Rama II - Arthur C. Clarke

(Totally Updated) Rama 2 is the follow on to the highly acclaimed "Rendezvous with Rama", a science fiction story dealing with the exploration of an alien spacecraft of gigantic proportions by a small group of human astronauts. Clarke mentions that further books beyond the original were never planned, and that the last sentence of the original "The Ramans do everything in threes" was simply the best way to end the book, although to me it was pretty inevitable that at least a sequel would be produced. However towards the end of the 1980's, Clarke found that he was short of ideas and returned to the Rama story for inspiriation when ...  Read the complete review

It was pretty much inevitable that this follow-up to Arthur C Clarke's classic 'Rendezvous With Rama' would disappoint, and it certainly did. At the dawn of the 23rd century, another Raman space ship is detected heading towards our Solar System. This time, a crew of Earth's best and brightest minds is assembled to investigate, armed with what little knowledge was collected by the crew of the last rendezvous. The visitors represent a wide range of professions including a well-known and respected journalist who will send reports back to Earth from the craft. While the story was notably weaker than that of 'Rendezvous With ...  Read the complete review