Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
No margarine spread is in anyway involved in this. (For any fellow ??????? shoppers out there 😉 )
Right, this is the last of the Arthur C. Clarke reviews. It was written back in the 70s, and is definitely more the sort of style we expect from him, compared to the Time Odyssey books. The setting is the 22nd century, and Earth scientists have detected a large body passing through our solar system. When a group of astronautical scientists land on the space craft, they are astounded by its sheer scale; cylindrical and 30 miles (or it might have been kilometres – big in either case) long, it generates its own low-strength gravity field by centrifugal force. They mount an expedition to discover its secrets, and those of the civilization that may exist inside. Once more,to reveal anything beyond that would ruin the book I think, but I do like the character portrayals in this book, and some of the more ‘human’ side of the interaction between characters.