The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 1 June 2025
by Arthur C. Clarke
This 1973 book has long since been elevated to the pantheon of classic science-fiction novels and comes from one of the best writers of the genre. Clarke is famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey and the themes here are not dissimilar, as is the case with several of his books. It's a couple centuries into the future, and much of the solar system is transformed by human exploration and a couple of natural transformations on Earth. An asteroid has wiped out some European cities. The Mediterranean sea has been emptied. The Moon, Mars, Mercury, Triton and Enceladus have been colonized. We learn that humanity has finally figured out that it has to keep track of the asteroids likely to strike the Earth (something we're doing assiduously now), and they've found many hundreds (though, today, thousands are postulated, and millions throughout the solar system). One of the tracking surveys discovers an asteroid on a hyperbolic trajectory through the solar system. It has come from interstellar space, and at these speeds will pass right on through. It gets the name Rama, from Indian mythology. (Just a few years ago, 'Omuamua, an oddly-shaped asteroid did just the same thing, zipping from interstellar space and out again. Having been discovered on its outward journey, we didn't get all that good a look at it, the first interstellar asteroid ever observed, though an earlier one was later deemed to have been another. Its name came from Hawaiian mythology.)
Eventually, the behavior and appearance of Rama were unusual enough that a human space ship, the Endeavour, is dispatched to take a good look at it. Soon, it is apparent that Rama the asteroid is actually Rama the space ship, a vast hollow traveler across many centuries and lightyears. The narration here is a little dry and clinical. The ship is described in acute detail, and the band of explorers diligently look for any signs of the civilization that built it. They have to act fast, because Rama will soon whip around the Sun, taking Endeavour with it. Or is it just alive enough to change its own path, become a threat or an alien Noah's Ark? There's a bit of political machination between the human colonies. There are big and unanswered questions. Do Rama space ships come in threes? It is an epic novel of celestial speculation and spawned several sequels. It suggests so much that has become the building blocks of sci-fi for decades since. Was 'Omuamua a space ship from another world? There are people still who think it just might have been.
(For this book, Clarke was awarded the 1974 Hugo award for best novel.)
Also by Clarke: [Childhood's End]
Also by Clarke (with Stephen Baxter): [Time's Eye] [Sunstorm]