Title: Rama II
Author: Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 382
Rating: 4/5
This book sees a return to Rama, which was of particular interest to me because Rendezvous with Rama has been my favourite of all of Arthur C. Clarke’s books. It’s also worth noting that the plan was never to write a sequel, but as we know from this book’s predecessor, the Ramans tend to do things in threes.
Gentry Lee is an interesting character for Clarke to co-write with, because he’s a former NASA employee who’s almost as passionate about space flight and science fiction as Clarke is. He’s also a published author in his own right, although I haven’t read any of his stuff.
Now, there’s no need to worry about two authors working together, because it’s an easy read that feels cohesive and not at all fragmented like some of the other collaborative books that I’ve come across. And I mean, come on. It’s Rama.
The premise here is that another Rama comes along and the citizens of the Earth decide to send another mission to it. This time, we know roughly what to expect because of the previous mission, and there’s even a goal of capturing one of the biots. There’s also another, top-secret mission that only the higher-ups are aware of, but I’m not going to tell you what that is for risk of ruining it.
And like the best of Arthur C. Clarke’s books, this is very much a human novel, and I loved the way that the characters interact with each other. Even though they’re all on this mission together, they all have their own reasons for being there, and that occasionally forces them into conflict with one another.
Perhaps the most important thing of all though is that we get to learn a lot more about Rama and the civilisation that created it, although we’re still left with more questions than answers. The ending is left open nicely too, which makes a lot of sense given that we know that the Ramans do things in threes.
Now I just need to track down a copy of the next book, and I believe there’s also one after that. God, I love Rama.
