Hardcover, 303 pages
English language
Published Aug. 13, 1973 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
In his best novel since the classic Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke has made something quite new and wholly engrossing out of a familiar, eternally irresistible theme, mankind's first encounter with a visitant from unimaginably remote deeps of space and time.
The new celestial body that appears in the outer reaches of our solar system in 2130, believed at first to be an asteroid, and named Rama bu earthlings, soon proves not to be a natural object. It is a vast cylinder—about thirty-one miles long and twelve and a half across, with a mass of at least ten trillion tons—that is moving steadily closer to the Sun. The five-thousand-ton spaceship Endeavor lands on Rama, and when Commander Bill Norton and his crew make their way into its hollow interior they find a whole self-contained world—a world that has been cruising through space for at least 200,000 years and perhaps …
In his best novel since the classic Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke has made something quite new and wholly engrossing out of a familiar, eternally irresistible theme, mankind's first encounter with a visitant from unimaginably remote deeps of space and time.
The new celestial body that appears in the outer reaches of our solar system in 2130, believed at first to be an asteroid, and named Rama bu earthlings, soon proves not to be a natural object. It is a vast cylinder—about thirty-one miles long and twelve and a half across, with a mass of at least ten trillion tons—that is moving steadily closer to the Sun. The five-thousand-ton spaceship Endeavor lands on Rama, and when Commander Bill Norton and his crew make their way into its hollow interior they find a whole self-contained world—a world that has been cruising through space for at least 200,000 years and perhaps for more than a million. They have, at most, three weeks to explore Rama: a dead world, as it seems at first, though not without its perils, and with intensifying perils when it proves to be, in its own astonishing way, very much alive. Yet in the end it is Homo sapiens who poses the greatest menace, and whose exploits bring a continuously absorbing narrative to its highest pitch of excitement.
Solidly based in science made lucid for the layman, audaciously imaginative, at once visionary and subtly ironical in its final impact, Rendezvous with Rama is Arthur c. Clarke at the dazzling top of his form.
Very little sci fi is still talked about decades later. And often, that which is, how the author was a huge asshole/sexist/etc. is a part of that conversation.
I haven't heard any of that about Arthur C. Clarke. And the book is still solid both in it's sci fi and its politics. If anything, it's more optimistic than more modern fair.
I really enjoyed it, albeit that it took a bit to get though.
Tal y como dice otro comentario: "[...]it's 50% description of a docking maneuver, and 50% setup for an exciting book[...]". Y así es, dan ganas de leer las siguientes novelas de la saga porque esta deja muchos hilos por atar. Pongo cinco estrellas porque es de un grande y como episodio piloto me ha gustado bastante, aunque revisaré mi valoración cuando lea el resto de la saga.
... that is, it's 50% description of a docking maneuver, and 50% setup for an exciting book.
I guess that makes it one of those books you should read once, but I didn't manage to enjoy it much.
