Arthur C. Clarke’s 1973 novel Rendezvous with Rama is one of the most famous, and dare I say best (I do, I do dare) works of hard science fiction out there. It swept awards, garnered acclaim, and influenced the genre more than a lot of people know. Despite all this fame and influence, however, there is very little discussion of the sequels. At least not that I’ve been able to find.

I think the main reason is that it’s not just Clarke’s name that appears on the cover. There’s some chap called Gentry Lee involved too. Lee, by the way, has a strong scientific background, so he’s a good match for Clarke. Clarke wrote a lot of collaborative works in his later years, including a trilogy co-written with Stephen Baxter (Which I enjoyed) and a novel with the equally legendary Frederik Pohl (which I have not yet read). We’ll likely never know for sure what the distribution of workload looked like, but in the afterword to Rama II, Clarke talks about exchanging copious notes, so he was certainly heavily involved. This is not just a case of Clarke happily letting others use his name to sell a project. This is a genuine continuation of the Rama story.

Rama II, Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed form a trilogy about humanity’s encounter with a second Rama-style spaceship. I’m planning to pass these copies on to a friend who a bigger Clarke fan than me, so I made the unusual (for me) choice to read the series back-to-back. I do not regret it one bit, though it did mean this blog has been quite quiet this week. I’m going to talk about the books in quite general terms to avoid spoilers, but there are some elements it’s hard not to talk about. So approach with caution.

Rama II is the best of the batch. It’s essentially a repeat of the original, with a diverse team exploring Rama. However, because the setting is almost exactly the same, it allows for more focus on the characters. This results in a very tense little thriller as people start dying in various ways. Is Rama really that dangerous, or is something more sinister afoot? It’s absolutely brilliant, and captures the magic of the original while building on those foundations.

Garden of Rama sees humans stuck on Rama as it continues its unknown mission. There is a lot of stuff in here that’s really good. We find out more about Rama’s origins, and it’s intended purpose. Things are dragged down, however, by the early plotline about a human breeding project. It’s a really weird arc that feels completely unnecessary. If I were stuck on a spaceship, I doubt creating a viable breeding stock would be among my immediate concerns. Worse still, there’s a lot of inappropriate relationships that are written about in an oddly blasé manner. I’m not all that bothered by age gaps in relationships, but a septuagenarian and a teenager is absolutely inappropriate, even when the book presents it as the only logical solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist.

Thankfully, Rama Revealed pushes back against these distasteful elements. It focuses more on the societal implications of Rama, for humanity and aliens alike. It did get a little drawn-out and confused at points, and I feel like the collaborative nature of the writings leads to the feeling that some scenes are just being skipped over, but it all pulls together in the end, and the final act is some of the purest ‘sense of wonder’ science fiction I’ve come across in recent years. A fitting capstone to the saga.

Rendezvous with Rama thrived on mystery. By their nature, these sequels explain a way a lot of that mystery, and answer many of the central questions. Mercifully, the answers are as interesting as they are satisfying. The writing style is instantly accessible, the characters broadly engaging, and the scientific theories utterly compelling. The original set a tough act to follow, but Clarke and Lee are up to the task. These books are worthy additions to any SF library, and should not be ignored simply because there are two names on the front cover.