It’s a good case-study into the benefits of reading widely as an author, because on the one hand, it could very easily have come off as a rehash (though I think by some luck I managed to avoid that!). But in the end, I deconstructed them and started the book with the expedition to Mars, folding the original lore into the backstory through conversations and the like. In my first draft, I actually had three full chapters of different characters making these observations through telescopes. But as an opening concept, you’ve got to admit it’s pretty close. Rama stays on its parabolic arc when intercepted by humans, whereas the object in my novel smashes into Mars before humans mount their expedition (and of course, I try to make it clear in my blurb that a lot of the rest of the book takes place back on Earth following the aftermath of the expedition). That’s where the similarities end, however. We have the observation of an extrasolar object on a parabolic trajectory through the solar system, while still out near the orbit of Jupiter, which was at first mistaken for an asteroid or comet but turns out to be an alien spacecraft, and humans go in a spacecraft of their own to explore it. I can’t quite get over the similarities between the first three chapters of my first draft of From the Grave of the Gods to the opening three chapters of this book - a feat I achieved quite by accident. After reading it, I can see why people were recommending it to me left and right. That said, Rendezvous with Rama is one I would highly recommend. Even though I fully believe in the benefits of reading widely, and of having a mixed repertoire of the classic and modern - especially as a writer - I also believe that people should read whatever they want to read, and not to be made to read something that doesn’t suit them. It’s one of the heavy-hitters of classic science fiction, one many would consider an “essential” read. A fascinating and mysterious classic of first-contact sci-fi.Īrthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama has been recommended to me a lot over the last year or so, and for good reason.

Rendezvous with rama review