Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

OK, so it's been a while since I read this book (~Sep 08, I think), but I've always wanted to say something about it. I didn't come across any notable quotes - or - I didn't remark on any in particular, but I really enjoyed this book.

I think Morgan Freeman has been trying for years to get this made into a movie. At one point, I think David Fincher was attached to the project, but, unfortunately it's stuck in development hell at the moment.

I'm not sure how it would translate to film, although and not surprisingly since Arthur C. Clarke wrote it too, this book reminded me a lot of 2001.

This book was very interesting as it was more 'Hard Science Fiction' than what I usually read in the genre. Most of the 'Science Fiction' I read tends to be on the 'Adventure' side.

The book is about humans in the not-too-distant future (when it was written, it was probably the very-distant-future though), having spread out across the solar system and colonized other planets and/or moons of other planets, discovering a celestial body that is fast approaching our solar system. It is determined that this object, due to it's dimensions, and later a change in it's trajectory, is a non-organic object. They decide to send a ship to intercept it and study it.

The scientists aboard are then tasked with examining the craft and boarding it if possible to determine it's objective. This mission is time sensitive as the object, now dubbed Rama, is on a direct heading for our Sun.

The entire book from then on is an exploration of the ship, which is configured like an inverted planet (imagine land masses, and bodies of water and features that look like cities that are on the inside of a tube shaped crust - the outer hull of the ship) and the theories about Rama's purpose that arise from the landing party's expedition on Rama.


These theories, as relayed to the different human representatives on any and all human inhabited colonies, raises a lot of questions about Rama's true purpose and what it means to the human race as a whole and our solar system. It also becomes a very political situation as the different representatives/colonies each have their own interpretation of what Rama is and how to resolve the issue.

Is it a message sent by other life forms? Is it a rescue ship trying to save us from an impending galactic cataclysm? Is it meant for humans? Is it a threat? Do we blow it up? Do we let it crash into our Sun to be destroyed forever?...

The great thing about this book is that, it always leaves those questions open and never answers them fully. So, all the questions that the reader comes up with remain just that. It feels like a study on human behavior, and how humans react to the unknown.

I won't give the ending away, as it's worth the read, but I'll just say that it's nothing that any of the represented characters comes up with. In the end, the solution is very simple and possibly even obvious, but human nature prevented that solution from ever being presented and/or considered. Ultimately, I feel like that was the point of the story, to explore or critique that one aspect of human nature, which represents our collective arrogance and self-importance.

I thought it was very interesting. And, if it ever gets put to film, I'd be very interested in seeing how they handle those themes.

That's all for now. The date will probably be off, but I'm writing this on Dec. 18. So Happy Holidays! See you next year.