Rama II (Rama Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

When the charcters eventually start exploring the new Rama spacecraft things get a little more interesting, but there are some silly details. The lifeforms they discover are sometimes unbelieveable. The disorganised actions of the characters suggest that they are not the super-intelligent group they are supposed to be.

I have now read all the Rama books and this one is the worst. I have read the whole series and found them all to be (except for the first book) a trudge at times, but something compelled me to finish them. I guess I wanted to see what happened and something kept me reading. This book is not awful but it doesn't read like other Arthur C Clarke books. The scientific prose with the uplifting sense of wonder is absent and it reads more like an average book at times. Disappointing but I still enjoyed bits of it.

The plodding and laboured descriptions of the most mundane and irrelevant elements make for frustrating reading if you've been hooked into the mystery and pacing of Rendevous. Background information that Clarke could condense effectively into a single line in Rendevous seem here to be painfully spread out over half a page or more at times.

It is saddening to see what I consider one of the best sci-fi novels of all time have its legacy soured by this and the following series of weak books. I would rather have never known Rama's secrets at all than have them delivered like this.

In fact, if Clarke still has it in him, I'd love to see him write just one Rendevous-sized follow-up that replaces the Gentry Lee sequels and reinstates the mystery and suspense for future generations to enjoy.

I read the first Rama and was gripped by the fasinating scenario; the exploration and wonder of the Rama craft was original and exciting. The book mixed the greatest of sci-fi and great action and was an excellent read -- Rama II is none of these things.
What was Clarke thinking? I agree with him that the characters needed fleshing out, but not put in place of the science. We learn almost nothing new about Rama or its inhabitants. The few creatures we do meet are ridiculously simplistic and can be found in any cheap hollywood flick. The narrative is rambling to the extreme; at one point one of the characters has to enter a 50 digit code, but instead of getting on with the story Clarke rambles on for two pages and descibes to us how the character came to decided on each digit of the code! Ridiculous!

The story goes in depth into a possible conspiracy within the crew; we get chapters and chapters of clues and hints as to who is the culprit and then the story ends...nothing! We never even find out if there is a conspiracy!

Arthur's trademark desciptions of the space voyages are missing here. One minute you are at a party and you litterally turn the page and they are at the space ship. What happened?!

In conclusion, this -- if it were by another author -- could be considered okay; but as this is one of he greatest sci-fi writers even, this novel is pure drivel. If you liked the original, don't ruin it by buying this.