What do you think?
Rate this book
Rama #1.75
Double Full Moon Night
New York Times bestselling author Gentry Lee, co-author with Arthur C. Clarke of Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed , tells an unforgettable tale of two timeless lovers, a group of Martian colonists, and one of the most thrilling and mysterious adventures in human history.
On a tiny island paradise inside a vast alien sphere, Johann Eberhardt and his daughter, Maria, live in virtual isolation. Now their paradise has been invaded by a violent and enigmatic life-form. Risking everything, Johann and Maria begin a treacherous journey across the waters in search of their fellow Martian colonists. But they have no idea what awaits them on the other side—until a mystical vision of Johann's beloved Beatrice appears to him with a dire warning and the possibility of attaining an undreamed-of spiritual evolution. Soon to be transported to an exotic planet, the colonists must overcome their dissension and jealousy if they are to survive the upcoming “double full moon night.” If not, they will all be destroyed . . . and the secrets of the universe will remain forever unknown to mankind.
On a tiny island paradise inside a vast alien sphere, Johann Eberhardt and his daughter, Maria, live in virtual isolation. Now their paradise has been invaded by a violent and enigmatic life-form. Risking everything, Johann and Maria begin a treacherous journey across the waters in search of their fellow Martian colonists. But they have no idea what awaits them on the other side—until a mystical vision of Johann's beloved Beatrice appears to him with a dire warning and the possibility of attaining an undreamed-of spiritual evolution. Soon to be transported to an exotic planet, the colonists must overcome their dissension and jealousy if they are to survive the upcoming “double full moon night.” If not, they will all be destroyed . . . and the secrets of the universe will remain forever unknown to mankind.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
2 people are currently reading
854 people want to read
About the author
Gentry Lee
45 books52 followersGentry Lee is Chief Engineer for the Solar System Exploration Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. In that position Mr. Lee is responsible for the engineering integrity of all the robotic planetary missions managed by JPL for NASA. His major recent work includes the engineering oversight of the Curiosity rover to Mars, the Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, the Juno mission to Jupiter, and the GRAIL missions to the Moon. Previously, Gentry Lee provided guidance and oversight for the engineering aspects of the Phoenix and twin rover missions to Mars, as well as NASA's successful Deep Impact and Stardust missions.
Mr. Lee was Chief Engineer for the Galileo project from 1977-1988 and, after working in a variety of positions on the Viking project from 1968-76, was Director of Science Analysis and Mission Planning during the Viking operations. The historic Viking mission was mankind's first successful landing on another planet. The Galileo mission explored Jupiter with both an atmospheric probe and an orbiter that mapped the major Jovian satellites during a decade of operations.
In addition to his engineering work, Gentry Lee has been an active novelist, television producer, computer game designer, media columnist, lecturer, and, more recently, a television performer/narrator. Between 1989 and 1994 Mr. Lee co-authored four novels, CRADLE, RAMA II, THE GARDEN OF RAMA, and RAMA REVEALED, with revered science fiction grandmaster Arthur C. Clarke. All four books were New York Times bestsellers and were translated into over twenty languages. Since his collaboration with Mr. Clarke, Gentry Lee has written three more successful solo novels, BRIGHT MESSENGERS, DOUBLE FULL MOON NIGHT, and THE TRANQUILITY WARS.
From 1976 until 1981 Mr. Lee was the late Carl Sagan's partner in the creation, design, development, and implementation of COSMOS, the highly successful science documentary series for television that won several Emmys and the prestigious Peabody Award. In July 2009, Gentry Lee was the featured performer/narrator in "Are We Alone?" a two hour Discovery Channel documentary about life in the solar system.
Mr. Lee received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1976 and the Distinguished Service Medal (NASA's highest award) in 2005. In October 2006 he received the prestigious Harold Masursky Award from the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences for his career contributions to planetary exploration.
Gentry Lee received a B. A., Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963 and an M. S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. Gentry Lee (70) has eight sons, Cooper (36), Austin (32), Robert (26), Patrick (25), Michael (23), Travis (21), Hunter (18), and Francesco (born Mar 15, 2009).
Mr. Lee was Chief Engineer for the Galileo project from 1977-1988 and, after working in a variety of positions on the Viking project from 1968-76, was Director of Science Analysis and Mission Planning during the Viking operations. The historic Viking mission was mankind's first successful landing on another planet. The Galileo mission explored Jupiter with both an atmospheric probe and an orbiter that mapped the major Jovian satellites during a decade of operations.
In addition to his engineering work, Gentry Lee has been an active novelist, television producer, computer game designer, media columnist, lecturer, and, more recently, a television performer/narrator. Between 1989 and 1994 Mr. Lee co-authored four novels, CRADLE, RAMA II, THE GARDEN OF RAMA, and RAMA REVEALED, with revered science fiction grandmaster Arthur C. Clarke. All four books were New York Times bestsellers and were translated into over twenty languages. Since his collaboration with Mr. Clarke, Gentry Lee has written three more successful solo novels, BRIGHT MESSENGERS, DOUBLE FULL MOON NIGHT, and THE TRANQUILITY WARS.
