I have been going back to basics with my reading choices lately, stuff that I read or listened to the audiobook versions several times in my life. The 1st time I read Rendezvous with Rama was in 1996 and thereafter its 3 sequels.
I was so moved by the book(s) that I later got a Tattoo of it on my right arm that was misinterpreted so many times for a gun barrel I cannot even count that high lol. I always got lost in this book series and always thought there were more stories to tell in this universe. Parts of my novel, “The Great Change,” expand on some of these unexplored question(s).
I did this with the Odysseys Series too so I can get re-motivated here to get back to work on my Novel.
Rendezvous with Rama was written by Arthur C. Clarke and published in June of 1973. It won several awards, including both, The Nebula and Huge Awards for Best Novel.
Rendezvous with Rama is the story about Human’s 1st Contact with an Alien Intelligence in 2131 in the form of a 34-mile long Cylinder. After an asteroid falls in Northeast Italy in 2077, creating a major disaster, the government of Earth sets up the Spaceguard system as an early warning of arrivals from deep space.
The “Rama” of the title is an alien starship, initially mistaken for an asteroid categorized as “31/439”. It is detected by astronomers in the year 2131 while it is still outside the orbit of Jupiter. Its speed (100,000 km/h or 62,000 mph est) and the angle of its trajectory clearly indicate it is not on a long orbit around the sun, but comes from interstellar space.
The astronomers’ interest is further piqued when they realize the asteroid has an extremely rapid rotation period of 4 minutes and is exceptionally large. It is named Rama after the Hindu god, and an unmanned space probe dubbed Sita is launched from the Mars moon Phobos to intercept and photograph it. The resulting images reveal that Rama is a perfect cylinder,12 miles in diameter and 34 miles long, and completely featureless, making this humankind’s first encounter with an alien spacecraft.
The manned solar survey vessel, Endeavour, is sent to study Rama, as it is the only ship close enough to reach the ship in the brief period Rama will spend in our solar system.
Endeavor manages to rendezvous with Rama one month after it first comes to Earth’s attention, when the alien ship is already inside Venus’ orbit.
They are able to dock with the ship and enter inside to discover wonders not even their imaginations can run away from…