad. "She looked up at the lights and Francesca. The gold sequins on the front of the Italian journalist's dress had grouped into a pattern, or so it seemed to Nicole. She saw a head in the sequins, the head of a large cat, its eyes gleaming and its mouth with s...more
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I have a few mixed feelings about Clarke and Lee's tangential forays into the pasts of their characters. Although they add depth to the characters and the story, they also tend to be annoying distractions from the main plot. I wish the authors had spent more time building the characters in the early chapters and focused on interactions with the ship in the rest of the book. Other than this gripe, this is a solid book. There is more suspense than in its predecessor, and mystery of the ship al...more
A mysterious giant cylinder is found in space, falling inwards on a trajectory which will take it through the solar system. It is dubbed “Rama”. An expedition is sent to probe it’s contents.
Along with 2001, Rendezvous with Rama is the defining work of Arthur C. Clarke. The book is full of his trademark sense of wonder, and Clarke manages to convey awe at alien things like few others can. The first book is a solo effort. Clarke then teamed up with Gentry Lee to write a sequel trilogy. T...more
Along with 2001, Rendezvous with Rama is the defining work of Arthur C. Clarke. The book is full of his trademark sense of wonder, and Clarke manages to convey awe at alien things like few others can. The first book is a solo effort. Clarke then teamed up with Gentry Lee to write a sequel trilogy. T...more
Good: Anything not involving the characters. The history of the economic crisis, description of the saint.
Bad: Anything involving characters and character development. Minus the catholic guy who visits the pope and the saint's memorial.
I'm sorry, I just can't keep reading this. It's excruciating. I'm bailing at page 100. Parts of it are really good, like the 2 chapter history of the economic crisis. That was fun, detailed, well thought out.
But whenever this book interac...more
Bad: Anything involving characters and character development. Minus the catholic guy who visits the pope and the saint's memorial.
I'm sorry, I just can't keep reading this. It's excruciating. I'm bailing at page 100. Parts of it are really good, like the 2 chapter history of the economic crisis. That was fun, detailed, well thought out.
But whenever this book interac...more
what wasn't good about this book? my only frustrations were caused by the exploits of many of the characters. these two screenwriters are completely genius, and have certainly made this manifest in this series. sometimes you do have to force yourself to keep reading because things may seem over the top, but when you continue everything is brought back down to earth, if that term can even be used in regards to this series. the authors continuously drop mysteries like bombs as if there were no tom...more
I honestly couldn't get very far into this book. I really enjoyed Rendezvous with Rama, but this novel failed to hold my attention for two reasons:
The worldbuilding was well-thought out, but was written like a well-written history textbook, or the sourcebook for a roleplaying game. I wanted to get into this world, not read its history texts.
The few characters I actually saw right away didn't have a "save the cat" moment. I had no reason to empathize with them...more
The worldbuilding was well-thought out, but was written like a well-written history textbook, or the sourcebook for a roleplaying game. I wanted to get into this world, not read its history texts.
The few characters I actually saw right away didn't have a "save the cat" moment. I had no reason to empathize with them...more
Arthur C. Clarke
Gentry Lee
Rama II
Bantam, Paperback, 1990.
12mo. ix, 466 pp. Foreword Rama Revisited by Arthur Clarke [v-ix].
First published, 1989.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alas, it is true. I had read tons of negative reviews but somehow I didn't believe the book could be that bad. Well, it isn't. It's worse. Much worse!
Let me say it bluntly in...more
Gentry Lee
Rama II
Bantam, Paperback, 1990.
12mo. ix, 466 pp. Foreword Rama Revisited by Arthur Clarke [v-ix].
First published, 1989.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alas, it is true. I had read tons of negative reviews but somehow I didn't believe the book could be that bad. Well, it isn't. It's worse. Much worse!
Let me say it bluntly in...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is the most prophetic book I have read in a long time. I wish every politician had read this after 9/11.
After humans discovered they were not the most powerful species in the world, they began living life in the moment. They spent money freely with no regard for the consequences. Eventually they couldn't keep their homes. Tent cities appeared where the newly homeless live. Banks closed their doors. The 'internet' type system crashed. People began bartering again and the populatio...more
After humans discovered they were not the most powerful species in the world, they began living life in the moment. They spent money freely with no regard for the consequences. Eventually they couldn't keep their homes. Tent cities appeared where the newly homeless live. Banks closed their doors. The 'internet' type system crashed. People began bartering again and the populatio...more
Ah, now I remember this book. Contrary to what I said in my review of Rendezvous with Rama I now recall that four years ago I actually read the first three books in this quadrilogy, not just the first two. This book is frightfully dull but not quite bad enough to warrant quitting the series.
