Rama II

Rama Series, Book 2

By: Arthur C. Clarke

Narrated by: Toby Longworth

The sequel to Rendezvous with Rama: the only SF novel to sweep all SF awards and one of the best sellers of all time.

In 2130, an alien spaceship, Rama, entered our solar system. The first product of an alien civilisation to be encountered by man, it revealed many wonders to mankind; but most of its mysteries remained unsolved.…

Sixty-six years later, a second approaching spacecraft was detected; four years on, the Ramans are definitely returning. But this time, Earth is ready. And maybe now, with the arrival of Rama II, some of the questions posed by Rama will at last be answered.

Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, in 1917. During the Second World War he served as an RAF radar instructor, rising to the rank of Flight-Lieutenant. After the war he won a BSc in physics and mathematics with first-class honours from King's College, London. One of the most respected of all science-fiction writers, he also won Kalinga Prize, The Aviation Space-Writers' Prize, and The Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. He shared an OSCAR nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his story, The Sentinel. He lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008.

©1989 Arthur C. Clarkes & Gentry Lee (P)2014 Audible Studios

A journey in time

I really enjoy the the story and I will continue to recommande it to my friends. Very interesting reading for all sci-fi readers.

Rama II begins weakly; end is stronger

Rendezvous with Rama dealt with “hard science”. The explorers docked with Rama and we accompanied them on their explorations, as the ship came to life. Rama II begins with uninteresting character backstories, interpersonal drama, conspiracies and crew member duplicity, eye-roll inducing romance scenes - generally those elements that are never science fiction writers’ strong suits. The last third of the book gets better, as part of the crew continue discovering the mysteries of the Rama spacecraft. Although I wasn’t blown away with Rama II, I will continue with Book III, The Garden of Rama, to see where the story goes.

Boring

What was most disappointing about Arthur C. Clarke’s story?

The book goes on and on about each character and the past. really bad and boring. Skipped many chapters and tried to get to the actual story..........

Unbelievably disappointing 😞

As someone who read Rendezvous, I was excited to get another dose of space exploration wonderland. What I got was a drawn out story focused on a bunch of quarrelsome sociopaths. Could not finish it. I will say that the readers performance was impressive.

Waste of time

If you liked the first book then you will hate this one. Chapter 17, and drones have entered Rama 2, the rest is character building, and I mean LOTS of character building and quite a heavy push into mysticism and religion. Don’t waste your time.
PS: The narrator was superb.

Boring soap opera!

I love Rendezvous with Rama.

I was thoroughly bored with the tedious "character development" of the plastic cosmonauts and their tiresome flirtations. Halfway through the book and I was done.

I usually finish every book that I start. But I couldn't face any more of this turgid soap opera and finally had to admit defeat!