Beginning to catch up on the last 50 years of scifi

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke was originally published 2 years before I was born, but there is very little in the book that dates the story or the writing. Perhaps that is the case of all written science fiction placed far enough into the future. Written fiction has a much better chance to stand the test of time than the stylized visuals in movies or on TV. When reading a book, nothing forces you to imagine the characters wearing disco pants as part of their space uniform. Clarke is famous for predicting communications satellites in geostationary orbits for global communications, but very few of his other predictions have come that close. His writing stands the test of time more because he stuck to the basic laws of physics instead of inventing fictional ways around them. It lends a sense of reality to a lot of his stories that other authors don't have (or maybe it is just something they don't use). It is this sense of reality that keeps alive the mystery and challenge in this story of an alien spaceship entering our solar system.

This book is the story of a mysterious object, first mistaken for an asteroid or comet, that enters into our planetary system. Many months after discovery, when the object which has been given the name Rama gets close enough for inspection with telescopes, it becomes obvious that the completely smooth and perfect cylinder is not an object of nature, but an alien spacecraft. A spaceship from Earth is sent to intercept the cylinder, the space-captain astronaut guy finds a way inside, and the real mystery begins. They see what looks like cities at a distance, but there is no movement or noise... or light. They see what looks like water, but its all frozen solid and full of poisonous chemicals. The far end of of Rama is completely cut off from the explorers by this frozen sea, but telescopes tell them from a distance it is full of interesting but unidentifiable features. What is going on inside this thing? What is the function and purpose of what we see? What unknown dangers are about to arrive? Why is this alien craft here? Time is running out as the alien vessel gets too close to the sun for the explorers to stay.

If this was a Star Trek story, the mystery would be over in two pages. Sensors would map out every inch of Rama, look inside all the walls and into every dark corner, and initiate several little beeps to announce the arrival of every new encounter. The only advantage that Clarke gives his characters that we wouldn't have today is the spaceship that gets them to Rama in the first place. It is this limitation that gets the reader involved in the story. It is a story of exploration that we can share because there is no danger of technobabble to spoil our own efforts to understand the strange things that are being described. In this case, your guess really is just as good as theirs.

Clarke doesn't paint a detailed picture of an alien civilization or try and humanize some unknown species in this book. The story is about the effort it would take to understand something that was built in a manner truly alien to our way of thinking. Everything seems obvious in hindsight once discovered, but the initial approach just leaves you stumped and in need of help from the next clue Rama itself can give.

The few distractions in the book are Clarke's strange ideas about polygamy as the norm, again he puts forward the notion of forced population control, and he merges cult with religion into something presented seriously but only recognizable as superstition. Luckily these play only a small part in the storyline and are really only mentioned in passing in two or three places. For me, the oddest thing in the whole book took place on the very first page. Arthur C. Clarke, in 1973, writes about a disaster that happens on the morning of September 11th. An asteroid flies out of the sky, destroys a city, and gives rise to the creation a proactive military body to keep things like that from happening again. How's that for weird?

The paperback version that I read also had excerpts from six of Clarke's other books. They seemed to be well chosen and did their job of encouraging me to pick a couple of them up if I see them. Not worth talking about here, though.

Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Title: Rendezvous with Rama
Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery
Year: 1990, originally 1973