O Enigma de Rama

70 years after the events of Rendezvous with Rama, the second Raman vessel finally enters the solar system. This time its arrival is expected and an expedition is sent to unlock more of Rama's mysteries, but the crew are unprepared both for what they find and for the conflicts that arise between them. Rama II brings new characters into a new story and is mostly unrelated to the original and largely serves to set up its own sequels. It ends with three of the twelve astronauts stranded inside Rama as it travels out of the solar system, Nicole des Jardins Wakefield, Richard Wakefield and Michael O'Toole.



Many readers have found a great contrast between Rendezvous with Rama and this novel. While the former depicted a utopian future and focused almost entirely on the hard science fiction elements regarding the scientific wonders of the alien spacecraft, Rama II and its sequels deconstruct Clarke's vision of human colonies throughout the solar system through a global economic crisis that forced their almost total deactivation. Then follows a very different storytelling that brings forward contemporary issues like abortion, racism, drug abuse and organized crime. Tension and violence escalate throughout the series — there are many deaths in the course of the novel — giving the reader a somewhat dystopic vision of the future, and a feel different from Clarke's style.

Aventura / Ficção científica / Literatura Estrangeira / Romance / Suspense e Mistério