Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: This book is just awful. I struggled through it to its stupid end, and I regret the moments of my life that I wasted.Why are the aliens, the octospiders, so boring and unimaginative? Why so they behave so much like accountants, or Sunday school superintendents? What a dismal waste of paper this book is.
Rating: 
Summary: Gentry lee ...
Review: I love Mr Clarke's work. But when ever he works with someone it tends to dilute his briliance. In this case Mr Lee and his negativeness runs rampant on a otherwise marvelous story.
Rating:
Summary: A general disappointment
Review: I first read "Rendevous With Rama" when it first was published. I have to say that I still consider it to be the best science fiction novel that I have ever read. I ended up reading it in two days. It was very difficult to put down. Therefore it was with this in mind that I was ecstatic when I first saw the sequel "Rama II" on display at a bookstore. Although this installment was not up to the original I enjoyed it. When the "Garden of Rama" appeared I eagerly bought it as well. The first half of the book with the characters on their way toward and at "the node" was good but the second part with the storyline of the colony was terrible. I was so unimpressed that I didn't read until just now "Rama Revealed". This last novel was a complete bore. I read on and on trying to get a sense of what the authors were trying to say. Basically I only continued out of curiousity to find out who the Ramans were. Somehow I guessed by the incessant discussions of God in the storyline that this is who the Ramans would turn out to be. I was correct in this assumption. This ending was not very satisfying at all. Maybe I just don't get it but the concept of God, who is powerful enough to create a new universe, having to resort to sending out robot spacecraft to see how it all turns out is ridiculous. Arthur C. Clarke is my favorite author. I have read almost everything he has written and I don't believe that this book was primarily written by him. I think Gentry Lee had the lions share of input. In all fairness however I must temper my judgment with the fact that I can't separate any story about the Rama spacecraft from the first book "Rendevous With Rama". It left that much of an impression on me.
Rating:
Summary: The worst book I have ever read
Review: I won't enumerate the specific problems with this book, partly because I know I couldn't possibly provide an exhaustive list in the modest space available, and partly because most of the major crimes have already been mentioned in other reviews. I will restrict myself to commenting that this book is so bad that I actually stopped reading it ten pages from the end - a first for me! Furthermore it is only my love of books that prevented me from ceremoniously burning this (along with its turgid previous two installments) - it now resides disrespectfully in the garage gathering dust, waiting for someone to throw it out in an absent-minded moment (I can't even give it to the charity shops, as how could I offer this for someone else's torture in conscience?) I would make the following recommendations: - read other Arthur C Clarks books - they are excellent
- if you want complex "other-cultures" along with genuine character development, read Iain M Banks
- never never buy any Gentry Lee books. (How he managed to dupe ACC into a partnership would make a better novel than any he could ever dream up)
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, let's be realistic here.
Review: Will people please stop comparing this book to "Rendezvous with Rama"? Of COURSE the 3 sequels in this series aren't the original. Let's move past that. When I read Rama II, I was disappointed in many ways, but pleased in others. ACC is fantastic at what he does, but character development isn't it. So I was happy to have characters with some sort of depth to them. Sadly, these characters seem to lose depth with time. (Aside: Why is it that middle-aged scifi authors always write about exotic women with French accents who just happen to be amazing in bed?) As another reviewer noted, the "revelation" of Rama was a bit of a cop-out. That's okay, because I'd known for years that ACC and Gentry Lee had painted themselves into a corner with the Ramans. Nobody could have pulled off a genuine revelation of the Ramans. Really, disappointing though it was, a cop-out was the best way they could have handled the revelation. So, if the characters were terrible and the plot disappointing, why 3 stars? Simply because it was a valiant attempt, as was the entire series. ACC never intended to write a sequel to "Rendezvous," and the book on its own did not deserve one. He presented us with a mystery of stupendous magnitude, but nothing else. The sequels are worth reading simply because they attempt to put the mystery into HUMAN terms. We might not like or believe the characters, but it's good to see that they at least have names.
