I had read and, much to my surprise, enjoyed the Clarke/Lee Rama sequels (even though my review of the second sequel. 'Garden of Rama', is just four words long: "Get on with it."); so I was interested when a client passed on to me this book and its sequel. It was a disappointment.

The book was written in 1995 and set in 2141. But you wouldn't know because the main characters - including the aliens - appear to have the same mind-set as contemporary characters of the middle 1990s. The only exception to this is one minor character who describes himself as 'a British Catholic from Londonderry". I don't know if that's an attempt to show social attitudes changing, or just carelessness on the part of the author, because everyone else has attitudes that appear old-fashioned to us now.

In particular, at one point the aliens controlling the artificial world that the characters find themselves in subject them to an object lesson on the Holocaust. The fact that one of the main protagonists is (a rather unconvincing) German appears to be the main reason for this; but I still asked myself "Why?". The Raman aliens - as we assume them to be - seem to be exercised about something that happened 200 years in the past, and Johann, the German protagonist, seems badly affected by this. Given that the present generation of Germans don't feel any element of guilt over what their grandfathers and great grandfathers did, I could not believe that this would be an issue that far into the future.

I also have a problem with the novel's religious stance. Not with the religion as such; it's up to the writer or the reader what they personally choose to believe or doubt - but there seems to be a major shortfall in scientific rigour when a range of characters, many of whom claim to be scientists or otherwise rational people, encounter sparkling motes that seem to display organisation and self-volition, and all jump to the conclusion that these must be angels. Only about a third of the way through the book does any character even begin to doubt this view. Obviously, the standard of scientific scepticism is due to decline over the next 175 years.

The one well-drawn character is highly unlikeable, and although he is not the only Muslim in the character list, his fellow Muslim is a thinly-drawn person with little or no substance and next to no role in the action. By contrast, Yasin is drawn as a villain from the outset, and it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he is deliberately made into an unsympathetic character.

The fate of Sister Beatrice is pretty obvious and I saw it coming a few pages out, leaving the Johann character with a new-born child for whom the aliens provide him with what can only be described as a set of strap-on comedy breasts.

I shall be interested to see if the sequel improves, or if it makes any connection with characters and situations from the original Rama novels, because for the most part there is little such connection. ( )

I did not like this book at all. I starts fine, even if it is a bit verbose, with lots and lots of boring backgrounds about the characters' lives, but it ends poorly, with no explanations whatsoever.

[Warning spoilers]
After the first third, the story starts to liven up, with things happening on Mars and some mysterious alien artifacts.
And then the story crashes in flames, slowly gathering speed. Giant spaceship out of nowhere, people get raped and killed for no reason. The characters get even more stereotyped if that was possible. In the end it plays so much on the feelings of the reader that I was nauseous. ( )