Rama Revealed

I read first book in Rama series long time ago and found it fascinating (5 stars). Second book was so disappointing (2 stars) that I gave up on the series and only recently decided to read reminding two books. They are both better than book two but not as good as book one.The book reads like it was written by two different people (as it actually was), each of them concentrating on different aspects of the plot. The first one deals with alien civilizations and human reactions to the contact. The second describes a bunch of personal stories and relationships. I enjoyed the parts dealing with aliens, the most fascinating being a society of octospiders. I also liked to read about isolated 2000 humans building their society on Rama. But I found most of the other human-oriented plots boring, repetitive and bordering on cheesy. The African and Japanese heritages of protagonists were brought up too often, reading for the 20-th time about Prince Henry made me almost gag and I would gladly omit all dreams of the main heroine. I was strongly tempted to just skip these parts but I was afraid I will miss something important to the main plot (I would not). So I plodded through them and was always eventually rewarded; the story switched to the other track and became interesting again. Except for the very ending that was dragging forever.Bottom line: Science fiction parts were great; I will never forget octospiders (5 stars). The in between parts dealing with human personal relationships were just 3 stars. It makes 4 stars average.

I only read this because I felt compelled to finish the series, despite how horrible all of the co-othered sequels were (the first book was fantastic and I'd highly recommend!). I suppose I'm a glutton for punishment. I don't know that I can add anything new to the existing negative reviews but my main points would be:- As with the other Gentry Lee co-authored books in this series, this read like two different works forced together like oil and water. This is not a science fiction book. Rather, it is pulp fiction with some superficial sci-fi tidbits sprinkled in.- If didn't know better, I would have guessed that a high school sophomore penned the book using every cliche he learned in last semester's literature class.- I continued to find Nicole and most of the other main characters annoying and unrelatable as they are presented as outlandish cartoon caricatures rather than realistic individuals.- Much of the human plotline that was established in the preceding books is founded upon overwrought stereotypes of the characters' ethnic backgrounds. It's simply unbelievable, thus making it hard to embrace the continued plot "development" in this book.- The one enjoyable area is that of the Octospiders and the detailed insight into their world. I would read a whole book just about the Octos.- Most disappointing of all are the main "revelations" towards the end of the book. The concepts are interesting, though not all that original. And the treatment of these deep concepts is very rushed and superficial. All told, it was a rather unsatisfying ending. Which is a shame, as so much more could have been done with the story.If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would have simply stopped with "Rendezvous With Rama" and ignored my OCD need to finish the whole series!

I liked the fact that the novel covered many concepts that I either had only heard of in real science fairly recently, or those I had never heard of and seemed like much more than science fiction, but more like natural concepts. Even ideas like the big bang and supreme beings were covered. About the only things I didn't like to some extent were the ones that went way into the past and revealed things that happened in early life for the main participants. It was tempting to just scan those pages and not really retain them. I especially had those thoughts in the second book. But even those had a role in this final book. The octospiders were able to scan the brains of humans and any other intelligent beings, and create actual videos of events in their past. They also were able to biologically replace human body parts and restore an aged person to a much younger age. These concepts are certainly predictable. The number of reasonable future concepts that were revealed was huge, and very interesting. The concept of many universes that each were created in less than one second was new to me for example. Just think about that. We can't even rationalize the size of our own galaxy, not to mention the whole universe, and then where would another universe go? In this 4th book in the series, there were many things that got answered but were still not revealed in any of the other three books. It makes me want to read more, because there has to be more to this story.

Actual rating: 3.5Before picking up Rama revealed, I finished Rendezvous with Rama. I skipped the middle two books in the Rama series based on the negative reviews. I think that was a wise decision. I didn't feel any sense of discontinuity and was able to follow the plot completely.While Rendezvous with Rama is a sci-fi classic in every sense of the word, this book is not. It is interesting, Yes. I am glad I read it because it gives me closure. What's missing from the this book is the sense of grandeur and mystique that was present in Rendezvous. I wish Clarke himself had written the complete series. But Kudos to the author of this book for developing the idea further and wrapping it up.

Okay then - against my own better judgement I have taken one for the team (and you!) and finished the Rama quadrilogy. Unfortunately, this one is as poor as the two previous instalments. It even mentions "g0lden sh0wer" and includes a rather rude rant by someone with defecationary problems. Do yourself a favour and read the first book (again) and don't bother with any of the three sequels.

And I should have listened to the other reviews! Read the first book, it is a classic Clarke masterpiece that has stood the test of time. The three sequels take some great ideas and then spend far too long delivering them with some unbelievably trite plot lines and stereotyped characters. The final destination is quite frankly weak and not worthy of the original book.

This is a great example of a book that was carrying so much, good and bad, with so much potential, such great possibilities, but regrettably crumbled under that load. I will say firstly that it is by no means terrible and whatever flaws it has it at least makes an effort unlike the complete mess that was Rama 2.The first half of the book carries on directly from Garden of Rama and is very good, even excellent in parts. Like Garden it is reasonably well written and avoids the worst pitfalls of the series so far. In fact it manages to make a few amends for story elements that should have gotten better treatment in the previous books. Up to this point I was really quite impressed with the direction the story went, even if I didn't quite agree with it. Once again it does drag on too much in many places but it is mostly readable.So, all that's left is to neatly wrap everything up with a satisfying conclusion. But, you'll know by the last chapters and pages that's not coming. You'll realise with increasing dread, having put so much into the series, that it's beginning to resemble Rama 2 again, with pages and pages of dialog and explanations but no feeling of progress. It grinds to a halt, it fizzles out, it gets bogged down....I wanted to rate this 3 stars, maybe even 4, as the majority of it is really okay and quite good. But I can't get over the ending. It doesn't ruin it, because there's nothing to ruin. It's the sort of thing that has you wondering if there was a mistake made that spliced in part of a totally different book by accident. Or maybe there's a missing chapter that *really* explains everything.The Rama series, with all it's highs and lows, deserved much better than this.

This book arrived quickly and was a (used) copy in excellent condition. The 4th and final in the RAMA series, while providing an astonishing view of a very possible future, it mirrors our world with gut-wrenching accuracy and provides a challenge to the human race.

The first rama book is excellent, the second is ok. This one starts to drag on a bit, it gets too caught up in the personal lives of the characters and their families and looses the plot, excitement and sense of discovery which the first two convey so well.