Rendezvous With Rama (*****)
Initially thought to be a comet or asteroid, Rama is quickly identified as an enormous interstellar spacecraft. The nearest available ship is sent to intercept and investigate. Lifeless and deserted at first, Rama slowly wakes up and becomes active without any sign of a controlling intelligence. The human investigators struggle to understand, document and come to terms with the completely alien (but always rational) technologies and artefacts they find. Meanwhile, human politics and xenophobia result in an attempt to destroy Rama, foiled by the ingenuity of the investigating crew. Finally, Rama closes down again and loops out of the solar system, its origins, mission and final destination completely unknown.

This is, to my mind, the best science fiction story ever written. This is solid hard science where known physical laws are fully observed. The human spaceship crew are professional, talented technocrats applying themselves to their new mission as best they can. The human colonisation of the Solar System is entirely believable and the political structure and machinations that support it ring as imperfectly true as any international structures we have today.

On the opposing side, the complete alien environment described inside Rama, where forms, functions and philosophies are unknown and unreliable to human culture and technology is marvellously described. Reading this book feels exactly like an encounter with extraterrestrial technology would play out.

The ultimate end of the story, where the two cultures/civilisations have crossed but not really met at any point and where the ultimate fate of Rama is completely unknown and unknowable reflect, I think, our own insignificance in the universe.

If you only ever read one science fiction book, this is it. ( )

This book holds all four Rama books, but only the first one is actually written by Clarke himself, the rest by some d-level author that just screws it all up.

Recommendation: Read only the first book, skip the rest.

Spoilers might be below

Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1): Five Stars

This one was written by Clarke and it is fantastic, amazing, awesome, well written, great story, good characters and all above and beyond.

Rama II (Rama, #2): Two Stars

Because the Omnibus does not tell you when one book is finished I was first really confused on why the writing style has changed so much. It turned into some personal drama-lama. Soap Opera. Worse than than some schlock sci-fi b-movie. How such a crew was ever selected that acts like they are in some big brother house is just beyond understanding. While in the first book the mission came first here it is everyone for themselves.

The Garden of Rama (Rama, #3): Two Stars

Same crap as above but now we travel away from earth. Small parts are interesting, overall crap, especially when have that time on that alien space station and the return trip. Forgettable. You realize this book is bad when you start skipping parts and not missing anything.

Rama Revealed (Rama, #4)

One one hand it is the best of the three other books, on the other hand it is the same crap again. It has some nice interesting parts, but it gets all crapped on top with some super-mega-god alien that are behind this. This is just stupid. Also I had to skip over parts because this was just unreadable. ( )

No one is killed in the first book, which is rare now-a-days, but this is an older book. The second and subsequent books make up for it.

The series has an enormous scope, but at times makes you despair about human nature. ( )