Rama Revealed

Read the first book in this series and don't waste your time with the rest. This fourth in the series was a slog from beginning to end, with lots of lame dialogue, pointless detail that never goes anywhere, and a disappointing ending.I wish I'd just left it at Rendezvous with Rama, which is vintage Arthur C. Clarke. (That book is worth 20 of these sequels!) Lesson Learned: Never trust a book with more than one author.

The direction of the fourth installment changed again. I'm pretty torn between 3 and 4 stars, but it's closer to the upper rating, so I think I'll settle for 4 stars. All else - spoiler alert. (view spoiler)[I'm highly unsure what to think of this series. My heart broke during the last book, but not because of some outstanding SF qualities of the story, but rather the particular story of one character - Nicole des Jardins, a woman who has had to leave children behind on other planets and space s [...]

Along with garden of rama, this conclusion to the story , rama revealed is definetly my all time favorite science fiction saga ever. Even despite some uninteresting soap opera stuff at the begining, the finall 200 pages of this conclusion are the most satisfying conclusion i ever read to a space saga ever.This book ended and nicole des jardins stuck in my mind for months on end. Everytime i think of good scifi i remember the ending of this story.Not only garden of rama and this conclusion rama r [...]

Eh. The first book of the series was nice, short and sweet and left me wanting more. The second book (Rama II) had some really interesting characters and settings. [return][return]However, Gardens of Rama and this book both felt long and fell short of expectations. There were some interesting parts, but it felt like it was rushed and not edited heavily enough. There also were a number of loose threads that just never really felt explained. (Was the orange Avian a clone? Did the octospiders alrea [...]

I feel this and the other Rama books series except the first one are more like fan fiction. Although fan fiction is not necessarily a bad thing, in the case of this series it went quite wrong. I did not liked any of the original Rama follow-up novel. I cannot think of any of them more than a simple sci-fi pop novel trying to capitalize on a earlier big sales hit. They keep the same types of schematically characters and infantile conflicts. It simply did not managed to win my sympathy, neither wi [...]

(Review applies to 'Rama II, Rama Returns', Rama Revealed', but NOT 'Rendezvous With Rama')In brief, longer review to follow: FUCKING AWFUL. Do not read. Terrible shame, the collaboration with Gentry 'What A Pitiful Hack Writer' Lee has really dragged the original Rama down.

So, four years after my first attempt, I've finally finished the Rama series. This book, the fourth and final one in the quadrilogy, is not the worst of the batch. But then being better than the unmitigated drivel that was The Garden of Rama is not a particularly trying task.Despite my misgivings that all the important things about Rama had been "revealed" in this book's predecessor, we do in fact find out who created Rama and its related infrastructure, and why. It's an answer that I feel shoul [...]

Rama Revealed is the disappointing conclusion to a disappointing series.According to Wiki: “Rendezvous With Rama was written in 1972 and Clarke had no intention of writing a sequel. Lee attempted to turn the Rama series into a more character-driven story following the adventures of Nicole des Jardins Wakefield, who becomes the main character in Rama II, The Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed. When asked, Arthur C. Clarke said that Gentry Lee did the writing while he was a source of ideas.”This [...]

The series started out with such a fascinating premise but it all ended with sex, violence, corruption and misunderstandings. I guess that's the message of the series: humans will always screw up Eden. Bummer!

Extremely disappointed in basically all the sequels. I read Return to Rama a few weeks ago, and should have stopped there. I would have been fine with the unresolved ending of the book if the others didn't exist, it's really a perfect, succinctly written sparse perfect mystery that really should never have even attempted to be resolved. These last two books are terrible, I never liked the characters, agree with some reviewer who said that Nicole just started to bore me after so long. The thing t [...]

This book felt mostly like it was just working towards an inevitability. It did serve to provide some closure to the series, and (perhaps more importantly) gave us some precious insight into the alien cultures, but it doesn't have the driving mystery of the first or the strong character interactions of the second and third.I'm not sure what it is about hard science fiction series that makes them peter out the longer they go on, but it's certainly something. Longer series have difficulty keeping [...]

Ugh. I should have put this series down after book #2HO, Clarke's biggest flaw is his tendency to spend way too much time describing alien minutia that are not interesting or important. Also, the main character has really worn out her welcome. I'm just tired of her. Not a good sign when you're hoping the hero gets pulled out an airlock so the story can just end faster. I don't know why I finished it. Maybe I was hoping for some interesting overarching idea of the alien "Ramans", but it was silly [...]

I recommend reading the first installment of the tetralogy as highly as I recommend stopping right there. Though I can't say I regret finishing the series, it was indeed a painful experience to see the wonderful concept introduced by Rendezvous stretch into a flimsy and disengaging tale which drags on far more than its dramatic substance can afford to. For me the main weakness of the second to fourth books was the authors' obsessive engagement with characters as opposed to Rendezvous' somewhat s [...]

Worth it to the end. Awe-inspiring, rich with multifaceted scientific speculation, imbued with all the fine ingredients of great literature.Give yourself time to end this book. Avoid distractions. The last chapters are best taken in while alone, with a nice cup of tea, and a box of kleenex.

I liked this end to this series better than the book before it. There is some interesting stuff about the structure of an alien society in here built on speculation about the future of genetic engineering. The part where Rama is revealed is pretty nifty and philosophical, too. Thankfully, there were much fewer flashbacks, but the book/series could have used stronger secondary characters.

