The Garden of Rama

The Garden of Rama

1993 Orbit paperback cover
Author	Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Rama
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Gollancz
Publication date	September 26, 1991
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	384 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-575-05169-8
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.

See also

• Nicole des Jardins Wakefield