Re: Villeneuve to helm Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama

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Olorin wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 5:34 pm https://www.darkhorizons.com/villeneuve ... with-rama/

This is one of ACC’s masterworks, so I’m very excited about this.
You know, I read RwR. I distinctly remember reading it because I liked Clarke at the time, and I bought the book through The Science Fiction book Club.
Also around that time (I guess) I also read The Fountains of Paradise.
The only thing I recall from FoP was the physics principle involved for the "elevator" (which I thought was pretty nifty).

But RwR? To quote Gandalf: "I have no memory of (it)."
I remember absolutely nothing about it...not one jot or tittle.

I remember a lot from Childhood's End, Against the Fall of Night, The Sentinel (which formed the basis for 2001), and 2001 I know as well as my tongue knows my teeth. But nothing comes to mind for RwR. Zip. Nada.

So I guess I'll have to Wiki it to relearn the plot.

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL

Re: Villeneuve to helm Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama

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I find it interesting that you can remember the plots of other Clarke works but not RwR. It was a high-concept story, and memorably executed, plus it ended with a great single-sentence stinger to set up a sequel. I don't know if Clarke actually intended a sequel at that time. He didn't do them at that point in his career, and it was many years before he returned to Rama. When he did, it was in a very limited capacity, as he did so with a co-author (Gentry Lee) and the trilogy of sequels felt very little like a Clarke novel. I wonder if he actually contributed anything other than his name. But I digress.

For decades Morgan Freeman tried to get a movie made, with himself starring and with, at at least some points, David Fincher attached to direct. But it has never gotten off the ground. Now with DV attached, I think (hope) the project has exactly the right person attached to attract the interest and enthusiasm to get it done. Freeman will be one of the producers. I think he's way too old now to star in it but he could still have a walk-on part as a UN dignitary or something.

I think I've read most if not all of Clarke's novels and short stories. One that I don't remember a lot about is the Fountains of Paradise. I remember it being about the quest to build the space elevator, I remember that it was going to be on an island on the equator, which Clarke envisioned as being like his home Sri Lanka, just moved south a few hundred miles. And I remember the fate of the main character. But other than that, not much. I supposed I should read it again sometime but I've sworn off rereading any books because I have so many books I've never read even once, such that I'm unlikely to get them read before I die.

Have you ever read either Beyond the Fall of Night or the City and the Stars? The latter is a rewritten version of the former. It is a story I enjoyed, about the last humans living on Earth billions of years in the future (OK, that was obviously before Clarke knew anything about solar evolution) and a boy who's curious about the past and why humanity has dwindled to a single city in all the universe. I really liked it. I'm not sure which version I'd saw was better. The rewrite probably improved some things but lessened others.
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."

Re: Villeneuve to helm Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama

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OK...some answers ...
I wiki'd RwR and read the plot line. It was/is now vaguely familiar.
What is more than just vaguely familiar is, as you put it, the single sentence stinger (teaser?) at the end.
Once brought to the fore of memory I recognized it immediately.
The article said Clarke did not envision a sequel as he was not doing sequels at that time.
However, the accuracy of Wikipedia is, as you know, always suspect, so who really knows what Clarke planned?...

Read the other works I mentioned and one collection of short stories. IIRC that collection was titled Tales of Ten Worlds.
Also, forgot to mention (novella) The Lion of Comarre. It was paired with Against the Fall of Night in a SFBC edition.
This is exactly the book I received in 1968 (I was in 7th grade)and immediately immersed myself in it.
But I remember nothing of TLoC.

I did read The City and the Stars (1956) much later but did not know that it was an expansion of AtFoN until the first few pages started to sound familiar.
Then I went back and read the Forward. Oh,... Ok (I thought). Well, I'll read it anyway.
btw Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) by Gregory Benford and ACC was a sequel to Against the Fall of Night.
Interesting that ACC got second billing. Maybe he was more advisor than co-author.
But I have never read it.

All that remains of my collection of ACC works is the SFBC edition of 2001, which I read every few years.
Unlike you (and even being a few years older than you ...maybe 10?) I am not adverse to re-reading books, despite having well over a hundred yet unread books on my shelves.

I thoroughly enjoy revisiting my old friends courtesy of Jane Austen, Conan Doyle, Thackery, Stoker, Ann Radcliff, Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, JRRT, Homer, Willie Shakespeare (Macbeth is still my favorite), Lewis Carroll, Dickens, Hawthorne, Poe, Stevenson, Orwell, Shirley Jackson, Golding, George Eliot, Wilde, CS Lewis, and a host of lesser known fiction writers (and no, not Anne Rice :rolleye: ), not to mention works of non-fiction, mostly history.

Prominent on the re-read list are scary short stories (and a few scary novels). I have 5 volumes of scary short stories, most of which date from the early 19th C. to the mid 20th C. They are outright horror stories (Dracula) to psychological thrillers (The Haunting of Hill House) and everything in between. Sometime check out H.H. Munro (aka Saki), Algernon Blackwood (JRRT probably read his story about the willow trees), Sheridan Le Faun, M.R. James, Guy de Maupassant . Not a few of these stories have been made into pretty decent scary/horror movies (not talking Freddy Kruger type stuff.)
A really terrifying short story: "By One, By Two and By Three" by Adrian Ross (real name: Arthur Reed Ropes {1859-1933}, and at one time attributed to Stephen Hall).

And soon I will re-read Dune.
Of course, being retired, I have more leisure time. :btr:
(Sorry for the digression.....actually, no, I'm not....talking about books is near and dear to my heart :inlove: )

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL

Re: Villeneuve to helm Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama

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I misspoke when I referred to Beyond the Fall of Night. As you correctly point out that’s the sequel by Benford. I did read it and thought it was crap. However, the original Against the Fall of Night I found to be very good. Believe it or not although I am a few years younger than you I also have that science fiction book club edition pairing the Lion of Comarre with Against the Fall of Night. My mom was a science-fiction book club member long before I was. LoC isn’t really a very memorable story I guess, as I don’t remember much about it either. I do remember my recollection of the time as, well there wasn’t really much story to it.

Oh, age. I’ll be 61 in a few weeks. Are you really that much older than me?
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."

Re: Villeneuve to helm Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama

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I have read Rama 4 or 5 times since I was a kid. It's one of my favorite ACC books. I have even read the whole series through twice now, but Rama was always dear to my heart. I read it the same year I read Dune, back in 1982 or 1983.

After seeing Deni's film 'Arrival', I remember thinking, this is one of the few directors that could probably make Rama into a film and pull it off successfully. Hopefully it will actually happen.
KRDS

Re: Villeneuve to helm Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama

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Have to agree with you about "Arrival".
The total "otherness" about the ship and the aliens was completely unsettling.
Not frightening, or creepy, just unsettling because there were no [human related] reference points.

In CE3K the aliens ships were more or less identifiable shapes ("Toys!"), the aliens were humanoid, they had a familiar way of communicating.
In "Arrival" my brain kept rejecting the shape of the spacecraft.
You couldn't clearly see the aliens except they didn't seem humanoid, and it wasn't until much later you learn they are gigantic.
And the communication, well, that was really the whole point of the story.
So yes, Villeneuve might be able to make a successful "Rama".

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL
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