 First UK edition[1] | |
| Author | Arthur C. Clarke |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Bruce Pennington[2] |
| Language | English |
| Series | Rama series |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | June 1973 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 256 69,048 words[3] |
| Awards | Hugo Award for Best Novel,Locus Award for Best Novel,Nebula Award for Best Novel,John W. Campbell Memorial Award |
| ISBN | 0-575-01587-X |
| Followed by | Rama II |
Rendezvous with Rama is a 1973science fiction novel by British writerArthur C. Clarke. Set in the 2130s, the story involves a 50-by-20-kilometre (31-by-12-mile)cylindrical alienstarship that enters theSolar System. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. The novel won theHugo,Locus, andNebula awards upon its release, and is regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. The concept was later extended with several sequels, written by Clarke andGentry Lee.
An asteroid strikes Italy in 2077, prompting the creation of theSpaceguard system to trackpotentially hazardous objects in space. In 2131, Spaceguard detects aninterstellar object entering the Solar System, designating it "31/439" before naming itRama after theHindu god. A space probe reveals that Rama is a perfectly smooth cylinder 50 kilometres (31 mi) long and 20 kilometres (12 mi) in diameter, indicating that it was constructed by intelligent beings.
Endeavour is sent to study Rama, being the only ship close enough to do so. The crew navigates through a tripleairlock system and descends one of three identical staircases. Inside Rama, they discover two plains that stretch across the interior circumference, divided by a frozen body of water they name the Cylindrical Sea. They identify several city-sized clusters of geometric structures, which they name after major cities on Earth. The United Planets follows their progress closely, and scientists are assembled to form a Rama Committee that considers theories and advises Commander Norton.
As Rama drifts closer to the sun, the Cylindrical Sea melts, the temperature shift causes a storm, and three massive lights activate on each plain to illuminate the world. Boris Rodrigo, a crewman who adheres to a space-inspired sect of Christianity, suggests that Rama is a newNoah's Ark that will change course to begin orbiting the sun. The crew floats across the Cylindrical Sea on a raft to reach an island they name New York, and a sample of the water reveals the presence of microorganisms. The structures in New York are positioned in patterns of three, without any openings, and their purpose is unidentifiable.
The crewman Jimmy Pak approaches Norton to admit that he smuggled asky-bike onto their ship and offers to fly it above a cliff to reach the southern plain. He flies to the other end of Rama, which is defined by a large spike several kilometres in length and surrounded by smaller spikes. Pak realizes that a static field is building around the spikes, which then emits a concussion that knocks his sky-bike out of the air and destroys it, stranding him in the southern plain. As he recovers from the crash, a crab-like creature arrives to disassemble the sky-bike and dispose of its parts. Pak is unable to determine whether the creature is biological or robotic.
Pak explores the patchwork terrain of the southern plain while he waits for rescue. He finds a single alien flower, which he takes. A rescue crew arrives on the raft, and Pak jumps from the cliff into the Cylindrical Sea so they can pull him aboard. A course change by Rama triggers a series of large waves, but Sergeant Ruby Barnes navigates them to safety. They see a damaged starfish-like creature emerge from the sea, and shark-like creatures arrive to disassemble it.
After returning to their camp, a spider-like creature with three eyes and three legs studies all of their equipment. More arrive, and one falls from a higher platform to its destruction. Surgeon-Commander Laura Ernst takes the opportunity to dissect the creature and finds that it is both biological and robotic, so they conclude that the creatures were designed by the Ramans and begin referring to them asbiots. The government ofMercury, having decided that Rama is too dangerous, launches a nuclear weapon to destroy it. Rodrigo intercepts the missile and disarms it, taking advantage of the 12-minute time lag for radio communication between it and Mercury.
The crew prepares to evacuate as Rama gets too close to the sun. For their final expedition, they visit a city with a laser and cut a hole into the side of a structure. Inside they find a collection of holograms that provide details on various Raman artefacts, including a suit designed for a three-legged humanoid. As they leave, the biots return to the sea to be disassembled and the lights begin to dim. The crew boardsEndeavour and leaves Rama. Rama changes course to move directly toward the sun and moves alongside it to gather energy. It then activates aspace drive to propel itself out of the Solar System in the direction of theLarge Magellanic Cloud. After Rama leaves, a member of the Rama Committee considers that the Ramans do everything in threes.
John Leonard ofThe New York Times, while finding Clarke "benignly indifferent to the niceties of characterization", praised the novel for conveying "that chilling touch of the alien, the not-quite-knowable, that distinguishes sci-fi at its most technically imaginative".[4] Other reviewers have also commented on Clarke's lack of character development and overemphasis on realism.[5]
The novel received the following awards:
The interior of Rama is essentially a large cylindrical landscape, dubbed "The Central Plain" by the crew, 16 kilometres in diameter and nearly 50 long, withartificial gravity provided by its 0.25 rpm spin. It is split into the "northern" and "southern" plains, divided in the middle by a 10-km-wide expanse of water the astronauts dub the "Cylindrical Sea". In the centre of the Cylindrical Sea is an island of unknown purpose covered in tall, skyscraper-like structures, which the astronauts name "New York" due to an imagined similarity toManhattan. At each end of the ship are North and South "Poles". The North Pole is effectively thebow and the South Pole thestern, as Rama accelerates in the direction of the north pole and its drive system is at the South Pole.
