Perhaps it is the cynic in me, or perhaps it is just a bit too much Lovecraft (I’m looking at you At the Mountains of Madness), but the notion that our First Contact will be with a species so similar to ourselves seems somehow quaint.Įven more fascinating is the fact that for all its exploration, for all the questions Rama environment raises, Clarke offers very few, in fact almost no, definite answers. While the Raman’s are a total mystery the construction and purpose behind Rama itself remains almost completely within the realm of human comprehension sketching a picture of a species not so dissimilar from humanity as to be completely alien. Clarke’s universe while still full of mystery is one that is still supported and defined by the majority of the laws of physics and science that we know. Perhaps one of the most fascinating things about Rendezvous With Rama is the hopeful stance Clarke takes regarding humanity’s ability to make seemingly logical, and supposedly correct, conjecture about technology beyond our own capability. For the remainder of the short novel Rama is explored and questions are asked as the men who run the solar system attempt to determine Rama’s intent and its presence means for humanity. The spaceship Endeavor is diverted to land on the object, dubbed Rama, and it’s crew are ordered to probe its mysteries.

It is quickly uncovered that this is no mere asteroid but a enormous manufactured object from far outside man’s reach. Rendezvous With Rama begins with the appearance of a mysterious object on the edge of the solar system. It is a fascinating inverse wherein rather than examining our past these future mysteries force us to examine our future and question our place in the universe at large. The derelict spaceship, the abandoned space station, the lost space colony all of these are a sort of transcribed genre stand-in to the dusty mansions and abandoned ruins employed in other fiction from mystery to horror to adventure. Even now I still catch myself wondering, during some idle moments, exactly who the space jockey was or what it was doing, where the Event Horizon really went, just what happened aboard the Elysium, and I still Tremain woefully disappointed about the lack of exploration aboard the Destiny. The mystery, the excitement, the hint of threat in the empty corridors push all the right buttons.

I should perhaps start with saying, as I have said before ( see here), that I’m a sucker for derelict spaceships.

What can one say about Rendezvous With Rama? A winner of just about every sf award ever and more or less a universal classic of the genre it has taken me years to finally get around to reading it.

Arthur clarke rendezvous with rama