Garden of Rama - Softcover

Clarke, Arthur C And Gentry Lee.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857230205 ISBN 13: 9781857230208

Publisher: Orbit, 1992

Synopsis

In the year 2130 a mysterious spaceship, Rama, arrived in the solar system. It was huge - big enough to contain a city and a sea - and empty, apparently abandoned. By the time Rama departed for its next, unknown, destination many wonders had been uncovered, but few mysteries solved. Only one thing was everything the enigmatic builders of Rama did, they did in threes.Eighty years later the second alien craft arrived in the solar system. This time, Earth had been waiting. But all the years of preparation were not enough to unlock the Raman enigma.Now Rama II is on its way out of the solar system. Aboard it are three humans, two men and a woman, left behind when the expedition departed. Ahead of them lies the unknown, a voyage no human has ever experienced. And at the end of it - and who could tell how many years away that might be? - may lie the truth about Rama...

About this title

About the Author

Arthur C. Clarke has long been considered the greatest science fiction writer of all time and was an international treasure in many other ways, including the fact that an article by him in 1945 led to the invention of satellite technology. Books by Clarke—both fiction and nonfiction—have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. He died in 2008.

From Kirkus Reviews

Picking up where Rama II (1989) left off, this latest effort from Clarke and Lee is as disappointing as their others. Nicole, Richard and Michael--the three cosmonauts trapped on the Rama II ship as it headed out of our solar system--muddle along together as the ship accelerates toward Sirius. After a 12-year trip, during which Nicole bears five children, the family arrives at the Node, a giant space station where they undergo extensive tests before being sent back to Earth in a refurbished Rama vessel with accommodations for 2000 human specimens. The Rama colony is established with remarkably little strife, but as the new Rama departs our system again, an unpleasant criminal element arises to challenge Nicole's peaceful, enlightened leadership. The turgid pace and lengthy digressive lumps make this installment a chore to read, and Nicole's unflagging pious virtue is an endless irritation. Worse, there is an utter lack of traditional sf strengths: the people, cultures, and habits of this 23rd century are hardly different from our own--instead, the authors settle for unsubtle parallels to modern perils such as AIDS, ecological disaster, and totalitarian repression--and all of the speculative concepts are shopworn. Crude attempts to jumpstart the reader's sense of wonder with repeated insistence that the characters are awed, amazed, and overwhelmed by the rather routine vistas they encounter serve only to underline the lack of the genuine goods here. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Orbit
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857230205
• ISBN 13: 9781857230208
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 593