One of the good things about this book's predecessor is how quickly it gets into the action. The cosmonauts are inside Rama within about ten pages. Here we get a hundred pages of inept charact...more
One of the good things about this book's predecessor is how quickly it gets into the action. The cosmonauts are inside Rama within about ten pages. Here we get a hundred pages of inept charact...more
Clarke did NOT write it! In not one place is Clarke’s writing style present. Gentry Lee ruined the whole concept. Instead of exploring an alien spaceship, like the first book, we get a space-opera featuring pathetic, selfish characters.
It takes half the book just to get inside the alien ship, and when the characters finally do they don't even notice. One character never sets foot inside the ship until they’d been docked with it for over a month simply because his duties as communic...more
It takes half the book just to get inside the alien ship, and when the characters finally do they don't even notice. One character never sets foot inside the ship until they’d been docked with it for over a month simply because his duties as communic...more
My working theory is that by 1989, when Rama II was published, anything with Arthur C. Clarke's name on it was considered above editing. Though Clarke, being creator of the series and the more prominent name, gets top billing, Lee is said to be the main perpetrator of this work, a follow-up to Clarke's award-winning 1972 Rendezvous with Rama. Both novels deal with expeditions to mysterious alien spacecraft, fifty-kilometer-long spinning cylinders containing an entire world with plains, a sea, ci...more
A bit of a let down.: I tend to agree with the people putting down this book. Even though it does have it's moments of revelations about Rama, they are just too few.
I bought all 3 Rama sequels expecting more of the great writing from Rendezvous With Rama (RWR). I admit it was a let down. RWR sort of had Rama as the main 'character'. Well, the sequels just plays out in (and around) Rama, but the main characters are the humans now. It's an ok novel with the usual plot of imperfect people, but it...more
I bought all 3 Rama sequels expecting more of the great writing from Rendezvous With Rama (RWR). I admit it was a let down. RWR sort of had Rama as the main 'character'. Well, the sequels just plays out in (and around) Rama, but the main characters are the humans now. It's an ok novel with the usual plot of imperfect people, but it...more
Starts off sci-fi free with a ton of backstory on all the major characters of the story. To put it simply. The first 80-90 pages blows pretty hard, I am not a "slice of life" reader so I dont really care about the things here since quite a bit of it doesnt have a strong tie to the main plot of the novel. If I had written the book Id have condensed this to ten pages maybe. But ofcourse, Im not the writer. But this is definately one of Lee's big weaknesses (of which he has a few, but the...more
Marlon Dean
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Those who want to see the mystery of Rendezvous with Rama run deeper.
A worthwhile book if you enjoyed "Rendezvous with Rama". First, the bad, and there's a fair bit: Rama II is not as good as Rendezvous with Rama, the society is bland, the technological speculation isn't as exciting and the mysteries don't appear until the decidedly more interesting last third (or half, or thereabouts) of the book. When the mysteries do come however, they are just as amazing as in the first book, maybe even more so as the first part of the book, while boring, did a grea...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
When I came across the sequels to "Rendezvous with Rama" in a used bookstore, I bought 'em up and proceeded to re-read the original, every bit as enjoyable as the first time I read it (see my review). SO, now I have finished the first sequel. Like some other reviewers, I didn't like this one as much as the first. While having a diverse group of characters, with some depth and back-stories, the only one really who was interesting was Nicole DesJardins, as a half-African medical officer ...more
The mysterious spacecraft returns, a larger contingent of cosmonauts rendezvous with it, and thus more of the story line is focused on human intrigue. The first few chapters seem a tad laborious in that we spend a lot of time on Earth gathering contextual information. But once things unfold, it becomes clearer as to why so much detail was necessary.
In the end, the anatomization of Nicole des Jardins as a character was absolutely necessary. Her character is key to the rest of the s...more
In the end, the anatomization of Nicole des Jardins as a character was absolutely necessary. Her character is key to the rest of the s...more
After reading the original Rendezvous With Rama I had high expectations for the sequel. What I found was that Rama II became far more focused on the dynamics of a dysfunctional international exploration team than a hard scifi exploration of the Rama vehicle. I would go so far as to say that the ship is merely the canvas on which the story of the humans plays out. You can tell that this is Gentry Lee's baby and is not typical of Arthur C. Clarke's style. You can also tell that Lee is setting ...more
I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and I knew that having a second author contributing would lead to a different tone in the sequel. It was a little weird to go from Mr. Clarke's writing style to one that was more involved with the characters and the nefarious plots that ambitious people get up to. That being said, I enjoyed the places that the story took us, and it was great to get under the surface in Rama II. I felt like I bogged down just a bit in a few places, but nothing that ...more
It was completely different from the first book, not at all what I expected just after having read Rendezvous with Rama. This one was more character oriented and less about Rama itself and the questions surrounding it's existence. This being said, I still really enjoyed it. It was more adventurous than the previous book, but the influence of Gentry Lee can really be see in the writing style and basic plot/plot twist, etc. Questions were definitely not answered from the previous book.
