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Rendezvous with Rama

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Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#51

Post by dexwiz »

pavlov wrote: post #22

I always thought that, out of the Clarke novels, “Songs of Distant Earth” would make a good movie adaptation. Rama may turn out unrecognizable after the Hollywood script jockeys have been through with it, as happened to Foundation. (I actually like the Apple TV version, but it’s definitely its own thing.) For sci-fi takes on truly alien first contacts, Lem’s “Solaris” still holds its own, and the Tarkovsky movie is i…

I'd all the Southern Reach trilogy (quadrilogy? now) to this list. It's more on the cosmic/eldritch side, but similar sense of unknowable.

SPOILER WARNING

My interruption is that Area X/The Crawler is a probe built to study and build a bridge back to its creator. Area X is expanding because it's the inside of a wormhole. But whatever is on the other side is long dead, and the probe is acting on instinct.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#52

Post by kryptn »

ternus wrote: post #34

DO NOT READ THE SEQUELS One of the few cases where they actively ruin the first book, to the extent you take them as true sequels. Clarke basically licensed his name and plot to Gentry Lee, who proceeded to ruin the sense of wonder by explaining everything, often in deeply unsatisfactory ways. They would have been reasonable scifi books (for their time) if they hadn't attempted to follow up the classics. Star Wars pr…

I enjoyed the sequels but they're a completely separate story to me, and I don't think I'd read them again.

I didn't go in with the expectation that they'd be just like Rendezvous with Rama.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#53

Post by ssteeper »

I'm not fundamentally opposed to the use of AI to generate accompanying imagery, but in this case I think it detracts significantly from the article. The interior of Rama is misrepresented: the scale is completely off and the geometry is nonsensical. The clustered "cities" London, Paris, and Rome are not represented correctly. Too many more issues to name. Disappointing.

One should cherish one's own internal visualizations formed from reading the text; one should be cautious in viewing other artists' conceptions of the same material, lest your own model of the book's setting be tainted by unfaithful representations. When the imagery is this bad, it's a disservice to the book's legacy.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#54

Post by kryptn »

ternus wrote: post #31

"Wonder" might be the wrong way to describe it, but Blindsight by Peter Watts gave me the same feeling of "this is incredibly alien and I have no idea what will happen next". Other books with a similar plot structure and deeply alien vibe: - Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (recommended elsewhere in this thread) - Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds I know there's one I'm forgetting.

While reading Pushing Ice a very common thought I had was "did Reynolds want to do a Rama sequels?"

Shroud is great, easy recommendation. Another of Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay, also great, also very alien.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#55

Post by phendrenad2 »

ternus wrote: post #34

DO NOT READ THE SEQUELS One of the few cases where they actively ruin the first book, to the extent you take them as true sequels. Clarke basically licensed his name and plot to Gentry Lee, who proceeded to ruin the sense of wonder by explaining everything, often in deeply unsatisfactory ways. They would have been reasonable scifi books (for their time) if they hadn't attempted to follow up the classics. Star Wars pr…

As someone who was saved from reading the sequels due to online warnings, it's good to see that the next generation is being warned off of them also.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#56

Post by abraxas »

Pepe1vo wrote: post #14
abraxas wrote: post #5

For those who already read Rendezvous with Rama but need their alien aliens fix I can highly recommend "Shroud" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a similar theme with modern writing and convincing aliens as is pretty much expected by now from Tchaikovsky.

I liked shroud a lot, but the ending felt very ungratifying. It's like Tchaikovsky wrote himself into a corner and didn't really know how to wrap it up nicely. I find this to be true of some of his other books as well.

To each their own. I did not expect the ending and found it quite satisfying.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#58

Post by dbspin »

pavlov wrote: post #22

I always thought that, out of the Clarke novels, “Songs of Distant Earth” would make a good movie adaptation. Rama may turn out unrecognizable after the Hollywood script jockeys have been through with it, as happened to Foundation. (I actually like the Apple TV version, but it’s definitely its own thing.) For sci-fi takes on truly alien first contacts, Lem’s “Solaris” still holds its own, and the Tarkovsky movie is i…

Counterpoint, I very much enjoyed the sequels (all but the last). They added three dimensional characters, especially women and explored a variety of aspects of first contact. They're a believable examination of how humans recreate the same social ills over and over, given the opportunity for utopia.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#59

Post by iainmerrick »

acheron wrote: post #46

Re: 2001 > Clarke wrote the movie screenplay with Kubrick I don’t think this is true? I thought the two of them sat together and worked out the plot, and then Kubrick went off and wrote the screenplay and Clarke went off and wrote the novel. So neither is really “based on” the other. Anyway though, Rama is great, yes. I’m skeptical of the idea of a movie adaptation but Denis Villeneuve is probably the right one to tr…

Clarke’s book The Lost Worlds of 2001 goes into a lot of detail about the process (and is a great read in its own right). His take was that the book should say “a novel by Arthur C Clarke, based on the screenplay by Stanley Kubrick” and the movie should say “screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Arthur C Clarke”.

I think Kubrick was very much the dominant force in the partnership, but they did work quite closely together.

Re: Rendezvous with Rama

#60

Post by dmbche »

ternus wrote: post #31

"Wonder" might be the wrong way to describe it, but Blindsight by Peter Watts gave me the same feeling of "this is incredibly alien and I have no idea what will happen next". Other books with a similar plot structure and deeply alien vibe: - Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (recommended elsewhere in this thread) - Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds I know there's one I'm forgetting.

For Peter Watts - Echopraxia is just as wonderful as Blindsight, highly recommend.
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