Rendezvous With Rama

[Mistral]

Loved the original. Had the colorplate from the paperback framed on my wall in my first apt. People would see it, say, "Cool picture!" and ask where i got it and what it was.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I have not read this novel for a loooong time, but I remember liking it. And that I was bored by the sequel, so I read no further.

Refresh my memory - was the purpose of the cylinder ever revealed? Other than in a fan-ficish way in the 'sequels'?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I absolutely love Rendezvous with Rama but, like Ender's Game, I never bothered with the sequels because I could tell from the synopses that I wouldn't like the direction the sequels took.

As for a film adaptation, I was excited about the notion of a Morgan Freeman/David Fincher production that was in the talks a couple of years ago, but it unfortunately never got off the ground. Hopefully someday the film will be made.

 

[RJDiogenes]

All I really remember of the sequel novels were the Octospiders (I was of an age where sentient spider-octopi were innately cool);

The Octo-Spiders were great, as were most of the aliens; I suspect they were among Clarke's ideas. There was one aquatic species that alternated between two forms every other generation, which I thought was another cool idea.

Refresh my memory - was the purpose of the cylinder ever revealed? Other than in a fan-ficish way in the 'sequels'?

Yeah, but I don't remember the details; which says a lot, I guess....

 

[zakkrusz]

I've read them all a long time ago, though apparently they weren't that memorable as I've forgotten most of what happened.

 

[Harvey]

All I really remember of the sequel novels were the Octospiders (I was of an age where sentient spider-octopi were innately cool);

The Octo-Spiders were great, as were most of the aliens; I suspect they were among Clarke's ideas. There was one aquatic species that alternated between two forms every other generation, which I thought was another cool idea.

Which is why the Myst style adventure game that used these ideas (and the less salacious elements of RAMA II's story) is well-worth your time. And, it has a base-8 math puzzle that's pretty tricky. It took me forever to beat that when I first played the game. It also has quite a bit of footage of Clarke, too, which is a nice bonus.

 

[Lindley]

Refresh my memory - was the purpose of the cylinder ever revealed? Other than in a fan-ficish way in the 'sequels'?

If memory serves, they were "sample collection" vessels, essentially. Designed to attract the attention of spacefaring races as a means of learning about them.

I don't recall the justification for why they waited until the third pass through the system to pick up a sizable population (voluntarily sent as colonists, I think?).

 

[Christopher]

^But that explanation was from the sequels, wasn't it? I believe the question was if the original novel itself provided an explanation, and I don't think it did.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ Correct. That's what makes the first book so... interesting.

The Rama cylinder shows up in the Solar System, we board/explore it, then it leaves -- leaving the question of "Why?" completely open-ended.

And the ending sentence of the original is still just awesome.

As for the sequels? Yeeeeesh... Where's that barficon when it's needed?

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[JiNX-01]

"Rendezvous With Rama" is great!

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

Rama II is OK, but go no further.

 

[Christopher]

Doesn't Rama II end on a cliffhanger, though? That was one of the many, many things that annoyed me about the trilogy -- the fact that it wasn't really a trilogy (three complete books that together form a larger arc), but just one really long story that was arbitrarily divided up on the basis of page count. As I recall, the first two volumes (or at least the second) didn't really have endings or climaxes, they just ran out of pages.

 

[RAMA]

Wow that student short was pretty amazing! It almost seems like it will be the ONLY version of Rama we ever see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-MRNGGMiMU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mkFPsm_WVk&feature=related

YES I was re-reading RwR when I first logged onto the internet on my own computer in 1995...and it inspired my nickname on many BBs. I have my trusty 1990 soft cover bantam edition of it next to me. I also have the RAMA II sequel in hardcover (which I prefer) but my copies of Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed are missing (can you say "e-book"...ah any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...). It's interesting this thread came up because I haven't read the novel SINCE 1995 and I was just considering re-reading it amidst the sadness at the lack of a screen version when Avatar clearly makes almost any SF vision possible!

Honestly, I enjoyed the last sequel to the Rama series and of course the original the best. If I were making the movie though...I'd follow along closely with the original version, and then if the box office warranted it...I'd write a totally new sequel.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

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.

There are a few SF movies that don't need explosions, but if they want to up the ante just a little for the visual medium I wouldn't mind a few "additions".

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 ...

The slides for Revelation are still available but the movie and the footage from the Intel presentation are gone. Its odd to me how this sort of artifical CGI reality they wanted to create back in 1998-2000 now seems kind of out-of-date because it exists already...and in 3D.

