Rendezvous with Rama

I've had this book title in my head since I remember seeing an add for a Commodore 64 video game. It was a great sounding title, even if I had no idea what the book was about.

The book is set in the not-so-distant future. Humanity occupies multiple planets in the solar system. There are various squabbles, fights and conflicts as would be expected. People tend to identify themselves with the planet (or moon) that they inhabit.

Things get interesting when a strange object is noticed in the sky. It appears to be coming towards the solar system. However, it does not seem right. They discover that it is some type of spacecraft. A group goes to explore it. They discover that it is somewhat alien in origin, but the inhabitants seem to have passed away. They are able to go instead and explore. They spend time exploring and run into some sort of "servant" beings. 

The spacecraft appears to have traveled for millenia. It gets closer and closer to the sun, causing water to melt inside. Some humans from Mercury freak out and attempt to destroy it, yet some of the explorers disable the bomb. The people bail before it gets too close to the sun. They then discover that it was only on a "refueling" stop before it continued on its journal.

This interaction with aliens is a very passive one. Orson Scott Card carried on the "insect-like" aliens further in Ender's Game. In this book, the aliens really didn't care about the humans. They may not have even noticed their presence. This may be similar to an earthly voyage of discovery that landed on a "deserted" island for a fuel stop. They may never have noticed the natives that game to the ship. Perhaps later things would have changed.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Kubrick's 2001 was "inspired" by a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. However, this was only a basic concept influence. Clarke worked with Kubrick to create the movie. The audiobook is a novelization of the movie. It starts with the primitive society and the monolith, proceeds to the space mission. There is the conflict with HAL and then the final question about humanity. It is very faithful to the movie and does not add a whole lot. This is a rare case where the movie is much better. 

Hammer of God

A big object in space is on

a collision course for earth. Astronomers with their fancy equipment fail to spot it. However, an amature did notice the oddity and now the earth is on high alert. They decide to use a super powerful missile to destroy the object and save the earth. The bulk of the book is the build up to this event. It feels like a downer when it finally occurs and the novel ends.

Ok. That was it. Done.

In the process, there were a group of people that were located close to the object and willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of all. Luckily for them, the missile impacted the object, but the warhead but didn't explode. It did however, manage to nudge it a little off course of the earth. It did cause a lot of destruction, but most people survived.

The book took lots of break for social and scientific commentary. This may have actually been some of the better points of what was not a very good story in itself.

A Fall of Moondust

A ship goes on a site-seeing trip on the moon. The trip is so non-eventful that the captain is out chatting with the passengers. However, a sudden moonquake buries the ship. Everybody is ok, however, oxygen is limited to a week. And, they soon discover that heat may be their biggest problem.

Outside, the traffic controllers notice the ship is missing, but don't see any sign of it. However, a scientist is able to use his knowledge to help pinpoint the ship's trace. Eventually they send down some pipes to pump in oxygen and later rescue the passengers.

This is, at its core, a disaster story. It just happens to be set on the moon. The radio play was well done. It is a pity that this form isn't used more. It combines the dramatization of a movie with the "you can listen while you are doing stuff" nature of an audiobook.

The Last Theorem

I never realized that Arthur C. Clarke lived most of his adult life in Sri Lanka. That explains the setting for The Last Theorem. The book centers around mathematician Ranjit Subramanian. We start with him in college, and later see him achieve great fame after proving Fermat's last theorem. He gets married has kids, becomes a professor, gets involved with the US government and eventually is given a "mechanical" immortality.

He also plays a role in some important events for the future of humanity.

Aliens picked up radio signals from earth. They also noticed the nuclear blasts. The "Grand Galatics" decided that the earth needed to be destroyed, so they sent out a crew of "1.5s" to do the destruction as well as "9 limbs" to communicate. However, a Grand Galactic passing near earth saw that the humans were not all bad, so he called off the invasion. Unfortunately, the other aliens did not have the resources to return home, so they occupied a vacant part of earth. The Americans initially tried to attack them. However, this failed miserably, and they eventually became friends, sharing technology and eventually leading earthlings to be the guardians of the galaxy.

Back on earth, a "peace coalition" uses "EMP" bombs (silent thunder) to disable all electronic activity in rouge states. They deploy this over North Korea and quickly dispose of the "benevolent leader". They also had a humanitarian crew standing by to provide supplies after the attack. Thus they are able to quickly install a peaceful leadership without bloodshed. They later use this on Colombia and Venezuela. (The drug trade had dried up in Colombia after it was legalized in America. However, the kingpins decided to join the trade in another lucrative addiction - oil. This led to a lot of fighting that was finally ended by "silent thunder".)

Earth has also developed greater space exploration technology, with a "space elevator" enabling Moon travel to be easier. Ranjit's daughter competes in the first "space olympics". She also competes in a "solar sail" race. However, in the process, her vehicle is commandeered by the 9 limbs who clone her body to use to interrogate leaders of the earth.

There is a lot of stuff going on. However, most of the narrative is spent talking about the life of Ranjit. While we get little bits of the alien activity throughout the book, actual human-alien contact doesn't happen until the end. Even here, it seems like it will be aborted before it is started. We finally get a quick landing and a paranoid US response. When that fails, they seem to make peace and live together nicely.

I liked the way that the novel started. We get a couple prologues about the life and interest of the authors, and these meld directly into the story of Ranjit. I was left wondering whether this was still a bit of "fact" related to the authors. Then the aliens pop in, and I finally realize it is fiction.

The ending seems to jump up a little suddenly. I was expecting some sort of bang with the aliens, but it is just a little whimper. The earth ends up in a highly optimistic peaceful existence. The US uses its technical warfare superiority to ensure peace. They almost go too far in their quest, but luckily, they are stopped by aliens and the earthlings are able to have a peaceful, educational co-existence.

After this seeming peace, another bit seems tacked on where Ranjit's wife dies in a Scuba accident. Her mind is saved in an "electronic" body, with her husband joining her. This seems to only allow the narrative to come back to them a few thousand years later after the Grand Galactics have returned and decided that earthlings should take over their role.

There is a lot of interesting content in this story, and a nice narrative style. The ending seems rushed, but manages to serve its purpose in spite of leaving out a lot that we were expecting.