Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke published in 1973, is set in the 2130s. This book won many awards in its day including the Hugo and Nebula. When I put myself back into the time period this was written in, it’s amazing on what Clarke accomplished. This book was way ahead of its time. Reading it for the first time recently it still holds up extremely well. Have more intricate works been written in sci-fi since then, of course, but this book felt like a beginning of some amazing building blocks for the science fiction community to use.
This story isn’t some action-packed thriller in space. This is a book of science and discovery using one’s imagination to build on the science of 1960s & 70s. A story of an intricate mission of first contact. I love these types of stories so I have no idea why I put this book off for so long. One of the best things I enjoyed was it didn’t contain something I cannot stand in space exploration literature and cinema. This pet peeve of mine is when a crew in space are not properly trained or poorly trained to deal with the pressures of their missions. In Rama, the crew are professional, smart, and capable. They know their jobs and they do them, not just to succeed on the mission, but to make sure everyone comes home alive. There is no secret corporate spy or rogue government agent that snuck their way into the crew. These people know one another and what they are capable of.
This isn’t a thriller or full of space battles. Clarke clearly wrote this to give you the joy of discovery of an alien craft that made its way to our solar system for unknown reasons. There’s mystery and excitement of the unknown. At this time in our history other worlds in our solar system have been colonized by now and they all have different ideas about why the ship is here. A team is sent to, well, rendezvous with this craft to make first contact with it. Throughout the book they act as if describing the mission out loud, what they see, what is happening, and discuss the best way to go about things. This crew is fully capable of dealing with many things and planning accordingly. They communicate most importantly.
Don’t get me wrong. There are things that happen that can cause some tense moments. I mean you have humans engaging with an alien vessel. You have no idea what to expect or the purpose of this vessel. By the end many conclusions have been made. Discoveries have happened. The world building of Clarke’s vision for this far in the future is complete. It’s a fascinating book if one is interested in discovery of the unknown and want to learn where some great science fiction has come from that is based on intelligent deductions of science. This isn’t a character-based book, it’s a book of hard exploration.
In today’s sea of books, this may not be that exciting compared to what we get today. However, to think about when it was written and some ideas Clarke had even back then, it amazed me, nonetheless. I think this is a must read for those science fiction readers who are more fascinated with exploring and first contact than space battles or space military books that take up a lot of media these days. I’m picky when it comes to my science fiction, but this one was a nice story to digest and think about. I highly recommend this if you are amongst the same vein of sci-fi as me. At the very least it is an important book to understand a huge building block of the genre.