Rating: 
Summary: Rama Revealed - A Nice End to the Quartet
Review: I have literally just finished Rama Revealed, again - and have to say I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around. I found that the religious content did not really ring true, but I give it five stars for the rest of the story - The Octospiders, are my favorite characters, and could have a book of their own. I felt sad again at the demise of Richard Wakefield, bitter at Nakamura and what he turned New Eden into, shocked at the eventual war waged in Rama by the humans against the Avians/Sessiles/Mirmicats and octospiders and exhilarated when Rama eventuallly turns up at the second Node. I am now feeling a sense of loss since completing the book. Whatever people think of this book, it is a milestone in Science Fiction - and with a film of Rendezvous With Rama, the first book, planned for 2003, let's hope that it does the book justice. If you like Clarke, then read this.
Rating: 
Summary: best of the Rama sequels
Review: The one feature that separates the three Rama sequels from Arthur C Clarke's other works is the melodrama. This book, thankfully, has less of that than the two preceding it. It's still no Rendezvous With Rama, but it's good. Since I can't give it three and a half stars, I rounded up and gave it four.
As I said in my review of Rama II, I do have a weakness for alien-contact stories, and therefore grew quite attached to the alien characters, Archie the octospider in particular. Clarke and Lee's ideas for differing alien cultures are interesting, which was one of the reasons I was so eager to finally meet the Ramans.
The result was disappointing. A good idea, certainly, but one they really should have saved for a different story. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it, but I was expecting something as technological and enigmatic as the Overlords in Childhood's End. Instead, all questions were answered in a way that was less than satisfying and left no sense of mystery. They tried too hard to come up with something utterly awe-inspiring, and overshot, leaving me with no feeling of awe at all. I could envision a fabulous short story built around the concept, but it just didn't fit the pattern the novels were following.
And what's with Maria? It's almost as if they threw her in and then forgot about her. Who was she? How did she end up in the octospider domain? What does that say about the octos? This isn't an unanswered mystery or even a loose end-- it's a complete oversight. They would have done better to leave her out altogether. It seemed like Clarke and Lee were really rushed toward the end, finishing it off in a hurry. "Oh, wait, we forgot to explain about Maria." "Oh well, no time to bother with that, we'll just leave it to the reader's imagination." The problem is, there wasn't even enough information given to imagine all that much. The girl just didn't fit.
Despite my problems with the ending, the story itself was compelling and exciting, pretty bleak on its perception of human nature, but fascinating nonetheless. The characters are more developped and believable than they were in the previous book, the sharp dividing line between the 'good' and 'evil' people finally blurring the way it does in real life. This is more of a 'traditional' story than I've come to expect from Clarke, but it's still good.
Rating:
Summary: Awful read.
Review: These books just keep getting worse and worse. Glad this was the last one.
Rating:
Summary: Pathetic end to the Rama Series
Review: As I came to the final pages of Rama Revealed (and thus, of the Rama series) and finally reached the long-awaited explanation to the 64,000 dollar question: "Who are the Ramans?", I could hardly believe my eyes. I found myself exclaiming: "What?! This just cannot be true!" The explanation given to the "Raman Intelligence" that we witnessed in awe all through the series is meaningless and, in its meaninglessness, ludicrous. The authors simply cannot have given the pseudoexplanation they gave as to who the Ramans are. It certainly is not an explanation about the "Raman Intelligence" but a cheap, simple-minded, religious escape off the tangent. And as such, it offends my intelligence. For the rest, however, I must say that I found the book truly awe-inspiring and extremely creative at many parts, and that is the reason for the three stars. It is such a pity it couldn't provide with a reasonable, realistic, meaningful end. Perhaps if Richard had been alive then, he wouldn't have let Saint Michael the robot and the Eagle get away with their lousy talk. I still want to believe that they have both been lying to Nicole, and to all of us.
Rating:
Summary: And the first book was so promising . . .
Review: After reading the first book (Rendevous with Rama) I was looking forward to finding out all the answers to the questions raised. What I discovered was that in some cases, it is better not to know. The three books where Arthur C. Clarke collaborated with Gentry Lee just got worse and worse as I went through them, but the concept of Rama is so good that I'll still give 2 stars to this book. The Rendevous was a classic science fiction novel, but the ending of this book is hardly science fiction at all. Please, I beg anyone out there, read the first book and keep it at that! It's much, much better that way . . .
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