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Originally Posted by JSWolf
Then there are some books that are called classic that aren't such as Rendezvous with Rama. It's the best of the series and that is not saying much as the rest is awful and RwR is rubbish.
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The sequels to RwR are not by Clarke. And, yes, they suck. The one immediately after is shockingly bad. Reading that again as an adult forced me to question the mainstream publishing process. So much for gate-keepers and quality control. I would be fascinated to know the back-room process that allowed that sequel to be published. Embarrasing.
But RwR is a great book. Clarke was unusual in that he wrote books about utopias without predictable antagonists. He tended to write about worlds that demonstrated sentience at its best. That's hard to do. RwR is a book that describes the huge and uncanny. And there is not antagonist. That's hard to do. I think he did a good job.