If you prefer troubled, rounded characters who are psychologically intriguing, then Arthur C Clarke is not the right author for you. But the characters are subservient to examining these concepts. Clarke is forensic and thought-provoking in extrapolating into prose his themes of humankind’s cosmic insignificance, the limits of our knowledge and what it means to make first contact with a more advanced alien civilisation. The same mindset is needed to appreciate Rendezvous with Rama. The difference was expectation, as well as an increasing intellectual maturity and appreciation of scientific ideas. I gave the film another chance when I was sixteen, and the second time around it blew my mind, and became a firm favourite.
I had expected the excitement of Star Wars but was left bored rigid. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time when I was twelve. But why has it entered earth’s solar system? Who is on board? And does it mean any harm? It quickly becomes clear that ‘Rama’ is of alien origin, created by a highly technologically advanced civilisation.
A space craft is dispatched to investigate the object and report back to earth. Following a meteor’s catastrophic collision with earth some years earlier (spookily, Clarke’s chosen date is September 11th), earth’s defences are primed to react immediately to any perceived threat. In Rendezvous with Rama, what appears to be an asteroid enters the solar system.
Readers can find some of the themes that interested Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey examined further here. Clarke’s next project after 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Stanley Kubrick’s big screen adaptation brought to a much wider audience. Rendezvous with Rama first appeared in print in 1973.
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