The North Pole contains Rama's airlocks, and is where theEndeavour lands. The airlocks open into the hub of the massive bowl shaped cap at the North Pole, with three 8-kilometre-long stair systems, called Alpha, Beta, and Gamma by the crew, leading to the plain.
The Northern plain contains several small "towns" interconnected by roads, dubbed London, Paris, Peking, Tokyo, Rome, and Moscow. The South Pole has a giant cone-shaped protrusion ("Big Horn") surrounded by six smaller ones ("Little Horns"), which are thought to be part of Rama's reactionlessspace drive.
Both ends of Rama are lit by giant trenches (three in the northern plain and three in the south), equidistantly placed around the cylinder, effectively functioning as giant strip lighting.
Clarke paired up withGentry Lee for the remainder of the series. Lee wrote while Clarke read and made editing suggestions.[8] The focus and style of the last three novels are quite different from those of the original with an increased emphasis oncharacterisation and clearly-portrayed heroes and villains, rather than Clarke's dedicated professionals. These later books did not receive the same critical acclaim and awards as the original.[citation needed]
Gentry Lee also wrote two further novels set in the sameRama Universe.
Agraphic adventurecomputer game of the same name with atext parser based on the book was made in 1984 byTrillium and ported to other systems such as the Apple II and Commodore 64. Despite its primitive graphics, it had highly detailed descriptions, and it followed the book very closely along with having puzzles to solve during the game.
In Spain there was an official adaptation for the 2nd generationMSX computers calledCita con Rama that took advantage of the MSX's ability to produce (at the time) high-quality graphics.[9] It was adapted from the Clarke novel in 1983 by Ron Martinez, who went on to design the massively multiplayer online game10Six, also known asProject Visitor.[10]
Sierra Entertainment createdRama in 1996 as a point and click adventure game in the style ofMyst. Along with highly detailed graphics, Arthur C. Clarke also appeared in the game as the guide for the player. This game featured characters from the sequel bookRama II.
In 2009,BBC Radio 4 produced a two-part radio adaptation of the book as part of a science-fiction season. It was adapted byMike Walker, and was broadcast on 1 March 2009 (Part 1) and 8 March 2009 (Part 2).[11]
In the early 2000s, actorMorgan Freeman expressed his desire to produce a film based onRendezvous with Rama. The film has been stuck in "development hell" for many years. In 2003, after initial problems procuring funding, it appeared the project would go into production.[12] The film was to be produced by Freeman's production company,Revelations Entertainment.David Fincher, touted on Revelations'Rama web page as far back as 2001,[13] stated in a late 2007 interview that he was still attached to helm.[14]
By late 2008, David Fincher stated the movie was unlikely to be made. "It looks like it's not going to happen. There's no script and as you know, Morgan Freeman's not in the best of health right now. We've been trying to do it but it's probably not going to happen."[15]
In 2010, Freeman stated in an interview that he was still planning to make the project but that it has been difficult to find the right script. He also stated that it should be made in3D.[16] In January 2011, Fincher stated in an interview withMTV that he was still planning to make the film after he had completed work on his planned remake ofTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (which was scheduled to begin production in 2012 but has since been scrapped[17]). He also reiterated Freeman's concerns about the difficulty of finding the right script.[18]
In an interview withNeil deGrasse Tyson in February 2012, Freeman indicated an interest in playing the role of Commander Norton for the film, stating that "my fantasy of commanding a starship is commanding Endeavour". Tyson then asked, "So is this a pitch to be ... that person if they ever make that movie?" to which Freeman reaffirmed, "Weare going to make that movie." In response to a plea to "make that come out sooner rather than later", Freeman reiterated that difficulty in authoring a high quality script is the primary barrier for the film, stating "... the only task you have that's really really hard in making movies, harder than getting money, is getting a script ... a good script".[19]
In December 2021, it was announced that the film was in development atAlcon Entertainment withDenis Villeneuve set to direct. Morgan Freeman andLori McCreary are on the production team because their Revelations Entertainment previously owned the rights.[20] Alcon co-CEOsBroderick Johnson andAndrew Kosove will produce.[21] As of February 2024, Villeneuve was in the process of writing the script.[22]
| LINEAR NEAT Spacewatch LONEOS | CSS Pan-STARRS NEOWISE other |
Clarke created the space study program which detects Rama, Project Spaceguard, as a method of identifyingnear-Earth objects on Earth-impacttrajectories; in the novel it was initiated in 2077. A real project namedSpaceguard was initiated in 1992, named after Clarke's fictional project and "with the permission and encouragement of Clarke".[23] After interest in the dangers of asteroid strikes was heightened by a series of Hollywooddisaster films, the United States Congress gave NASA authorisation and funding to support Spaceguard. By 2017, there were a number of different efforts to detect potentially dangerous asteroids.
On 19 October 2017 an incoming interstellar object was discovered byPan-STARRS, a system similar to Spaceguard. Like Rama, the object had an unusually elongated shape. Before the officialHawaiian nameʻOumuamua was selected by theInternational Astronomical Union, a popular choice wasRama.[24][25]