Reviews

The Garden of Rama by Gentry Lee, Arthur C. Clarke

mfeezell's review against another edition

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1.0

The best part about this book is that it gets so bad in such a short amount of time that I don't feel the urge to waste any more of my time on it. The second book was clearly a downgrade but the characters and sci-fi were decent enough on a surface level that I hoped the questions raised in Rama II would get answered in an interesting way in this book. Be careful what you wish for I guess.

Spoiler Nicole certainly wasn't the best female character I've ever seen, but you can tell an attempt was made to do better by women in sci-fi, albeit poorly executed. That idea was completely thrown out the window within 50 pages of this book, and luckily I stopped reading before they had the bright idea to let the 13 year old girl get married to her 70-something year old uncle? Stepfather? Who knows with this family tree!

I also fail to understand why continuing the human race was important enough to condone incest and child marriage when Earth and humanity still exist??? and are perfectly fine??? Feels like shoving these topics in without any narrative or thematic need really says a lot about the authors more than anything, especially considering the final theme of half of humanity being irredeemably evil. Suppose I would think humanity is evil too if I had the moral compass to write this book unprompted and impose it upon the world.

thelastgrim's review against another edition

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1.0

Džentri Li - matora, nedojebana, perverznjačino. Jeb'o te dan kad si se odlučio na kolaboraciju sa Arturom Klarkom. Bolje da si ti lično kolabirao i poštedeo nas sve ove sramote. Ne zna se ko je luđi, dal ti što si mislio da možeš da nastaviš Susret s Ramom ili Klark što ti je to uopšte i dozvolio.
U kom trenutku tvog misaonog procesa je došla ideja: "E da, dodaću seks, plođenje, velike karine, špansku seriju, Zadrugu, glupe, bezlične, stereotipne likove (stRoNG InDepENDent bLeK VuMEN, hrišćanski impotentni fanatik, prepametni neshvaćeni geek i 2 japanska naučnika)... u ovaj tako dobar sci-fi roman, i napraviti još bolja i zanimljivija, ČAK 3 (TRI) nastavka??? Sve tri knjige su ti se prodavale samo zato što na njima, na svim izdanjima, piše Artur Klark, a sam Klark je imao dodira sa njima kao Hitler sa Džesi Ovensom.

Prvi nastavak - Rama II (već po samom naslovu se vidi tvoja kretenska maštovitost), nekako sam i pročitao, uz teške muke, misleći da će možda biti bolje. Da će biti malo naučne fantastike u gle, naučno-fantastičnom romanu? Ali ne. Jedino što sam zapamtio i ujedno jedina memorabilna scena u celoj knjizi od 460+ strana, je kada glavna junakinja ulazi u sobu, gde na krevetu zatiče golog kolegu i gde sledi njen unutrašnji komentar na njegovu kurčinu: "Veliki je kao što sam i očekivala". S obzirom da je ova rečenica negde na samom početku, imao sam osećaj da me je ista ova karina ošinula po faci. Odmah nakon tog poglavlja usledilo je tuširanje, kao i nakon svakog sledećeg...
Taj šund i šljam proteže se kroz celu knjigu pri tom ne doprinoseći ničemu. Nepotrebni odnosi i intrige između još nepotrebnijih i naslino ubačenih likova, prave od ove knjige klasičnu spejs soap operu. Da li je stvarno bitno to što se glavna junakinja, gle čuda, slučajno pojebala sa kraljem engleske, pa je još slučajnije i zatrudnela sa njima. Ali on neće da bude sa njom, jer ona je jedna obična crnkinja a on je kralj. Ali ipak hoće da bude u njenom životu, da je čuva i da je brani..... (ovde gif gde lik povraća sebi u ruke i onda se umiva istom tom povraćkom...). Jebeni Džentri Li, poserem ti se u usta... kakav si simp verovatno bi ti se i svidelo.

