Rendezvous with Rama
Arthur C. Clarke · 1973
A massive cylinder enters the solar system, is explored by a human crew, and departs indifferently. Clarke's 1973 novel is pure sense-of-wonder: the alien as genuinely alien, the encounter as genuinely humbling. It makes you feel the scale of the universe.
The case against
Clarke built a magnificent artifact and forgot to put people in the book. Commander Norton has two wives and no personality; the crew exists to read instruments aloud. Nothing happens in the human plot that the cylinder does not do first, and the 1970s gender asides (zero-gravity observations about women's anatomy among them) have curdled. Wonder, yes. Drama, no.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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