Rendezvous with Rama

** spoiler alert ** In the 22nd century, an asteroid-sized space ship enters our solar system. Clarke's science comes in handy as he imagines the cylindrical interior world that Earth's scouting party encounters there. His sense of how politics might play out in such a situation is more interesting and entertaining than any of the adventure elements he puts into the story. I especially like the Hermians, colonists on Mercury whose predictably difficult existence, combined with the fact that their inhospitable planet provides the mineral wealth that makes 22nd century life possible, gives them a no-nonsense, ego-inflated approach to politics that threatens this first encounter with an alien species.

In Childhood's End and 2001, Clarke explored evolutionary fantasies that lead mankind to higher levels of consciousness, Here, we earthlings have to adjust to the fact that whatever civilization built this ship is just passing through. They have no interest in us, if they even know we exist. They need our sun to refuel and then they are on their way. Humbling.