Rating: 
Summary: It's horrible . Period .
Review:
I am quite certain that a contradiction of this scale will be quite tough to come across . 'Rendevous with Rama ' is , and will always be one of the best books I have read . But the whole 'Rama' series will I am sure be the worst series that I ever read .
I actually feel sorry for A.C.Clarke , that outstanding ( and my favourite ) author , who has his name printed , in jumbo-size , on the cover of this and the other two atrocious Rama books .
He couldn't have had much say in the compilation of these books , surely !!
Whan you think of Clarke , you think of his stylish , almost poetrical prose , his authentic science , and his crisp ,no-nonsense style of writing . These three Rama books lie at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum .
Gentry Lee was the chief engineer of the NASA's 'Galileo' program ' I've heard . Maybe he's a good engineer , because I surely know what he's NOT good at . Any thoughts of a career shift should be rapidly discouraged !!
In brief - Read 'Rendevouz' , and don't go anywhere near the others .
And I still feel the rating I gave this book is one too much ...
Rating: 
Summary: like sands through the houglass, these are the dys abrd Rama
Review: ... I had to roll my eyes with the soap opera developements, and many pages were skimmed in reading the second installment.
Nicole and the future King of England? Puhleease! (Did they enlist the aid of a 6 y/o girl in writing this plotline?" It needs a pwinth, a pwitheth and ponies!") Shakespearean robots? I don't even remember when they entered Rama, it was so anticlimactic as they were more concerned with their melodramatic lives than with Rama.
I did like to some extent the inclusion of faith and prayer. Don't see that much in SF; no muslims aboard the Enterprise and all that, but the papal visit? A little much. Avians were interesting. Fellow explorers from ages ago that got trapped or chose to stay as Nicole, etc. did?
Overall, I wanted more Rama and Rama detail, alien landscapes, etc.But even these were ?? I am not sure how to put it?? dumbed down? Less 'alien' that in the first novel? At first I thought the Avians had backward teched the alien Raman infrastructure to suit themselves to some extent, but the White room disappointed me, as did the 'subway', but still way more interesting than the first 2/3 of the book.
I suppose getting humans aboard was necesary for the development of the next installment, but if you get the book- feel free to skim entire chapters. (And characters, namely Francesca, whose point of existence was...???)
Rating:
Summary: Sadly, Absolute Trash
Review: Exploring the original Rama was an quietly stunning experience of wonder; the dark, cold, sterile environment; watching as the alien world awoke. The Ramans completely ignored our explorers, considering them merely trash to be swept away by their bots. The central sea was mysterious and fascinating when frozen, it was mysterious and fascinating when the lights came on and the sea began to melt, the unexplored metal buildings were fascinating, the bots were fascinating. The exploration of Rama was stark, quiet, and beautiful.Now, take these wonderful things, remove them from the story, add some obnoxious characters whom you will hate, study every aspect of the obnoxious characters in painful detail, and call it a sequel. The contrast between this and the original leaves me at a loss for words. Terribly disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: It Is A Dirty Rotten Shame
Review: I love Arthur C. Clarke, most of the time. I loved "Rendevouz", but felt that it was a little too austere. The sequels went the other way and I welcomed the change. I think blending a good character developer like Gentry Lee with a high concept genius like Clarke gives us the best of both worlds. I can't give it five stars because it isn't the best SF I've ever read, that goes to Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars Trilogy". That probably tells you something about my biases.
Rating: 
Summary: Ramans????
Review: I loved Rendezvous and I couldn't wait to read Rama II when I was done. I have just finished reading the book. Overall I liked the book, but there are still many parts that I am upset about. I agree with most of the other reviewers that the book focused way too much on the characters-and too little on Rama as a whole. Who cares about Nicole's porzo and her turning into a bird?--too unrelated too weird. Francesca and her interviews?? The ending was okay, and i am going to say what I thought about it next--so if you dont want to know the ending, don't read the next paragraph.
Anyway, I thought that ending left way too many unanswered questions that left the story incomplete. The main one I had was Why was Rama headed to Earth? Also what was the point of the birds? How could they just leave O'toole there? Wasn't Janos supposed to be supporting O'toole?? And the remaining question What are nicole, richard and otoole gonna do now that they are trapped on a ship that is supposed to continue to travel through space for another thousand or so years. I did like the biots-especially the human ones, and I liked that richard was accually able to communicate to the Ramans or something.
Despite the horrible reviews of the next Rama books, I need to read them anyway. Rama II failed to answer the question of who the Ramans are, and after starting the series, i need to find out.
