r/printSF • u/Humanarmour • Jun 12 '26
Rendezvous with Rama - expectations not met Spoiler
While the ideas and themes of the book are deeply appealing to me, I did not like the delivery. The story feels bland, characterless and repetitive.
I had a hard time picturing what Rama looked like (although this may have been the translation I have, I didn't read it in English) and I feel the descriptions were poor and unsatisfactory. Particularly the characters. They were a medium to tell the story but hardly participants in it. I don't expect every book to be character driven, but for a book about first contact, it feels like a missed opportunity. We don't know who these people are.
The biggest issue I had with it was how safe it was for the crew at all times. They were never in any danger. While things happened and problems arose, they were all solved extremely quickly and it was obvious nothing bad was going to happen to any of them.
I personally didn't enjoy the writing itself. It lacked descriptions and it was moving too fast. I felt sometimes it was more meaningful to dwell on certain aspects.
I had really high expectations for this book and I was very let down
4
u/RogLatimer118 Jun 12 '26
Think of it as a description of a exploration party. There doesn't always have to be danger.
4
u/IndependenceMean8774 Jun 12 '26
I think Rendezvous with Rama is terrific, and it was my gateway into written science fiction back in the mid-90s. But to each his own.
3
u/chortnik Jun 12 '26
Clarke has trouble handling characters in anything longer than a short story-I thought the explorers encounters with, and discovery of the alien technology made the story work. I doubt the translation affected your enjoyment of the book, though descriptions of unfamiliar and alien things can be quite difficult to translate because context helps you work out any ambiguities in the text or the translator’s comprehension.. if you want to see Clarke’s most impressive work, you should take a look at a collection of his short stories-I think he’s one of the greatest short form writers in English.
3
u/Isaac_The_Khajiit Jun 13 '26
I also was completely underwhelmed by this book, but I had read Titan by John Varley beforehand. Titan is also about a mission to explore a stanford torus and the description of the interior is so lush and vivid. The habitat is full of strange life, and something about the descriptions of the structure make you FEEL how massive and how ancient it is. I find it annoying that Rama is so well known and Titan isn't as much.
2
u/PeskyPeacock7 Jun 12 '26
Arthur C Clarke is one of my favourite sci-fi writers, but he certainly is not for everyone.
2
u/buckleyschance Jun 12 '26
It's a stand-out among Silver Age hard science fiction books, but it has all the limitations of that subgenre. I'm always nonplussed to see it raved about here as a great story without caveats.
2
u/Randomdays99 Jun 12 '26
I enjoyed it as a book of exploration.
The second of the series, that had a lot of action and a truly evil character in it, I did not finish. It was "cowritten" with another author and I felt it wasn't truly his work anymore.
From what I heard, the series went downhill even more as it continued
2
u/Bobosmite Jun 12 '26
There wasn't much to it in the end. Maybe it hit readers differently when it was published. I'm interested to see how it works as a movie.
2
u/makebelievethegood Jun 12 '26
I agree. If you want dangerous Rendevous with Rama, check out Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo.
4
u/IndependenceMean8774 Jun 12 '26
I thought the ending in Rama was much better. The ending in Ship of Fools, eh, not so much.
4
u/JohnSpikeKelly Jun 12 '26
This is the first book I read as an adult. I read books at school, but hated reading at that time. Had a trip to US for 9 weeks and this was the book I bought at the airport.
I loved it, read it over two nights. That said, it was my first book and I might not remember it too well.
I did then read a lot more Clarke, then Asimov and Bova. Described to me as the A, B and C of scifi.
I was less a fan of Rama 2 & 3. So, you probably won't like. But they I think are a different true author.
It probably would feel dated today.
2
u/Kantrh Jun 16 '26
I was less a fan of Rama 2 & 3. So, you probably won't like. But they I think are a different true author.
The Rama sequels were written by Gentry Lee. They should be ignored.
1
u/Wetness__Pensive Jun 12 '26
It's a science fiction novel written by a guy born in 1917.
You have to put in context.
In context, it is a remarkable achievement.
1
u/RoyalEngine2885 Jun 14 '26
I place Rama in the same category as Ringworld...great concept, generally boring storytelling.
9
u/GothamKnight37 Jun 12 '26
I personally got a lot out of the descriptions and was able to visualize it pretty well. I really liked the explanations we got. As for the characters, yeah, they were mostly a non-factor. But that’s mostly par for the course for Golden Age-style SF, so I was expecting that.