RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA

Only superlatives will do for Arthur Clarke's dazzlingly polished, wonderfully original exploration of a gigantic alien space ship that passes briefly through the solar system on its way to an unimaginable destination. Christened Rama by its human discoverers, the worldlet seems dead at first but comes remarkably and hazardously to life as a crew of earthmen probe its mysteries. When Rama leaves the solar system as precipitously as it arrived, more questions remain than have been answered, but the reader, like Rama's explorers, has seen wonders undreamt of in mere human philosophy. A perfect science fiction novel.