RAMA

 

[Hober Mallow]

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."

Yes, I can't find the exact quote, but it was something like, "In the book Asimov would have a character say, 'Whew! It sure was a close call with those space pirates. Now let's discuss economics...' As a writer, I need the space pirates." Didn't exactly fill me with confidence for the project. In fact, after reading that quote, I wasn't much interested in the prospect of the film any longer.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Well Asimov was more of an ideas writer than a character, plot, or action based one - and that is not uncommon amongst SF authors. I certainly don't consider him to be the most compelling writer, and I can understand why adapting his works is a tricky proposition.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Which is why the Myst style adventure game that used these ideas (and the less salacious elements of RAMA II's story) is well-worth your time. And, it has a base-8 math puzzle that's pretty tricky. It took me forever to beat that when I first played the game. It also has quite a bit of footage of Clarke, too, which is a nice bonus.

I'll have to see if I can track that down....

^But that explanation was from the sequels, wasn't it? I believe the question was if the original novel itself provided an explanation, and I don't think it did.

It definitely did not. It was the quintessential BDO story, and the best; my vote for worst goes to Rogue Moon.

Doesn't Rama II end on a cliffhanger, though? That was one of the many, many things that annoyed me about the trilogy -- the fact that it wasn't really a trilogy (three complete books that together form a larger arc), but just one really long story that was arbitrarily divided up on the basis of page count. As I recall, the first two volumes (or at least the second) didn't really have endings or climaxes, they just ran out of pages.

That's pretty much true. It's not something that bothered me, though. It was just a wicked long story.

Wow that student short was pretty amazing! It almost seems like it will be the ONLY version of Rama we ever see.

Very nice. It never occurred to me to search for Rama on YouTube. I also found this animation of a tour of a Rama-like Human space habitat. Coincidentally, when I first started playing with 3D software, I did an experimental animation of a trip into a Rama like Human habitat; it's too simplistic and amateurish for me to want to upload, though

I have my trusty 1990 soft cover bantam edition of it next to me.

I still have the original copies of Galaxy magazine that I bought off the shelf in 1973.

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."

Yes, I can't find the exact quote, but it was something like, "In the book Asimov would have a character say, 'Whew! It sure was a close call with those space pirates. Now let's discuss economics...' As a writer, I need the space pirates." Didn't exactly fill me with confidence for the project. In fact, after reading that quote, I wasn't much interested in the prospect of the film any longer.

Yeah, there you go. It was in Starlog or something. Sheesh.

Well Asimov was more of an ideas writer than a character, plot, or action based one - and that is not uncommon amongst SF authors. I certainly don't consider him to be the most compelling writer, and I can understand why adapting his works is a tricky proposition.

The best way to adapt the Foundation stories is to take the Masterpiece Theater approach: A few low-budget sets with a lot of talking heads and some CGI establishing shots of the kind that most of us could do on our home PC.

Incidentally, for those who like these "Sense Of Wonder" novels like Rama, I highly recommend Chindi by Jack McDevitt; it really comes close to catching that same feeling (and McDevitt is a great writer in the mold of Clarke and Asimov). And there's an even better pseudo-sequel to Rama in the anthology The RH Factor, which I even more highly recommend.

 

[Mitty]

I fully came into this thread thinking it was going to be about a meetup that the OP had with our Rama and there'd be some pic of Rama giving him a headlock with those beefy arms of his. How wrong I was... never heard of the book.

 

[Kegg]

Well Asimov was more of an ideas writer than a character, plot, or action based one - and that is not uncommon amongst SF authors.

He's also more of an ideas writer than a prose writer. I remember finding his prose, well, never any good. I enjoyed his robot stories for their logical puzzles, but the Foundation novels weren't so hot. Clarke also isn't a character writer, but his prose was generally quite a bit better and his stories I found quite compelling. So I'd say Asimov's I, Robot stories would be the best source of a movie - just a simple, low budget film with a lot of talking heads figuring out the robot problem of the day. It's also a good choice because it's never been made into a film starring Will Smith and directed by Alex Proyas just before I lost respect for him.

 

[trevanian]

I'm pretty sure there was a one hour tv cartoon version of rama made in the late 70s. STARLOG wrote it up as being made, I remember that much anyway.

 

[HighteeHeller]

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.

I loved the whole series. That game was great! I wish i still had it.