I was p...more
I was p...more
Firstly let me say that, somewhere in this doorstop of a book is a good novella or short story.
The problem is that the small idea that would make a good short work has been padded with hundreds of pages of boring character background.
I wish that I could give it a better rating - but the extraneous pages (at least 200 or more!)make it drag. If you could get a scalpel and extract, the good bits you might have a 3.5 star book, and you'd definitely have a much more enjoyab...more
The problem is that the small idea that would make a good short work has been padded with hundreds of pages of boring character background.
I wish that I could give it a better rating - but the extraneous pages (at least 200 or more!)make it drag. If you could get a scalpel and extract, the good bits you might have a 3.5 star book, and you'd definitely have a much more enjoyab...more
I guess I shouldn't really review this book, as I never finished it. I found out unwieldy and wandering, unlike Rendezvous, which I enjoyed. I lost interest, and it was over-burdened with its monolithic qualities, but did not sustain the same sense of awe Rendezvous had, and the pace seemed much slower with, I imagine, the same amount of stuff happening in twice the length. This is a trend of many sequels, that the sequels keep trying to tell more and more, but lose the kinetic, urgent qualitie...more
I am torn on this book. I want to give it a 5 star, because Clarke is still able to pull off the absolute wonder of exploring, the first 100 pages of this book are completly inane and character driven. Clarke is not a great character author, and I wish he would just realize this and stop writing them. He is a story guy and in the raw power of this story he once again amazes.
Also, I really am bother that all authors now have to have female lead characters.. I get it, women are em...more
Also, I really am bother that all authors now have to have female lead characters.. I get it, women are em...more
Much better than its predecessor, this book revealed some answers about the mysterious Rama object while simultaneously adding to its mystery. Very evocative and exciting, enough to inspire me to do some drawings of Rama's interior. The authors' techniques of teasing the reader with few answers and introducing even more mysterious objects, beings and phenomena felt like a deliberate attempt to get me to buy all the Rama books. As inspiring as this book was, it wasn't enough to make me co...more
The Ramans do everything in threes, including sequels. The trilogy preceded by Rendezvous with Rama is disappointing to many Arthur C. Clarke fans. I happen to really like it. Beginning with Rama II, this saga introduces a cavalcade of alien life, a broad spectrum of exotic situations, and a scientist or two who hasn’t forsaken religion.
This book also introduces one of my favorite characters: Nicole Desjardins—doctor, mother, explorer, fulfiller of prophecy. Her mystical upbringing m...more
This book also introduces one of my favorite characters: Nicole Desjardins—doctor, mother, explorer, fulfiller of prophecy. Her mystical upbringing m...more
I am glad I came back to this adventure by Arthur C. Clarke. I have not read a Clarke novel in a very long time and reading this one reminded me what I had been missing. As usual, the science fiction element is really fascinating but it is just a backdrop for a very close examination of human nature, faith, love and betrayal. The novel reads almost like a philosophical treatise at times. Especially interesting for me were the complex implications for our concept of God if ever we discover intel...more
Arthur C. Clarke's Rama, a giant cylindrical spacecraft that initially appears to be a ghost ship, is one of the greatest concepts in the history of science fiction, and Gentry Lee's attempt to shift focus away from Rama with exceptionally poor character-driven conflict is an insult to the strength of Clarke's biggest idea. The book doesn't even get off Earth until fourteen chapters in, and by then the characters have made complete asses of themselves, and continue to do so once inside Rama, whe...more
I found this sequel to Rendezvous with Rama to be good, but a bit too sensationalized and focused on the astronauts and their weird power plays. It reads like a business school case study about "managing in outerspace." What we all want to know about of course is the space ship known as Rama II. There are some wonderful descriptions, but I thought the text wandered too much and didn't have a reality feel to it. That's what I want, I guess, science fiction that doesn't feel fictiona...more
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Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._C...
More about Arthur C. Clarke...
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“In my life I have found two things of priceless worth - learning and loving. Nothing else - not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake - can possible have the same lasting value. For when your life is over, if you can say 'I have learned' and 'I have loved,' you will also be able to say 'I have been happy.”
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