Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke

This won both the Hugo & Nebula awards 

First published in 1973 the story takes place in the 2130s.

 

It's a first contact novel ? or is it ? there are no aliens .. just their extinct civilization.

Actually, it's mankinds first encounter with alien intelligence.

 

Earth has a space detection device called Spaceguard This is a system for detecting future asteroids

Instead they detect a huge cylindical object which they name Rama (after the Hindu God.)

 

A team of human explorers from the spacecraft "Endeavour" is dispatched to explore it before it drifts away and is lost forever. This exploration of an alien megastructure parallels James Cook's encounter with the Continent of Australia.

The explorers leave Rama with so many questions and mysteries. It is clear that there are some aspects of this civilization that no level of scientific research and observation can solve.

I really liked Clarke's empire building. The United Planets is made up of Earthlings, Martians, Lunas (people from the moon) and Hermians (Mercury's human colonists)

 

 

 

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
  ***
Publisher    Gollancz (UK)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (US)
Publication date
    Jun 1973 (UK)

Aug 1973 (US)
 

 

Media type    Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages    256 (UK) 69,048 words
Awards    Hugo Award for Best Novel, Nebula Award for Best Novel, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Locus Award for Best Novel, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Rendezvous With Rama also appeared in Galaxy magazine
  Sep1973,
Oct 1973; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973