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Rating: 
Summary: Awesome! I can't wait for the sequel!
Review: Bright Messengers, while not having quite as believable characters as the Rama sequel trilogy, is a great book, and a must read. However, what most people ask is "Where the hell is 'Double Full Moon Night?'" Well, Gentry Lee got side-tracked with the Rama CD-ROM, and didn't quite finish it. He is once again at work on it, and is 70-90% finished. People have also asked, "What the hell does this have to do with the Rama series?" Okay, for those of you who didn't pay close attention, the baby born at the end is the same baby Nicole found at the end of the 2nd to last section of Rama Revealed. The creatures who constructed the ship, and the "zoo" on mars are the Octospiders, not the Ramans. The sequel will be about how the baby travels 120 years through time to Rama III. Presumably, then a 4th series of Rama books will detail what happens to Maria, Michael, Simone, Max, Eponine, Patrick, Nai, Benjy, Ellie, little Nicole, Marius, Kepler, and the eagle. I'm not sure what happens then, but I think it may have something to do with the "Prime Monitor", the super node at the center of the galaxy. E-mail me if you want to discuss this
Rating: 
Summary: review
Review: fantastic book up to the very end. drops off at the end.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Effort, But Falls Short of Rama Quality
Review: If I had not read the Rama series, I would have been tempted to give this book 5 stars, although I probably would have resisted that temptation. The characters are well-written and fairly deep, and the plot is complicated yet coherent enough. What kept bothering me, though were the frequent parallels to the Rama books - parallel characters, parallel themes, and even parallel scenes. I could never decide if these parallels were stylistic and simply reflected the fact that Mr. Lee co-wrote the last three Rama books, if he was intentionally creating these parallels, or if he was just not original enough to really create a different story from the Rama story. If you have not read this book or the Rama series, I would advise you to read this one first, to avoid the overshadowing effect. I also found that, even though the characters were well-written, I had difficulty caring about any of them, except Sister Beatrice. Also, maybe I was dense at the time (or always), but I didn't realize that I was reading Part 1 of a sequel until almost the end, when I realized that nothing could get resolved in the fifty or so pages I had left. I hope the sequel answers my questions -- and is more original.
Rating:
Summary: a good effort overshadowed by a masterpiece
Review: If I had not read the Rama series, I would have been tempted to give this book 5 stars, although I probably would have resisted that temptation. The characters are well-written and fairly deep, and the plot is complicated yet coherent enough. What kept bothering me, though were the frequent parallels to the Rama books - parallel characters, parallel themes, and even parallel scenes. I could never decide if these parallels were stylistic and simply reflected the fact that Mr. Lee co-wrote the last three Rama books, if he was intentionally creating these parallels, or if he was just not original enough to really create a different story from the Rama story. If you have not read this book or the Rama series, I would advise you to read this one first, to avoid the overshadowing effect. Also, maybe I was dense at the time (or always), but I didn't realize that I was reading Part 1 of a sequel until almost the end, when I realized that nothing could get resolved in the fifty or so pages I had left. I hope the sequel answers my questions.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: It took a while but when I finally got into the book, it was truly captivating. Unlike others, I was not annoyed with Sister Bea. The story of her and Johann was a good one, tedious at parts. Does anyone else ever notice that religious folks of the future, particularly Catholics, seem to hearken back to the Middle Ages in dress, custom and manner.Toward the middle of the book they are taken in an alien craft and whisked to the stars. The action was riveting and not at all derivative of Rama. Too bad that the sequeal was the pits.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: It took a while but when I finally got into the book, it was truly captivating. Unlike others, I was not annoyed with Sister Bea. The story of her and Johann was a good one, tedious at parts. Does anyone else ever notice that religious folks of the future, particularly Catholics, seem to hearken back to the Middle Ages in dress, custom and manner. Toward the middle of the book they are taken in an alien craft and whisked to the stars. The action was riveting and not at all derivative of Rama. Too bad that the sequeal was the pits.
Rating: 
Summary: Insipid plot with page turning effect
Review: Take all the best parts of this book and you end up with a c-grade short story, at best. Character development is 2-stars, sci-fi development is 1-star. Saddest of all, given the fact that Gentry Lee was so intimately involved in the Rama series, he absolutely dropped the ball. This was, without reservation, one of the worst books I have ever encountered.
Rating:
Summary: A frustrating waste of time and trees
Review: This book is ok during the first half. Interesting characters are facing mysterious happenings. Then the characters board a magic space shuttle to loonie-land, where bizarre and pointless (and eventually violent and sickening) things happen to them with no explanation whatsoever. And then... it ends abrubtly. Like the author was writing a high school term paper and just passed the minimum pages his teacher assigned, Lee throws a couple paragraphs of bizzarre happenings on the pile and says "To be continued..." I would read the sequel, but i have no hope that he will be any more likely to explain why the bizarre events happen than he was in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Just Not RAMA
Review: This work is loosely based upon the RAMA series of novels Gentry Lee co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke. Lee has boldly attempted to achieve something new within the RAMA universe, but the reader familiar with the earlier books will not forgive. The time of the Great Chaos is a superb backdrop but it is not enough of a parellel for the books to be considered part of the RAMA Universe. We never see RAMA or any of its inhabitants, just something similar. There is, however, an extraordinary scene aboard the spacecraft where the main characters are forced to endure a simulation of the Hiroshima bomb blast. Yes, it is a wonderful book with some wonderful elements, but in the end it is simply a poor attempt to copy the breathtaking feel of the original RAMA story.
Rating:
Summary: Looks like Sci-Fi is too much for Lee Alone
Review: Up until page 212, this seems like an acceptable science fiction story. Tantalizing hints, solid science, and interesting characters. I admit, some of them are two dimensional, but at least they are interesting, and their firm viewpoint is well portrayed.
After that we have inexplicable aliens giving our main characters increasingly pointless tours, while removing carefully all the other characters from the situation, for no explicable reason. We have situations described as 'zero gravity' with: Walking, shuffling, floors, cielings, climbing (Even tiredness while climbing), a RIVER, a BOAT in the river, SEATS in the boat, Earthlike scenes with trees, and squirels, while our carefuly segregated main characters sitting and eating a picnic . . .. All still in a zero G setting, with no explanations, adaptation, nothing.
From the before mentioned page 212 on, this book continues downhill, into a train wreck. If you are serious about your Sci-fi, and care about motivations, I would reccomend skipping this one, and looking to Niven, or Clarke, or Heinlein, or, above all, Spider Robinson.
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