The novel “Rendezvous With Rama” by Arthur C. Clarke was published for the first time in 1973. It won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Jupiter and BSFA Awards as the best novel of the year.

After a meteorite in 2077 devastated north-east Italy, the Earth’s government decided to create the Spaceguard to identify all the meteorites and asteroids in the solar system in order to raise the alarm if one of them were to be directed to Earth.

In 2130 a new asteroid is identified and called Rama when it’s still far from the Sun but it immediately shows unusual features. Thanks to the images taken from a probe specifically launched, scientists realize that it’s an artificial object.

The Endeavour is the only starship in a position to reach Rama so the crew is ordered to go and explore it until it gets too close to the Sun. The Endeavour’s mission becomes more complicated when something inside it starts waking up.

“Rendezvous With Rama” is the story of the exploration of Rama, a huge spaceship detected after entering the solar system. The main criticism to this novel is that its characters are not developed. Among them, perhaps only the commander of the starship Endeavour has a definite personality. Arthur C. Clarke shows the moments when he’s sending messages to his two wives and in which he imagines what Captain Cook, the commander of the historical ship Endeavour, would do in his situation.

True, the characters aren’t developed but it’s known that Arthur C. Clarke was interested in the scientific and technical side of his stories. “Rendezvous With Rama” is a novel centered on Rama and its mysteries, everything else is relatively important, characters included.

Rama is the symbol of the unknown. Scientists from various planets of the solar system before and especially the Endeavour’s crew then try to discover the secrets of the huge cylinder over fifty kilometers long with a diameter of about twenty kilometers.

“Rendezvous With Rama” is mostly a chronicle of the attempts to discover Rama’s secrets. The Endeavour’s crew start the exploration of Rama with awe and curiosity at the same time because this is the creation of an alien civilization and at every step on the inside there’s the possibility of discovering something new.

When what look like cities are discovered within Rama, they are given names of Earth’s cities, as if to try and exorcise the fear of the unknown. Those links to the home planet however are really a little thing compared to the many alien elements that are discovered.

The Endeavour’s crew would need a long time to do a complete exploration of Rama but it’s clear from the beginning that its trajectory will bring it very close to the Sun to project it beyond the solar system. Therefore the exploration is a race against time and soon becomes more complicated when Rama seems to start reawakening.

The Endeavour’s crew discover the existence of creatures that are organic yet seem to work like robots. Again, those creatures are absolutely alien and probably none of them resembles the Rama’s creators.

Arthur C. Clarke describes in detail the attempts of the Endeavour’s crew and the scientists who receive the information discovered to understand how Rama’s internal systems work. The technologies used by Rama’s creators however are much more advanced than humans’ so every little alien element can be a great enigma.

“Rendezvous With Rama” is therefore an out of the ordinary novel. There are no major conflicts and the ones that happen during the novel seem more hassle than anything else. The discoveries don’t allow humanity to make technological leaps because the technologies used by the Rama’s creators are too advanced to understand them quickly. This novel is essentially a great intellectual adventure to discover the unknown in which the sense-of-wonder is given by that exploration.

“Rendezvous With Rama” is an extraordinary novel and it’s not accidental that it received several awards. Of course, if you’re looking for a classic space opera with fast-paced action that’s just the wrong novel. To all the others I highly recommend reading it.