Review: Rendezvous with Rama Redux. The simplified version.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 10, 2014
I have always been fascinated with speculations of how first contact with an alien space faring species would turn out.Would we go the way of the american Indian? Or the dodo perhaps?It seems mankind ducked the problem, at least in this book.An enormous three-mile long ship has just entered the Earth's orbit and it's doing absolutely nothing...The short first book in this series by Scott McElhaney brings back memories of Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, still an old favorite of mine.The ship is very different though, and a lot less alien then Rama. The alien technology and AI is more advanced than our current technology but it is reasonably understandable.  We might get there in 50 to 100 years. Think about the difference between now and the year 1900.And the aliens are quite humanoid, a la Star Trek. No universal communicator here, but the on board AI is smart enough to learn English and teach the humans the alien language. So the plot rolls along at a good pace. I enjoyed the book and recommend it. The ending is a bit abrupt so you will have to buy the sequel to see what happens.Recommended for YA or adventurous sci fi souls who dream of going off into the universe on an alien space ship.