Rendezvous with Rama was published by Gollancz in 1973 and won the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards — a clean sweep unprecedented in science fiction. A fifty-kilometer-long cylindrical object enters the solar system. Named Rama, it is initially classified as an asteroid, but as it approaches, its artificial origin becomes unmistakable. Commander Bill Norton and his crew aboard the Endeavour enter Rama through airlocks at one end and discover a hollow, cylindrical world: a vast interior landscape with artificial gravity, a frozen sea, strange geometric structures, and biological machines that activate as Rama approaches the Sun.
The novel’s power lies in what it does not explain. The builders of Rama — the Ramans — never appear. Their motives are never revealed. The artifacts inside Rama are observed but not understood. The human explorers are like archaeologists in a tomb whose inscriptions they cannot read. Clarke resisted every temptation to provide answers, and the novel’s famous last line — “The Ramans do everything in threes” — promises that the mystery will deepen rather than resolve.
Collecting Rendezvous with Rama
First edition (Gollancz, London, 1973): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine in jacket: $400–$1,200
- US first edition (Harcourt): $200–$600
- Very good: $100–$300