mermaidsherbet's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Xenophobia, Medical content, Racism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Animal death, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Violence
janenx01's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Even though there are parts that haven't aged well (entire paragraphs of how breasts float around in zero G - UGH) this is one of my fave SF books because Rama itself is the main character.
For a book by one of SF's "greats", Rama does have weirdly abandoned subplots. Pages about "super chimps" (aka "simps") who never come into the story, ACC just wants to talk about them for some reason? And there was another I wanted to talk about while I was listening to this but now I've forgotten it, just like Clarke did. All that aside, Rama is absolutely worth a read, and despite its unevenness there's a reason it's a classic!
Super sexist like most SF from the time. Avert your eyes from the floating breasts and expect most of the talking to be done by men. The human characters are uninteresting and unmemorable, but Rama saves the story. The descriptions and concepts of the ship are brilliant.
Clarke thought this should be a standalone and I agree. I feel like the later (co-written) sequels got increasingly desperate and were ultimately not as interesting.
Super sexist like most SF from the time. Avert your eyes from the floating breasts and expect most of the talking to be done by men. The human characters are uninteresting and unmemorable, but Rama saves the story. The descriptions and concepts of the ship are brilliant.
Clarke thought this should be a standalone and I agree. I feel like the later (co-written) sequels got increasingly desperate and were ultimately not as interesting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Animal death
animal death happens off-screen, discussed by author as happening in the past/before book's story
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