Rendezvous With Rama

Rendezvous With Rama wasn't as good as I was expecting. Then again, expectation can be a killer for books with Hugo awards and other prestigious accolades running back decades. Published in 1973, Arthur C. Clarke's writing style makes the book feel dated.

Even though old fashioned in literary structure, it touches on futuristic topics such as solid-state technology and space drives and, together with its mild cosmic horror elements, gradually builds up the pace instead of smashing down on action like a ton of falling bricks.

I even learned some new words, such as 'perihelion' - the closest point of an orbit to the sun!

But this is a sedate read and not a lot happens.

Rama itself is an unexplored extraterrestrial planet and a group of astronauts/scientists 'rendezvous' with it to find out why it's suddenly in our galaxy and whether it's a threat, a useful resource or something else? It's all a mystery at this point.

Rama is an intriguing concept that comes across as lightweight and basic because of the overly polite writing style, reading more like a polite whitepaper on sci-fi theories than an exciting novel.

Highly rated in many circles, with an average rating of 4.12 on Goodreads, unfortunately it's full of clean-cut dialogue that handholds you like a child. It self-justifies every event with superfluous conversations instead of getting on with the plot.

Rama enters into our solar system, gets explored, crew members politely talk in an after-you-sir manner and fail to get into any battles or shoot a single laser shot. It ends with speculative ruminations about the futile point of our existence at why we're all alone in the galaxy with no alternatives. We can reach other planets like Mars and Venus at a stretch, but that's about it.

It has elements of The Forever War by Joe Halderman to it, but has none of the action that makes The Forever War such an exciting read.

Character development is thin also and all they do is explore and radio back. Imagine landing on the moon, descending the steps, jumping onto the planet for the first time as though being broadcast on TV, while relaying the facts to home command. Like a documentary.

The waffle, continuous conjecture and chitchat between officers is tasteful and boring.

At 50% the action thankfully picks up and there's a fascinating albeit ridiculous journey by dragonfly-powered bicycle from one hemisphere to another. The aliens are described in detail as well, but there are no conflicts or fights or even heated conversations.

Also, the concept of a rising horizon (instead of a disappearing one) is interesting, with long-distance viewpoints going upwards into a rising spherical dome. The sea goes up into the sky, way off in the distance. This idea is probably borrowed from 2001: A Space Odyssey, published five years earlier in 1968, and if you've seen the move, you'll appreciate the amazing artwork.

But Rama is an oddly placid book that's restricted in scope.

It doesn't set the world on fire and I'm surprised it was written in 1973 because it feels older, and is just about worth the effort to know you've read something by Arthur C. Clarke.