Book Review: Rama II

Rama II is the sequel to Rendevous with Rama. I was really looking forward to this sequel.

But I honestly couldn’t get very far into this book. I really enjoyed Rendevous with Rama, but this novel failed to hold my attention for two reasons:

  • The worldbuilding was well-thought out, but was written like a well-written history textbook, or the sourcebook
    for a roleplaying game. I wanted to get into this world, not read its history texts.
  • The few characters I actually saw right away didn’t have a “save the cat” moment. I had no reason to empathize with them, and didn’t.
    As a result, I got maybe 75 pages into this rather massive tome before putting it down. Maybe I set it down just before it got better; they hadn’t even lifted off of Earth yet.

Which, I guess, is the problem. I wanted to read more about the artifact. In Rendevous with Rama, the rest of human society impacts what’s going on – but the focus is still on the artifact and the humans exploring it. The artifact is what made me want to read the next book in the series – stalling so long to get to it really turned me off.

I’m still vaguely interested in the concept and idea – but not enough to slog through this huge tome in order to get there.