Встреча с Рамой

1973 science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke

Rendezvous with Rama is a 1973 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Set in the 2130s, the story involves a cylindrical alien starship that enters the Solar System. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and is regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. The concept was later extended with several sequels, written by Clarke and Gentry Lee.

An asteroid strikes Italy in 2077, prompting the creation of the Spaceguard system to track potentially hazardous objects in space. In 2131, Spaceguard detects an interstellar object entering the Solar System, designating it "31/439" before naming it Rama after the Hindu god. A space probe reveals that Rama is a perfectly smooth cylinder long and in diameter, proving that it was designed by intelligent alien lifeforms. The Endeavour is sent to study Rama, being the only ship close enough to do so. The crew navigates through a safety system consisting of triple airlocks, and descends one of three identical staircases. Inside Rama, they discover two plains that stretch along the interior circumference, subdivided by a frozen body of water they name the Cylindrical Sea. They identify several city sized clusters of geometric structures, which they name after major cities on Earth. The United Planets follows their progress closely, and scientists are assembled to form a Rama Committee that considers theories and advises Commander Norton. As Rama drifts closer to the sun, the Cylindrical Sea melts, the temperature shift causes a storm, and three massive lights activate on each plain to illuminate the world. Boris Rodrigo, a crewman who adheres to a space inspired sect of Christianity, suggests that Rama is a new Noah's Ark that will change course to begin orbiting the sun. The crew floats across the Cylindrical Sea on a raft to reach an island they name New York, and a sample of the water reveals the presence of microorganisms. The structures in New York are positioned in patterns of three, and their purpose is unidentifiable without any openings. The crewman Jimmy Pak approaches Norton to admit that he smuggled a sky bike onto their ship and offers to fly it above a cliff to reach the southern plain. He flies to the other end of Rama, which is defined by a large spike surrounded by smaller spikes. Pak realizes that an electric field is building around the spikes, and it emits a concussion that knocks his sky bike out of the air and destroys it, stranding him in the southern plain. As he recovers from the crash, a crab like creature arrives to disassemble the sky bike and dispose of its parts. Pak is unable to determine whether the creature is biological or robotic. Pak explores the patchwork terrain of the southern plain while he waits for rescue. He finds a single alien flower, which he takes. A rescue crew arrives on the raft, and Pak jumps from the cliff into the Cylindrical Sea so they can pull him aboard. An earthquake triggers a tidal wave, but the surgeon commander Laura Ernst navigates them to safety. They see a destroyed starfish like creature emerge from the sea, and shark like creatures arrive to dissemble it. After returning to their camp, a spider like creature with three eyes and three legs analyzes all of their equipment. More arrive, and one falls from a higher platform to its destruction. Ernst takes the opportunity to dissect the creature and finds that it is both biological and robotic, so they conclude that the creatures were designed by the Ramans and begin referring to them as biots. The government of Mercury decides that Rama is too dangerous and fires a nuclear weapon at it. Rodrigo intercepts the missile, climbs onto it, and disarms it. The crew prepares to evacuate as Rama gets too close to the sun. For their final expedition, they visit a city with a laser and cut a hole into the side of a structure. They find a collection of holograms that provide details on various Raman artifacts, including a suit designed for a three legged humanoid. As they leave, the biots return to the sea to be disassembled and the lights begin to dim. The crew boards Endeavour and leaves Rama. Rama changes course to move directly toward the sun and moves alongside it to gather energy. It then activates a space drive to propel itself out of the Solar System in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud. After Rama leaves, a member of the Rama Committee considers that the Ramans do everything in threes.

John Leonard of The New York Times, while finding Clarke "benignly indifferent to the niceties of characterization", praised the novel for conveying "that chilling touch of the alien, the not quite knowable, that distinguishes sci fi at its most technically imaginative". Other reviewers have also commented on Clarke's lack of character development and overemphasis on realism.

A graphic adventure computer game of the same name with a text parser based on the book was made in 1984 by Trillium and ported to other systems such as the Apple II, Commodore 64. Despite its primitive graphics, it had highly detailed descriptions, and it followed the book very closely along with having puzzles to solve during the game. In Spain there was an official adaptation for the 2nd generation MSX computers called Cita con Rama that took advantage of the MSX's ability to produce (at the time) high quality graphics. It was adapted from the Clarke novel in 1983 by Ron Martinez, who went on to design the massively multiplayer online game 10Six, also known as Project Visitor. Sierra Entertainment created Rama in 1996 as a point and click adventure game in the style of Myst. Along with highly detailed graphics, Arthur C. Clarke also appeared in the game as the guide for the player. This game featured characters from the sequel book Rama II.

In 2009, BBC Radio 4 produced a two part radio adaptation of the book as part of a science fiction season. It was adapted by Mike Walker, and was broadcast on 1 March 2009 (Part 1) and 8 March 2009 (Part 2).

In the early 2000s, actor Morgan Freeman expressed his desire to produce a film based on Rendezvous with Rama. The film has been stuck in "development hell" for many years. In 2003, after initial problems procuring funding, it appeared the project would go into production. The film was to be produced by Freeman's production company, Revelations Entertainment. David Fincher, touted on Revelations' Rama web page as far back as 2001, stated in a late 2007 interview that he was still attached to helm. By late 2008, David Fincher stated the movie was unlikely to be made. "It looks like it's not going to happen. There's no script and as you know, Morgan Freeman's not in the best of health right now. We've been trying to do it but it's probably not going to happen." In 2010, Freeman stated in an interview that he was still planning to make the project but that it has been difficult to find the right script. He also stated that it should be made in 3D. In January 2011, Fincher stated in an interview with MTV that he was still planning to make the film after he had completed work on his planned remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (which was scheduled to begin production in 2012 but has since been scrapped). He also reiterated Freeman's concerns about the difficulty of finding the right script. In an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson in February 2012, Freeman indicated an interest in playing the role of Commander Norton for the film, stating that "my fantasy of commanding a starship is commanding Endeavour". Tyson then asked, "So is this a pitch to be that person if they ever make that movie?" to which Freeman reaffirmed, "We are going to make that movie." In response to a plea to "make that come out sooner rather than later", Freeman reiterated that difficulty in authoring a high quality script is the primary barrier for the film, stating " the only task you have that's really really hard in making movies, harder than getting money, is getting a script a good script". In December 2021, it was announced that the film was in development at Alcon Entertainment with Denis Villeneuve set to direct. Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary are on the production team because their Revelations Entertainment previously owned the rights. Alcon co CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will produce. As of February 2024, Villeneuve was in the process of writing the script.

Clarke created the space study program which detects Rama, Project Spaceguard, as a method of identifying near Earth objects on Earth impact trajectories; in the novel it was initiated in 2077. A real project named Spaceguard was initiated in 1992, named after Clarke's fictional project and "with the permission and encouragement of Clarke". After interest in the dangers of asteroid strikes was heightened by a series of Hollywood disaster films, the United States Congress gave NASA authorisation and funding to support Spaceguard. By 2017, there were a number of different efforts to detect potentially dangerous asteroids. On 19 October 2017 an incoming interstellar object was discovered by Pan STARRS, a system similar to Spaceguard. Like Rama, the object had an unusually elongated shape. Before the official Hawaiian name ʻOumuamua was selected by the International Astronomical Union, a popular choice was Rama.