Rating:
Summary: This is a stupid book
Review: I seldom take the time to write a review of a book. Usually I take that time when the book is good. This time I am writing to warn readers that this is a stupid book.
I began reading Rama II after reading Rendezvous (sp?) with Rama, which wasn't too bad, but was rather thin material itself. But with Rama II Clarke and Lee have reached new heights of silliness. The book is slow, slow, slow to begin with as the authors, I assume, seek to make sure that they have adequately developed their characters.
Finally we get to the object of the whole excercise, the alien spaceship itself, where the crew displays the most unbelievable pettiness that one would never believe possible in a crew of selected, professional cosmonauts. The characters' psychological defects would never past the test of any realistic agency which sought to choose a dozen people for one of the most important missions ever.
Then when the commander of the mission is suddenly killed mysteriously during a botched operation, we are treated to a scene in which one of the chief defective characters is engaged in a Macbeth-like attempt to become the new commander.
At this point I threw the book down in disgust. I have better things to do with my time. Like read the sequel to Bright Messengers by the same co-author of Rama II, Gentry Lee. Here Lee is on better footing I am happy to say, perhaps because he does not have to contend with Clarke?
Rating:
Summary: So-so
Review: I was a huge fan of the original "Rendezvous with Rama". It presented the reader with an incredible scenario and allowed him/her to simply explore it along with the characters- not getting bogged down in cliched details or unrealistically large personalities. At all times it felt like anything could happen, and it was one of the rare instances in which I literally couldn't put the book down.
This book, and the two that follow it, are almost completely opposite of the original in every way. This is a story all about the characters- more so than their mission. I was still interested in returning to the world of Rama and possibly discovering more, and this book didn't disappoint in that regard. However, there were so many cliches and naked plot-devices that it really detracted from my enjoyment. I was especially disdainful of the somewhat hokey "mysticism" with regard to the character of Nicole des-Jardins. That part seemed far more in the realm of fantasy than serious science-fiction.
However, I have read the succeeding books, which I thoroughly enjoyed (though not as much as the original), and "Rama II" is a required read before delving into the third and fourth installments. One must bear in mind that the three sequels are, basically, a separate series from the first book.
Rating:
Summary: So-so
Review: I was a huge fan of the original "Rendezvous with Rama". It presented the reader with an incredible scenario and allowed him/her to simply explore it along with the characters- not getting bogged down in cliched details or unrealistically large personalities. At all times it felt like anything could happen, and it was one of the rare instances in which I literally couldn't put the book down.
This book, and the two that follow it, are almost completely opposite of the original in every way. This is a story all about the characters- more so than their mission. I was still interested in returning to the world of Rama and possibly discovering more, and this book didn't disappoint in that regard. However, there were so many cliches and naked plot-devices that it really detracted from my enjoyment. I was especially disdainful of the somewhat hokey "mysticism" with regard to the character of Nicole des-Jardins. That part seemed far more in the realm of fantasy than serious science-fiction.
However, I have read the succeeding books, which I thoroughly enjoyed (though not as much as the original), and "Rama II" is a required read before delving into the third and fourth installments. One must bear in mind that the three sequels are, basically, a separate series from the first book.
Rating:
Summary: Stop at Rendezous.
Review: Shampoo ingredients make for a more interesting (and scientific) read than this book.
Someone once said that sci-fi novels cannot be judged by the same standards as other fiction because in sci-fi, the setting itself often supplies the motivating force behind the text. Perhaps this is what made Rendezvous with Rama so interesting. Sure the character development was non-existent, but you didn't care - Rendezvous was ABOUT Rama. Is it presumptuous to anticipate a sequel to be the same?
It appears so.
All the eerie weirdness of the first book, along with its concise, if not bland style, is gone. Forgettable characters have become the focus. Those reviewers who have described this book as a soap opera are not being overly harsh in their criticism. Although I do not know the full extent of Lee's influence in writing this book, he appears to have written the whole thing, simply using Clarke's ideas as a backdrop for his uninteresting and painfully contemporary characters.
I want my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly, Absolute Trash
Review: This book is *not* written by Arthur C Clarke, it was written by Gentry Lee alone. The promotion of the book as an ACC book is highly misleading. Gentry Lee belongs on the slushpile. His writing is full of magic and fantasy rather than science fiction. This book contains lengthy, irrelevant asides. The SF component is trivial; the book is basically a large character study. It is astonishing how bad this book is by comparison to the excellent, simple narrative "Rendezvous with Rama"
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