At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredible, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence. It will kindle their wildest dreams... and fan their darkest fears. For no one knows who the Ramans are or why they have come. And now the moment of rendezvous awaits -- just behind a Raman airlock door.

Accolades

Hugo Award Winner 1974.
Locus Award Winner 1974.
Nebula Award Winner 1973.

Review

"Only superlatives will do for Arthur Clarke's dazzlingly polished, wonderfully original exploration of a gigantic alien space ship that passes briefly through the solar system on its way to an unimaginable destination. Christened Rama by its human discoverers, the worldlet seems dead at first but comes remarkably and hazardously to life as a crew of earthmen probe its mysteries. When Rama leaves the solar system as precipitously as it arrived, more questions remain than have been answered, but the reader, like Rama's explorers, has seen wonders undreamt of in mere human philosophy. A perfect science fiction novel." (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Biography

Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead in 1917. During the Second World War he served as a radar instructor for the RAF, rising to the rank of flight-lieutenant. After the war, he entered King's college, London taking, in 1948, his Bsc in physics and mathematics with first class honours.One of the most respected of all science-fiction writers, he has won Kalinga Prize, the Aviation Space-Writers' Prize and the Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. He also shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his story, 'The Sentinel'. He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956.