Rating:  Summary: A superb ending to a series on an amazing scale. Review: This final book in the Rama series puts a grand cap on a fantastic series. The scope of the whole series is on an almost unimaginable scale. This book wraps up the series nicely by answering a lot of the questions that have come up in the first three books. Also, if you enjoy thinking about deep questions such as the purpose of the universe this is a must read. If that type of thing is not your style then the end of this book may be less than you had hoped. One interesting aspect of this whole series is Clarke's dark picture of humanity. There is little of the bright humanistic picture that is prevalent in many other books. This series depicts humanity in quite a negative light. Whether this is an accurate portrayal is up to the reader. Overall this book is an excellent finish to an already brilliant series.
Rating:  Summary: thoroughly indulging Review: I read through this book in a day, you can't put it down every chapter ends with a cliff hanger. I must say that the Rama series is one of the best multi book series I have read in a long long time. A definite read for a sci-fi reader.
Rating:  Summary: How to bludgeon a good idea into submission Review: This book was a long soap opera. I got it as a gift, or I never would have purchased it. Does not communicate a sense of scientific wonder, which is in this reviewer's opinion, part of the duty of good science fiction.
Rating:  Summary: Please God, let this be the end!!! Review: All I can say is that the final Rama book was worse than the other two sequals to "Rendezvous...". This extremely long dime-novel was not worth my time and money. I was already upset that A.C. Clarke would waste his energy and paper on the two previous novels in this series, but this book brings me to new levels of disappointment. If you are interested in slutty sex scenes and stupid action-adventure, and do not want to find any meaning in a book then read this one. For anyone who is not a horny twelve-year old, I suggest passing this one by.
Rating:  Summary: great book, but lose the corny cosmology Review: I have to agree with the majority of the other reviewers here that this was indeed a very good book and, thankfully, did not make me regret too much the effort I put into reading the first three novels. I must commend Mr. Clarke and Mr. Lee for their excellent imaginations with regard to the octospiders; their biology and society, specifically the language of color bands, the large-scale symbiosis between many species, and the concept of biologically based technology as opposed to our electronics, were truly original, really cool ideas.The knowledge module tour at the end was pretty interesting as well, though it could have been a bit more extensive. I only have a few bones to pick with the authors: First, as my fellow reviewers here have commented already, it was a mistake to kill off Richard Wakefield; he was a very interesting and complex character, and the effort that was put into his development over the last three novels of the quartet merited something a bit less lame than being killed by the humans for no reason. Secondly, I must say that, whether or not the authors actually agree with them, the ideas expressed in the book about God doing "research" to figure out the optimum initial conditions for some kind of corny interstellar celestial harmony with rocks and trees coming to life and praising Him are quite laughable. For one thing, since God is omnipotent, He would have no need to use the scientific method and trial and error, as we would, to determine this information, He would simply know it! The possibility that God would have absolutely no need to do such "research" with many universes because of His omnipotence is never even suggested in the novel! I would have a bit more respect for Mr. Clarke and Mr. Lee if they had at least considered this idea and had the characters argue against it at some point in the novel. Secondly, I doubt His plan is as simpleminded as designing a perfect universe where everyone and everything sings His praises. Does He have low self-esteem or something? His ultimate plan would not be something so easy for us to understand--it would be something infinitely more creative, subtle, and awesome. Give Him some credit for His sake! I disagree with the cosmological ideas in the book because I feel that they grossly underestimate His creativity, knowledge, and power. Otherwise, this was none too shabby; I greatly commend the authors on their efforts and imaginations and will certainly recommend this book and the entire Rama series to anyone who enjoys sci-fi.
Rating:  Summary: A Great Book Review: One of the best books I've ever read.
Rating:  Summary: I agree...........with everyone. Review: I think that everybody here is right for the most part--1 stars and 5 stars alike. Especially about Mr. Monologue (Gentry Lee). The only reason I gave this book a five star rating is because of the Octospiders and the last part of the book. The Octos were pretty awesome, and so were the other aliens, but the humans sucked. All the really interesting stuff is when the main characters are away from all the rest of the humans. Yet the good stuff outweighed the bad stuff, and I have labelled RR as one of my two favorite books.
Rating:  Summary: Interesting speculations Review: I have just finished reading "Rama Revealed" and although I found the middle bit a little slow going generally enjoyed it. I was disappointed by the "death is beautiful" ending, but by now I have come to expect this from an Arthur C Clarke novel. It is indeed unfortunate that Dr Clarke has no interest in being part of the future as so many of his novels have been highly positive about it. The details about the Octospiders' civilisation are interesting in the way annihilation is considered, and this is interesting to read alongside The City and The Stars. The cosmological speculation in "Rama Revealed" is less than the title may suggest, but nevertheless makes the last few chapters compelling reading, including ideas from chaos theory and so on. It is interesting in this context to review Max Tegmark's ideas as published in New Scientist. I happened to read the New Scientist article at about the same time as I finished "Rama Revealed" and found similarities.
Rating:  Summary: No where near as bad as a lot of people are saying Review: I take the point that the Gentry Lee stuff is boring and horrible (I don't think I'm delluding myself that the boring parts are the work of Mr. Lee). The Clarke stuff is wonderful though, the octospider society has to be some of the best sci-fi ever written. Much better than Rama III.
Rating:  Summary: Stick with the first one Review: I'd have to say that Gentry Lee should have never talked with Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Clarke is a phenominal author who is the KING of sci-fi. Gentry Lee is a 2 bit smut peddler who loves violence and sex. Come on..Richard Wakefield was one of the greatest characters I have ever read about and he was destroyed so stupidly. For such an intelligent man, don't you think he would have known the humans would of killed him? Humans have this thing called "self-preservation" where you try to stay alive. The only cool thing about this book was the Octospider society. They had a very interesting biology and culture. Read Randezvous with Rama, and just imagine the rest. Trust me, what you create will be 100X better than what Mr. Lee can come up with.
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