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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3905 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Scifi club: Rendezvous with Rama discussion/voting for club #6

Very much enjoyed. Things I especially liked: minimal character development, as others have mentioned (so I didn't like the final chapter particularly ... Clarke does tend to make missteps with human interaction in his sci fi); the gradual familiarity with which the astronauts treated bits of Rama and the way they were learning as the reader was learning; the juxtaposition of huge ideas and lifechanging events with everyday pettiness in the UP council, because that's how it'll be if we every encounter aliens; attempting to visualize the Raman interior. Also, the enemy's gate was down long before Card came along.

Some parts felt like a let down -- it's a pretty "soft" story, with an indifferent intelligence, which is realistic but leaves the story barren of the climactic contact you are led to expect. This is fine with me on the whole.

Another thought I had -- always have when I'm reading the sci fi masters -- is that they packed more interesting ideas into a single work then I may have in my entire life. Loved the dragonfly.