The Garden of Rama
 1993 Orbit paperback cover | |
| Author | Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Rama |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | September 26, 1991 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 384 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-575-05169-8 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | Rama II |
| Followed by | Rama Revealed |
The Garden of Rama (1991) is a novel by Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke. It is the third book in the four-book Rama series: Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed, and follows on from where Rama II left off.
Plot summary
The book picks up the story nine months after the end of Rama II. The book follows the story of three astronauts from the expedition in Rama II who were trapped aboard the cylindrical alien spacecraft, Rama II, heading out towards deep space. Along the journey, five children are born. Simone Tiasso Wakefield, Catharine Colin Wakefield, Eleanor Joan Wakefield, Benjamin Ryan O'Toole and Patrick Erin O'Toole, are borne by Nicole Des Jardins from her relationships with Richard Wakefield and Michael O'Toole. These children later become major characters in Rama Revealed. After a twelve-year journey, they arrive in the vicinity of the star Sirius, where all eight rendezvous with a Raman Node.
At the Node they are subjected to physiological tests while Rama is refurbished, and they are eventually sent back to the solar system, this time to collect two thousand more representatives of humanity. Under the guise of a new Martian colony, Earth sends the representatives, and Rama III heads back out with its new payload.
Soon an aggressive group of humans seizes control of the human colony and begins a war of annihilation against one of the other races occupying the massive spacecraft. The original astronauts and their children find themselves powerless to prevent the genocide. The book ends with a cliffhanger, on the eve of the execution of one of the original astronauts.
Books in the series
Gentry Lee also wrote two further novels set in the same Rama Universe.