Rama II, by Authur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee

Rama II is the sequel to Arthur C Clarke's 'Rendezvous with Rama', in which a large spacecraft of alien origin ('Rama') arrives in our solar system. Unlike it's predecessor, it is written by both Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee, a former NASA engineer.  The book is set in the year 2200, and sees the arrival of Rama II, another large spacecraft similar to Rama, into our solar system.  The book tells the story of the human response to this event, focusing on the twelve cosmonauts sent up to investigate.

Before I continue, I should point out that this book is part of a series of four books, and I have read both the first and the final book.  This meant that while reading it I knew a certain amount of the plot and some of the recurring characters.  This didn't entirely ruin the book, however, since while I knew some of the more far reaching plot elements there was a reasonable amount of interest in the detail.

So, I'll start with the bad bits.  Probably the biggest problem with this book is that the characters are very black and white.  It is very easy to divide them into three groups, the good, the evil and the irrelevant, and they are mostly simple stereotypes - the manipulating journalist, the computer genius recluse, the mechanical japanese pilot.  In many ways, they're just too unbeliveable - Richard Wakefield in particular, who appears to be able to solve unlikely mathematical problems and reprogram AI robots in a matter of minutes.

Which brings me neatly to my second major criticism of the book; it's simply too unbelievable. Not only are the characters shallow, but their actions make little sense, in particluar for the 'bad' characters and the off-scene people on Earth. The book seems a little bit lost, perhaps being too long winded and pointless in places - for example, there are two or three of the twelve cosmonauts that could easily be removed entirely from the book without any loss, and the ending is predictable and lacklustre, clearly leading into a third book but feeling that it should have some excitement to finish with.

But, despite these failings, it's not a bad book.  There is a sense of adventure and discovery as the crew make their way, and some interesting insights into the role of the media in making decisions.  Sometimes a good old-fashioned good verses evil standoff is what you need in a book, and despite knowing what would happen in the long run, I wanted to know how it would happen.

So all in all, this is one of those books that I'd probably not recommend as something to go out of your way for, but if you happen to come across it, and you've read Rendezvous with Rama and want to read the rest of the books, it's a decent read.  Just don't expect it to be deep and meaningful!

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