I wonder what it would have been like for the original fans of this series, waiting two or so years for the next instalment to be released. I had the luxury of binge reading it. It felt as if it had been written all at once. The narrative continues seamlessly throughout the three volumes. There is a definite difference in tone and style between Clarke's original and these three Gentry Lee penned sequels.There were some decent moments and ideas there, but these were overshadowed by many frustrati [...]

Rama Revealed is the last book in this series and it couldn't have come sooner. Only my loyalty to Arthur C, Clarke carried me this far. It really wasn't worth it but for classic science fiction I suppose I had to do it. The first novel, "Rendezvous with Rama", is excellent. A space craft comes zooming into the solar system, answering the question "Are we alone?" but adds an additional question, "Does anyone care?" In typical Clarke fashion, the author takes us through what might happen if we on [...]

The series finale was more enjoyable than that last two in the series just because most of the background exposition has already been done - although some was repeated here - and this story centered more on the events and interactions of the passengers of the Rama ship. When things started going sour for the passengers I found myself thinking, "no way, people wouldn't act that way." but upon further reflection, yes they probably would.I won't spoil the story, but there are some heartbreaking mom [...]

Although the series as a whole was quite rewarding I found this closer to be a bit disappointing. Although we do finally get an answer to the Rama mystery the explanation is religious hand waving that I would not have expected from Clarke. Maybe it is more Lee's doing. The continued detailed descriptions of the new species is interesting since a whole new society is discovered by the readers and the Wakefields and company experience it. The tired treatment of the human colonists gets dry. Still [...]

The fourth and final book of the Rama series. This book continues to follow the colony that was established in the Raman spacecraft as it heads towards its final destination. In this book, even more new species and adventures are encountered. This book finally gives the explanation of the Raman spacecraft and the purpose of its missions. I don't really want to give much away, but this is a great ending to one of the greatest science fiction stories ever told. Once again there are so many message [...]

i have been working my way through the series very slowly and finally got through this last volume. it is quite long and covers a lot of ground. Starting with the Wakefield family after arriving at the node, we see the return of Rama to Earth and a subsequent journey back to the stars. We observe new colony of humans fall prey to the worst of human nature and learn more about the Avians and Octospiders, and eventually, more about Ramas purpose.The book was largely depressing, highlighting the pr [...]

Parts dragged, but the overall scope was just awesome. I was somewhat confused, but I have not read the first 3 books, so I hope when I go back to them it will make more sense.

Storyline: 2/5Characters: 2/5Writing Style: 2/5World: 2/5Finished. Done. Complete. All over. No more Rama. It is satisfying to complete a series, but this book made completion a trial. (view spoiler)[ I can better explain what this book contributed by looking at the whole series: Rama I had wonder. As you were reading it, and as it finished, you knew there were great mysteries and answers just out of reach and you wanted to know more. Apparently (due to some quick reading) Clarke originally int [...]

A central theme in the Rama novels is that human sexuality drives all facets of our lives--our predilection to imperialism, excess, paranoia, and self-destruction being prime examples. The grand morality play that ensues strikes me as valid, but also tiresome and less fun than the original Rendezvous With Rama. The above being said, I love a great deal about this final installment in the series. Some of the revelatory material is similar to that found in 3001. It’s thought-provoking but far fr [...]

Outstanding ending to a beautiful quadrilogy that should be one of the epitome works of SF. It's hard not to miss the Rama Universe once the books are finished. The daring task of creating alien life forms that are not humanoid and do not automatically use verbal language as humans do, is in itself, a reason for praising this series.This book alone tackles the origins of the Universe questions, along with the traditional philosophical queries that follow, such as: Who are we? Why are we here? Wh [...]

This is by far the best written of the books in this series. The writing in Rama II is not the best, even though I love that book I can admit that. But with every book in the series there after the writing gets smoother, with less of the semi-meaningless distractions into minuet details of historical figures. I really don't know if this is from Gentry Lee improving as a writer or if this is from Arthur C. Clarke doing more of the writing, but either way it's a good thing.I enjoyed the way that t [...]

It took about 1500 pages from the previous books, but in the last 1/3 of this book, everything came together. In comparison the previous 3 books are dry, especially the 1st book. The main character doesn't even show up until the 2nd book. These first three books have some wonder, some curiousity, but it's largely exploratory. In many ways its not clear what is happening. The first signs of conflict appear in the 3rd book but human conflict is seen as an aside, intruding on the "purity" of the sc [...]

This is the final book in the Rama series.We do get a lot of answers, but on a deeper level, this book was about so much more.We learn a lot about the octospiders and their civilization. They have a lot of beliefs about using biology to improve their lives instead of electronics. Because of this, they don't consider life to be something sacred. Instead, they consider each life to be something that contributes to the common good.The most fascinating thing about them is that they don't allow free [...]

A mysterious giant cylinder is found in space, falling inwards on a trajectory which will take it through the solar system. It is dubbed “Rama”. An expedition is sent to probe it’s contents.Along with 2001, Rendezvous with Rama is the defining work of Arthur C. Clarke. The book is full of his trademark sense of wonder, and Clarke manages to convey awe at alien things like few others can. The first book is a solo effort. Clarke then teamed up with Gentry Lee to write a sequel trilogy. The w [...]

I must be a masochist, having read The Garden of Rama and found it scraped the absolute bottom of the book-barrel. This is actually slightly better: I didn’t cringe so often and was not obliged to skip large passages of sentimental wittering and badly-written sex scenes.But the great Rama revelation is utter rubbish and the end is just a tarted-up version of the final part of 2001, with too much explanation and no class whatsoever.That’s the trouble with Gentry Lee, overall: no class. And Ar [...]