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Monday, November 17, 2008

Just Couldn’t Finish Reading: RAMA Revealed by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee.

I read the first book in this long running trilogy – Rendezvous with RAMA – in my youth and was suitably impressed. I don’t actually remember much about the sequel except for the fact that I read it some years back. So after reading a string of modern novels by (fairly) new authors I thought I’d pick up a book that has been literally collecting dust and finish the series off.

The book started off slowly and laid some foundations regarding the human occupation of the alien construct known as RAMA. Slowly it built characters and situations and introduced new elements. Slowly it expanded the exploration of the giant cylinder and its many strange inhabitants. I did feel on more than one occasion a bit like I did while watching the first Star Trek movie. The characters in that less than shining example of the genre seemed to spend most of their time gaping at the special effects as if to pass on their amazement to the audience. Well, it didn’t work in the movie and it didn’t work here either. As amazing as the object was and as amazing as the many creatures encountered in the first 214 pages were (that is as far as I got, not being able to work up enough enthusiasm to read the other 263) I was quite frankly bored senseless by the glacial pace of this novel. Although it contained fairly interesting characters, after 10 days of reading – yes at a mere 21 pages a day – I honestly couldn’t care if they lived or died, nor did I care if RAMA arrived at its final destination nor if the secret of the alien ship was finally revealed. After 10 turgid days I was about the give up the will to live – but instead I decided to give up on this book. This is a very rare event indeed. I have criticised bad books in the past on this blog but have at least finished them. Not so with this poor excuse for Science Fiction. Sorry Arthur, but as much as I have enjoyed your work in the past this was a true stinker of a novel. At least I had the good sense to abandon it now rather than struggle with it for another week or more. A truly awful book.

9 comments:

Neo said...

I read the first one Rendezvous with Rama years ago as a kid and really enjoyed it, don't remember alot it was so long ago... but do remember I could hardly put it down. The one I read by Arthur Clarke that I thought was a waste of book shelf space, paper and time was Emperial Earth was quite boring
Did you ever read A Fall of Moondust? quite exciting.

wstachour said...

Interesting. I also read the first Rama book and was thrilled (teenager and all). Don't remember reading a sequel, but I suspect I did.

But I think I tried to read Rama again a few years back and realized I had quite left Arthur C. Clarke behind (style-wise; he had a respectable visionary mind for a certain kind of science).

I guess I'll forget about this sequel which I didn't even know existed!

dbackdad said...

Ditto for me. Read Rendevous a long time ago, and as far as I know didn't get around to the other one.

Favorite Clarke books for me would probably be Rama and Childhood's End.

CyberKitten said...

Neo said: Did you ever read A Fall of Moondust? quite exciting.

Yes I did - about 30 years ago now. I remember it being rather good and gripping.

wunelle said: But I think I tried to read Rama again a few years back and realized I had quite left Arthur C. Clarke behind..

He does feel rather 'old fashioned' these days....

dbackdad said: Favorite Clarke books for me would probably be Rama and Childhood's End.

I've read most of his stuff. Good solid SF in the main.

Dili said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dili said...

The thing you need to note is ACC on his own is fantastic. Its when he collaborates with someone that things start to fall apart. The only ACC+somebody book i like was Against/Beyond the fall of night with Gregory Benford.

I really recommend you try and find ACC's short stories, especially the earliest ones and the Tales from the White Hart. There's a book called the "The Collected Stories" which has all his published short stories in chronological order. Not only are most of them exciting, they are some of the funniest SF ive ever read. Its in stark contrast to his later works. It'll restore any of your faith i'm sure :)

My fave is Songs of Distant Earth. Both Short and Long versions. :)

P.S. Sorry about the deleted comment, linked the wrong page :)

Karlo said...

I've found a lot of Clarke's novels to be a bit dull, full of the techno-sci-fi stories that I don't much care for.

Antimatter said...

I read these books ages ago. Clarke's great in general, but if I'm not mistaken the Rama sequels were actually written by Gentry Lee with story outlines provided by Clarke. In any case, it's a poor book; be thankful you didn't read till the end...

CyberKitten said...

Dili said: I really recommend you try and find ACC's short stories, especially the earliest ones and the Tales from the White Hart.

I've read them ages ago and really enjoyed them. I just guess that I've outgrown Clarke. Its interesting what you said about his collaberations though... Oh, and welcome. If you're into SF there's usually something here fairly regularly about that genre.

karlo said: I've found a lot of Clarke's novels to be a bit dull, full of the techno-sci-fi stories that I don't much care for.

Oh, I like techno-sci-fi stories (as you might have guessed). Clarke can be a bit...... slow paced though.

wunelle said: I'm not mistaken the Rama sequels were actually written by Gentry Lee with story outlines provided by Clarke. In any case, it's a poor book; be thankful you didn't read till the end...

Ah, so they were just using his name to get people to read 'em? I am indeed thankful that I didn't continue with it. Your comment makes me feel much better about my decision!