Rendezvous With Rama

[T J]

So I'm reading loads of sci-fi lately, just finished Niven's Footfall (oddly interesting) and now this famous story from Clark. I'm about 6 chapters in and I'm lovin' it! I read Morgan Freeman tried to make this into a movie in the last decade but got nowhere. Any word of someone taking on this story?

I know there are two sequels, from the reviews I've seen the second two books aren't as highly regarded... I also found a short clip on google video from a student that was very well done.

Anyone else love or hate this book?

 

[Peak]

"Rendezvous With Rama" is great!

The follow ups not as much, unfortunately. You can read Rama II if you like, but stop there.

 

[arch101]

LOVe the book. I pull it off the shelf every 5 years or so and read it too quickly because it really grips you with its details and situations. I have NO idea why it can't seem to be filmed. Would make a great mini on cable. Yes, the sequels aren't as good.

 

[Peak]

The problem with making ""Rendezvous" are probably that there aren't enough of explosions in the book for a big budget SF-movie.

I guess that the forthcoming(?) Foundation movies is afflicted by the same problem.

 

[trevanian]

I got the book when it was first published and liked it, but then again I liked almost all Clarke before IMPERIAL EARTH (and disliked all Clarke after FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE.)

When Freeman was really trying to get the movie going a decade ago, he commissioned a fully CG teaser trailer from some really good artists at POP. Fincher was quasi-committed to it, and the script was getting reworked because they needed to punch up the Jimmy character (you probably haven't gotten to him yet) to make him a second lead (I'm thinking Freeman was dreaming of Pitt, not too likely!)

Late in 2000, I met Freeman's partner at Revelation Entertainment's office in Santa Monica, a woman named Lori, cuz I was interested in doing a 'making of' book and figured this was ideal ... a book I knew well, plus I'd just interviewed Fincher about FIGHT CLUB. But I think the film stalled over money, this was when Polygram/Seagram had its meltdown selloff, and I think this was a casualty. INTEL was going to provide a ton of money and tech support for it, and Fincher at one point talked about doing the whole thing as motion capture so that you could map actor faces onto CG bodies to do weightlessness properly (which sounded INSANE at the time, though these days people would probably eat it up, even if it wasn't all that photorealistic.)

I think the POP artists who did the trailer were Deak Ferrand and maybe Rocco Gioffre. I don't know if the trailer ever made it to youtube or not, but maybe it is someplace ...

 

[Lindley]

I liked the sequels (Rama II, Garden of Rama, Rama Revealed) well enough.

There was a very interesting notion in one of them, just touched on and brushed aside, that would make a great trilogy in its own right: That at some point in the past, there was an interstellar empire spreading from star to star in the Milky Way; and then BAM, just when they've reached Earth's back yard, the entire empire is gone in a (cosmic) eyeblink.

 

[T J]

Wow!

 

[Eduardo]

I read the four Rama novels long ago, loved the first two, the third and fourth not so much.

I do think I will try to track down copies of the other two novels related to Rama, Bright Messengers & Double Full Moon Night, that tells a side story that connects in particular to Rama Revealed.

 

[Canadave]

I first read RwR when I was in Grade 6, and it's still one of my favourite novels. I love what an excellent job it does of taking you along for the ride as the Endeavour's crew explores something incomprehensibly alien.

 

[Harvey]

The first book is outstanding, the follow-ups not so much. A version of Rama II was made into the video game RAMA, and I think it's far superior.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

I read the first RAMA book way back in High School, and remember liking it quite a bit. I've never gotten around to the sequels, but as a standalone story, RAMA was enjoyable on many different levels.

 

[Christopher]

I know there are two sequels, from the reviews I've seen the second two books aren't as highly regarded...

Actually Gentry Lee wrote three sequels, and then did two more books in the same universe. The sequel trilogy is credited to Clarke and Lee, but Clarke described himself later as only a "source of ideas" with Lee actually writing them. The other two are entirely Lee's work.

But as far as I'm concerned, there's only one Rama book. The Lee books are a pale imitation and a gross distortion. Clarke wrote an optimistic novel of exploration and sense of wonder. Lee turned Clarke's positive future into a depressing dystopia, populated it with dysfunctional and despicable characters, and basically had the bad guys consistently come out ahead at the expense of the two or three decent people. At least in the first two volumes, after which I stopped reading.

 

[T'Baio]

I was actually thinking the other day that now is an excellent time for this movie to be made. People may call for my head for saying this, but I think this would be an excellent story to be done in 3D.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I read it many years ago as a kid. I couldn't really get into it. I remember I had a hard time visually depicting the ship and what was going on inside of it. I wouldn't mind going over it again though.

 

[Hober Mallow]

The problem with making ""Rendezvous" are probably that there aren't enough of explosions in the book for a big budget SF-movie.

I guess that the forthcoming(?) Foundation movies is afflicted by the same problem.

Forthcoming? The last thing I heard about this project was about ten years ago.

 

[Starbreaker]

Columbia bought the rights to Foundation in January 2009, so it might be getting somewhere.

I liked Rama okay when I was reading it, but it didn't leave any lasting impressions.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Rendezvous With Rama is my favorite novel; I first read it when it was serialized in Galaxy magazine. The sequels are okay when considered on their own, but are not worthy of the original (although Clarke's ideas are, of course, excellent). It would be hard to turn a real Science Fiction novel like this into a successful movie these days. It's all about the Sense OF Wonder of SF-- they'd have to rewrite it so the Moon blows up or something to bring in today's audience.

I remember reading an interview with some Hollywood hack who was working on a Foundation movie. There was some quote along the lines of "Asimov was great, but, as a writer [sic], I need to find the action."

 

[Nardpuncher]

Where's our TrekBBS Rama?

 

[Kegg]

I love this book. One of Clarke's best. The final line has stayed with me for all these years.

There was a very interesting notion in one of them, just touched on and brushed aside, that would make a great trilogy in its own right: That at some point in the past, there was an interstellar empire spreading from star to star in the Milky Way; and then BAM, just when they've reached Earth's back yard, the entire empire is gone in a (cosmic) eyeblink.

All I really remember of the sequel novels were the Octospiders (I was of an age where sentient spider-octopi were innately cool); the threesome in space; the questioning about whether or not the Ramans were agents of God by a Catholic, a story about the AIDS virus (IN SPACE!) and, uh, characters confessing to escatic and startling awe about sequences which when described sounded frightfully dull.

Ultimately it's about as rewarding as any sort of tie-in or cash-in literature on the subject usually is; it keeps building on what went before in order to tell its considerably less interesting story. It was a lot more character-driven, though, for whatever reason.

 

[stonester1]

Loved Clarke's original book. Loved Lee's followups. Very different voice and angle from Clarke's books, but still dealt in big ideas and exploring that universe.