Rama II (novel)

Rama II

Dust-jacket from the UK edition
Author Gentry Lee &
Arthur C. Clarke
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Rama
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Gollancz
Publication date
 1989
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 377 pp
ISBN 0-575-04545-0
OCLC 20852483
LC Class PR6005.L36 R36 1989b
Preceded by Rendezvous with Rama
Followed by The Garden of Rama

Rama II is a novel by Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1989. It recounts humankind's further interaction with the Ramans, first introduced in Rendezvous with Rama. Written primarily by Lee, Rama II has a distinctly different writing style than the original, with a more character driven narrative and a closer-to-contemporary mindset, ambience and human relations than the first novel's more futuristic tones.

Rama II is the first novel of the "new" Rama series, as Rendezvous with Rama is not always counted as part of it. The Rama series includes two more sequels: The Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed.

Plot summary

Seventy years after the events of Rendezvous with Rama, a second Raman vessel enters the Solar System. Its arrival is expected and an expedition is sent to unlock more of Rama's mysteries, but the crew are unprepared both for what they find and for the conflicts that arise between them. Rama II brings new characters into a new story and is mostly unrelated to the original; largely, it serves to set up its own sequels. The novel ends with three of the twelve astronauts stranded inside Rama as it travels out of the Solar System, Nicole des Jardins, Richard Wakefield and Michael O'Toole.

Unlike Rendezvous with Rama, which depicted a more technologically advanced stage of human life in the Solar System and focused almost entirely on the hard science fiction elements regarding the scientific wonders of the alien spacecraft, Rama II and its sequels deconstruct Clarke's vision of human explorers throughout the Solar System through a global economic crisis that forced their almost total deactivation. Then, the book follows a very different storytelling that brings forward contemporary issues like abortion, racism, drug abuse, and organized crime.

Characters in "Rama II"

Crew of the Newton:

Books in the series

Gentry Lee also wrote two further novels set in the same Rama Universe.

References

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