Customer Reviews

Book 3, the Garden of Rama

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I agree with those that panned this book, and I also have to agree that I thought I was getting a book written by the esteemed Arthur C Clark. Either Sir Clark has lost it, or it was written by someone else. The book has a lot of promise but squanders it, and resolves nothing. Also, the plot (especially regarding the extreme stupidity of the colonists) is not believable.

The only good thing about this book is the sense of wonder you get through thinking, 'how can Clarke have let this happen?' and how Gentry Lee, possibly the most inept writer working in fiction today is allowed to be released from 3rd grade Eng. Lit classes long enough to write this monstrosity.

300 years is an astonishingly long time for nothing at all to happen. Nicole Des Jardins, sheesh, I half expected her to develop the powers of flight, and heat ray vision by the end of the book.

This book is really quite dreadful. Read it as an example of how Clarke's unwillingness to write more than a few scrawled words on the back of a napkin and then pass it over to someone else has transmuted this once 'master' into a name publishers feel will sell fourth rate tripe.

I have just reread the whole series, book one is a very good book but each book after is geometrically worse. Book two is bad, book three is horrible, I'm at a loss to describe book four. I recommend shoving needles under your finger nails which is less painful then this series. Read and keep book one, burn the rest.

Rama II and Rama III are awful. I'm embarrassed to see Mr. Clarke's name associated with these so-called sequels. They reflect nothing of the science fiction wonder and imagination seen in Rendezvous with Rama and most of his other stories. Rama II & III are completely polluted with political, sociological & religious nonsense and modern emotionalism. Not worth reading. Certainly not worth adding to a fine collection of Clarke books.

In this sequel to Rama II the authors offer tremendous insight into the true nature of humankind. It is an exploration into values as well as a socio-political strife which has been at the core of human history. The book is essential reading for the "Rama"fan and provocative for the any intelligent being who ponders their existence in the universe.

With only one or two exceptions, everybody seems to agree that this follow-up series is the biggest waste of time of our lives!

Like another reviewer wrote: What I wouldn't do to get the time back!

If the setting were entirely different (ie. NOT a sci-fi novel, let alone a sequel to the original Rama by Clarke) then some of the characters and situations MIGHT be interesting.

Certainly not, however, when we're expecting sci-fi on the same level as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama.

It's not that I thought this book was awful, it's just that it didn't have much in it that I found very good. The original Rendezvous with Rama is a classic, filled with an environment that makes you wonder about the alien intelligence and crave for more.

These sequels, on the contrary, are set in the same "universe" but center around some Jerry Springer-esque quarrels amongst all the various humans. The notion that this has anything to do with Rama or aliens is secondary (or even tertiary) to the plot. In this installment, there are fleeting bits of the original wonder as the characters visit the "Node" and again when Richard visits the mysterious other dome towards the end. Sadly, this doesn't constitute very much of the overall book itself.

There are also some references that hit the reader with all the subtlety of an anvil to the head: the AIDS-like RV41 virus, Nicole's impending martyrdom and the constant (and fleeting) references to her heroes Joan of Arc and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the groaner where someone confuses Richard with Jesus. Social and religious commentary are the main themes of this book (as they were in Rama II). Science fiction is merely (and IMHO unfortunately) a backdrop.

Okay...so this one IS a little too "soap-opera." However, despite the fact that parallels to AIDS, environmentalism, and racism are rather non-subtle, I think Clarke and Lee make a very valid point: the history of the human race gives us no indication that we will ever fully be "humane" (a misnomer if there ever was one). When the human settlers of Rama become "more human than human" by engaging in those aforementioned atrocities (racism, AIDS-ophobia, destroying the environment in the name of short-term wants), I will admit to feeling frustrated--Hey, what about the happy future, utopia, etc.etc.?!?! Unfortunately, we cannot escape our genes. A thought provoking and entertaining read!

I love this series. I look forward to Morgan Freedman's production company bringing this to film. I find the Rama books even more entertaining than the Odyssey books. Thank you Arthur C. Clark for bringing us such wonderful fiction. I recommend the Rama books to anyone who enjoys sci-fi, anyone who has never read sci-fi, anyone.. Well written, clever plot that takes you across the universe. The first book (Rendesvous with Rama) is just a taste of what lies ahead for you. Enjoy! :)

~Qabyss

In the summer of `99, I walked into a book store with the intention of raking up as many books as I could carry, and being an aficionado of Clarke's works, among others, I picked out the third pillar of the Rama quadrology.

But after reading it, firstly, I feel as if I haven't missed out on much by reading the third chapter in the series to begin with. And secondly, I've marked the final chapter (Rama Revealed) for a rainy day, when there's nothing better around.

I wouldn't be so harsh in giving it a 2-star rating, were it not coming from the likes of none other than ACC (maybe 3-stars, were it some other, less-celebrated author).

It's acceptable upto halfway through the book. But the second half, where the whole New Eden concept is drawn up is very mundane. The entire plot (as someone has aptly remarked below) looks *exactly* like 20th century Earth. Same problems, same ecosystem, same attitudes, same sociology, same stimuli, even the technology does not at all look like what one might think would be 300 years from now! Not that I was expecting a utopia of some kind, but at least not 'Hey! This is us.' The references in the plot to humankind's past history consistently only refer to the 20th/21st century occurences. The one or two places where an attempt has been made to describe something 'futuristic' has become degenerated to that which is easily pin-pointed to something in our present time.

The character of Dr. Nicole des Jardin is too super-womanized and is only a hair short of being apocalyptic -- Olympic athlete, cosmonaut, lover to the King of England, judge, state governor, clairvoyant and the list goes on.

I had higher expectations than this, since I am forever mesmerized by the mystique and charisma of ACC's Space Odyssey series and many of his other works.