Othy’s review of Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1) > Likes and Comments
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Your reveiw reminded me of how stale the characters were. I don't remember their names or any distinguishing features. They all combined into one big, cautious blob.
It's nice to know that somebody else read the same book I did. Although I read it a million years ago, what I remember was that nothing happened, then nothing else happened, and then more nothing happened. Then the "explorers" realized that they had to turn around and return to their ship or they'd be left without enough fuel to return to the solar system. On the way back, nothing happened.
The only thing worse than reading the book was playing the computer game on the Commodore 64. The disk drive would grind away for about a minute to show you 15 seconds of you flying a dragonfly over a vacant field. Sometimes the game would get stuck in a loop and show you the same field 100 times in a row, instead of the normal five times. Of course, since you were brain dead from the first three times, you usually didn't realize.
Good times.
Very nice review. I had the same problems with the book. I remember David Fincher wanted to adapt this into a movie which is why I picked it up in the first place. But I had to struggle getting to the end.
I first thought it was, because I couldn’t muster up the necessary amount of concentration required for a book like this, but apparently it might be that it’s simply badly written.
Thanks, I absolutely agree. This could have been my own review. Horrible language.
this is supposed to be an -adventure story-.
Really? What gave you that impression? I don't think this is supposed to be an adventure story at all, at least not in the usual sense of the word.
Agreed. Most likely the film has not been made yet cause they are figuring out how to make this dull science field trip into a script. I had the same issue with this as I did Ringworld...where the fuck are the actual ALIENS/CREATORS? I guess, I'm a standalone novel kind of guy.
Dr M wrote: "this is supposed to be an -adventure story-.
Really? What gave you that impression? I don't think this is supposed to be an adventure story at all, at least not in the usual sense of the word."
"Adventure" may be the wrong genre, you'r right, Dr. M. I think what I meant (when I wrote it) was that there needed to be a sense of exploration and wonder. I think a lot of my frustration and the harshness of the review was from wanting that sense but not finding it. It's always a poor reader who demands a book be what they want (as opposed to what the author wrote), but I felt that something in the book led me to want that sense of wonder. Perhaps it is better to say that the book set up the expectation and a grand wonder and yet did not come through - again, for me.
Ok. I admit the Arthur C. Clarke is a bit of an acquired taste, but the beauty of him is that he conveys so much suspense and excitement without really doing anything at all. If you fully immerse you self in the book, and imagine you are there, it opens up a whole new and broad type of thinking that was fully unnoticed before.
Thank you for the help in trying to understand the novel. Clark was my first real sci-do novelist, and I came to him from a rather different sort of beauty than he writes. I found in "Childhood' s End" a better appreciation of him, though I have always lamented my dislike of "Rama." Your post encourages me to return and reconsider the book. Thanks for posting!
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Jan 27, 2011 07:27AM
Your reveiw reminded me of how stale the characters were. I don't remember their names or any distinguishing features. They all combined into one big, cautious blob.
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It's nice to know that somebody else read the same book I did. Although I read it a million years ago, what I remember was that nothing happened, then nothing else happened, and then more nothing happened. Then the "explorers" realized that they had to turn around and return to their ship or they'd be left without enough fuel to return to the solar system. On the way back, nothing happened.The only thing worse than reading the book was playing the computer game on the Commodore 64. The disk drive would grind away for about a minute to show you 15 seconds of you flying a dragonfly over a vacant field. Sometimes the game would get stuck in a loop and show you the same field 100 times in a row, instead of the normal five times. Of course, since you were brain dead from the first three times, you usually didn't realize.
Good times.
Very nice review. I had the same problems with the book. I remember David Fincher wanted to adapt this into a movie which is why I picked it up in the first place. But I had to struggle getting to the end.I first thought it was, because I couldn’t muster up the necessary amount of concentration required for a book like this, but apparently it might be that it’s simply badly written.
Thanks, I absolutely agree. This could have been my own review. Horrible language.
this is supposed to be an -adventure story-.Really? What gave you that impression? I don't think this is supposed to be an adventure story at all, at least not in the usual sense of the word.
Agreed. Most likely the film has not been made yet cause they are figuring out how to make this dull science field trip into a script. I had the same issue with this as I did Ringworld...where the fuck are the actual ALIENS/CREATORS? I guess, I'm a standalone novel kind of guy.
Dr M wrote: "this is supposed to be an -adventure story-.Really? What gave you that impression? I don't think this is supposed to be an adventure story at all, at least not in the usual sense of the word."
"Adventure" may be the wrong genre, you'r right, Dr. M. I think what I meant (when I wrote it) was that there needed to be a sense of exploration and wonder. I think a lot of my frustration and the harshness of the review was from wanting that sense but not finding it. It's always a poor reader who demands a book be what they want (as opposed to what the author wrote), but I felt that something in the book led me to want that sense of wonder. Perhaps it is better to say that the book set up the expectation and a grand wonder and yet did not come through - again, for me.
Ok. I admit the Arthur C. Clarke is a bit of an acquired taste, but the beauty of him is that he conveys so much suspense and excitement without really doing anything at all. If you fully immerse you self in the book, and imagine you are there, it opens up a whole new and broad type of thinking that was fully unnoticed before.
Thank you for the help in trying to understand the novel. Clark was my first real sci-do novelist, and I came to him from a rather different sort of beauty than he writes. I found in "Childhood' s End" a better appreciation of him, though I have always lamented my dislike of "Rama." Your post encourages me to return and reconsider the book. Thanks for posting!
