Journal Entry 1 by sarradee from Dallas, Texas USA on Thursday, April 10, 2008

Inside Flap Copy
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.

About the Author
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.


Sending to a Reading Diva. 

Journal Entry 2 by msjoanna from Columbia, Missouri USA on Sunday, June 01, 2008

This classic of science fiction was recommended to me recently by someone who reports it as one of his favorite books of all time. I'm just starting to dip my toes into science fiction, so I've been picking a few greats of the genre to read. Looking forward to it. 

Journal Entry 3 by msjoanna at Columbia, Missouri USA on Monday, August 29, 2011

I can't believe I'd never heard of this book before someone sent me a copy! This wonderful book swept the science fiction awards when it was published in the 1970s and it's aged surprisingly well. Set in the fairly distant future, the book manages to compellingly and suspensefully tell the story of an encounter with an unknown space ship or space object, dubbed Rama. Humans have colonized multiple planets and moons in our solar system, but up until encountering Rama, there has been no evidence of other intelligent life in the universe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm now off to find out if Clarke ever continued the series and spent more time exploring who the Ramans might be and what their spaceship/space object was doing in our solar system.