Drugi nastavak - Vrt rame. Taman kad sam pomislio da ne može gore. Kvalitetniji sadržaj bi iskašljao moj pokojni mačak, dok je bolujući od astme, borio se za život.
Sledi kratak pregled poglavlja koje me je i nateralo na sve ovo, kao i da batalim knjigu. I da i nju i sledeći nastavak, odložim u sanduk za drva, gde će barem na zimu on njih biti neke koristi.
Glavna junkinja (ista ona crnkinja iz Rame II, na koju Li sigurno sapunja svoj smežurani kurac), je u prvih 20 stranica svog boravka na Rami ostala trudna 2 puta sa Ričardom (onaj geek). I sad sledi njena najveća briga. Ako sa geekom napravi jos jedno dete i to dete bude sin, onda, da bi produžili vrstu, taj sin će morati da jebe neku od svojih stariji seka što i nije bas optimalno za genetski kod i produžetak vrste (KAO DA JE TO JEDINI PROBLEM U CELOJ TOJ ZAMISLI???). Pa joj onda pada na pamet da ima dete sa Majklom (isti onaj impotentni hrišćanin, koga je Li napisao po uzoru na sebe, jer je i sam veliki vernik i naravno da je morao i sebe da ubaci u knjigu, dabog ga u zemlju ubacili). Ali tu nastaje problem, dekici se ne diže. Jer, njemu smeta što je ona oženjena za Ričarda, i ima već dvoje dece, a on je mator, i bla bla bla. Tu genijalnost naše prepametne crnkinje stupa na snaga. "Negde sam čitala...", (kako kaže, pošto je poglavlje napisano iz prvog lica. Li bolesni degeneriku, zamišljaš da si crnkinja koja bi tebe da pojebe....),"...da je muškarcima impotencija samo na psihološkom nivou, u glavi.". Junakinja onda odlučuje da sačeka dok matorać zaspi, da bi mu onda malo bacila drkicu, i gle čuda DIŽE SE - novo poglavlje: STARAC A MORE. Ali čim se popela na njega malo je nagnječila osuhla muda pa se dekica probudio i više NE MERE. Pala đokica, pala idejica. Junakinja ustaje i odlazi, kao posle popodnevnog ručka. Sve ovo je N puta gore kad se čita u prvom licu. Fifti šejds of grej pre fifti šejds of grej.


Li, po ovoj pacovskoj faci ti se vidi da si nedojebani matorać koje svoje seksualne fantazije proživljava kroz četrdesetogodišljnu crnkinju. Žali bože papira koji je utrošen za štampanje ovog smeća. Greota je što ovo ima ikakve veze sa Ramom i prvom knjigom. I još veća što na sve tri knjige stoji ime Artur Klark...

billymac1962's review against another edition

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3.0

OK, Arthur, how about cutting to the chase? Actually, this was OK, but not as good as the previous two. I haven't heard much about the last novel, Rama Revealed, but I think I've had enough already.

yates9's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is yet another category of sci-fi from the previous two. It is an epic that follows the development of the human colony on Rama. it is masterful development of many different characters that still orchestrate the background transformation of a synthetic city.

I am impressed that the world still is believable and vivid despite the many changes...

davidfosco's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Rama continues its journey through space; however, the question remains will the human species repeat the mistakes of their past. 

jorenh's review against another edition

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3.0

Should have been a hundred pages shorter. The pace felt a little better compared to Rama II. I liked the story as well.

berni396's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

jodque's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

artlyon's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The mysteries of Rama are mostly put aside for more than 100 pages, once again front loading the novel with a novel-within-a-novel about the characters' lives. But unlike a similar approach in Rama II, here we are already invested in the characters carried over from Rama II, so this works - but I keep wondering when some big Rama stuff is going to happen. Looking at some spoiler-lite plot synopses, eventually that big stuff dies happen, but I'm not sure I care anymore. Grinding through journal entries of these characters lives is interesting, but lacking in the things I want from the big alien first contact premise that is the Rama novels.

tmcclinc's review against another edition

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1.0

Yeah, suddenly the series took a nose-dive. The context of the story suddenly got very graphic. I recognize that this was a story with adult themes in it, but there was far more vulgarity in this novel than necessary. In fact, I reached a point where I was like, no thanks, I'm done. the story wasn't really that compelling. Its a shame, because I wanted to see how it ended, and now I don't.