Revisiting Rama
This morning I finished reading the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. It’s not a new series by any means, the first book was originally published in 1972, and the final was published back in 1993. I just got around to finishing it. I had read the original book years ago, before the series was completed. I decided to set it aside and wait so I could finish everything at once, then promptly forgot about it for a decade.
I’m glad I came back. I love a good science fiction yarn, but it’s even better when the technologies are plausible and the characters are real. The first book definitely accomplishes this. As the series continues we get beyond our current technological understanding, but we don’t overtly break the laws of physics. Everything has a reasonable explanation, even if it’s beyond what we humans can accomplish currently. That’s just the setting though, in fact the entire first book (though it can stand alone quite well,) is just setting the scene for the story that’s going to be told.
The real story begins in the second book, where we’re introduced to the main character which the next three books center around. The real story isn’t one of technological marvels, aliens, and space, though it certainly has all of those elements. Truly the story is one of Humanity. That flawed, violent, irrational, beautiful race from which we all hail. We see the best and the worst we have to offer illustrated in only a small sampling of the species.
I wasn’t very thrilled with some of the revelations at the end, but they’re not very concrete either, so there’s possibilities still. The series really succeeds in the human drama, and it’s drawn out across generations which is a nice touch. Towards the end we get a bit more of an epic scope as to what’s going on, and it’s interesting, but not fullfilling. I think really the glimpse at the epic is what is important, and not the actual revelation/conclusion.
Overall I’d give it a B. Good writing, good story, decent realism, but doesn’t live up to what it could have been.
It looks like Gentry Lee followed up a bit with more entries in the Rama universe. I suppose I’ll have to check them out, just for curiosity’s sake. More exciting though is that a movie has been announced for 2009. Morgan Freeman’s production company has been working on getting funds for this for quite a while, and it looks like it might finally happen. Nothing concrete yet, but I’m hopeful.
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