From 1976 until 1981 Mr. Lee was the late Carl Sagan's partner in the creation, design, development, and implementation of COSMOS, the highly successful science documentary series for television that won several Emmys and the prestigious Peabody Award. In July 2009, Gentry Lee was the featured performer/narrator in "Are We Alone?" a two hour Discovery Channel documentary about life in the solar system.
Mr. Lee received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1976 and the Distinguished Service Medal (NASA's highest award) in 2005. In October 2006 he received the prestigious Harold Masursky Award from the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences for his career contributions to planetary exploration.
Gentry Lee received a B. A., Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963 and an M. S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. Gentry Lee (70) has eight sons, Cooper (36), Austin (32), Robert (26), Patrick (25), Michael (23), Travis (21), Hunter (18), and Francesco (born Mar 15, 2009).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 20, 2016
About midway through this novel I started to seriously wonder if English is Gentry Lee's first language. The dialogue especially feels like it was written by someone that had studied English, but never interacted with a native speaker. Sentences are all exposition and clunky declarative nonsense. No one has ever spoken in real life how the characters in this book speak to each other.
There is an old cliche in creative writing that you almost certainly have heard if you ever took a creative writing class: show, don't tell. Someone may wish to share this nugget of wisdom with Lee, who doesn't seem to understand the mechanics of storytelling at even the most basic level. Try to imagine seeing a movie that is narrated end to end with voice over, and only occasionally allows the characters to speak. That's kind of how this book feels.
And then there is the plot. We have characters placed in various situations (marooned on an island, imprisoned by aquatic monsters in a "grotto," placed on an earth-like planet but menaced by very silly bug monsters) and then whisked off to a subsequent location with no resolution. God-like overseers of this world seem to put the characters into various situations for no reason and then, like the deus ex machina that they are, yank them out of them equally senselessly.
The story never builds any momentum, since we don't care about the characters in the slightest, and no plot arc is followed to completion. Perhaps most annoying of all, we jump through huge intervals of time pretty much without explanation. At one point, we leave our characters and then find them in the next chapter 30 years later. The characters that were children are now adults, and not only that, they have become evil, I guess? Since we don't witness any of the character development, Lee has to spend several pages explaining what has happened in the intervening 30 years to make these previously sympathetic children into adults that we are not supposed to like.
The whole damn book is full of obtuse logic that has characters do things like risk being devoured by bug creatures just because they don't feel like swimming out to the island where they are safe. (As an aside, it makes no sense at all that the swarming bug creatures somehow are unaware of the existence of tons of living creatures on this island, since they can find prey in literally ever corner of this world they live on, but my God if I start listing individual inconsistencies in this story I'll run out of space in this review.)
Finally: every alien in this book, of which there are many, is given an idiotic name. Here is a sampling: nozzler, elevark (it looks like an elephant and aardvark), ackyong (this is the sound it makes), branker (again, the sound it makes). I don't know why these stupid names infuriated me so much, but they truly did. Why does Gentry Lee think that people name animals after the sounds they make? Can you think of one example of this in real life? Just typing these "words" makes me violent.
To sum up, one of the dumbest and most poorly constructed books I have ever read and expect ever to read.
There is an old cliche in creative writing that you almost certainly have heard if you ever took a creative writing class: show, don't tell. Someone may wish to share this nugget of wisdom with Lee, who doesn't seem to understand the mechanics of storytelling at even the most basic level. Try to imagine seeing a movie that is narrated end to end with voice over, and only occasionally allows the characters to speak. That's kind of how this book feels.
And then there is the plot. We have characters placed in various situations (marooned on an island, imprisoned by aquatic monsters in a "grotto," placed on an earth-like planet but menaced by very silly bug monsters) and then whisked off to a subsequent location with no resolution. God-like overseers of this world seem to put the characters into various situations for no reason and then, like the deus ex machina that they are, yank them out of them equally senselessly.
The story never builds any momentum, since we don't care about the characters in the slightest, and no plot arc is followed to completion. Perhaps most annoying of all, we jump through huge intervals of time pretty much without explanation. At one point, we leave our characters and then find them in the next chapter 30 years later. The characters that were children are now adults, and not only that, they have become evil, I guess? Since we don't witness any of the character development, Lee has to spend several pages explaining what has happened in the intervening 30 years to make these previously sympathetic children into adults that we are not supposed to like.
The whole damn book is full of obtuse logic that has characters do things like risk being devoured by bug creatures just because they don't feel like swimming out to the island where they are safe. (As an aside, it makes no sense at all that the swarming bug creatures somehow are unaware of the existence of tons of living creatures on this island, since they can find prey in literally ever corner of this world they live on, but my God if I start listing individual inconsistencies in this story I'll run out of space in this review.)
Finally: every alien in this book, of which there are many, is given an idiotic name. Here is a sampling: nozzler, elevark (it looks like an elephant and aardvark), ackyong (this is the sound it makes), branker (again, the sound it makes). I don't know why these stupid names infuriated me so much, but they truly did. Why does Gentry Lee think that people name animals after the sounds they make? Can you think of one example of this in real life? Just typing these "words" makes me violent.
To sum up, one of the dumbest and most poorly constructed books I have ever read and expect ever to read.
October 30, 2017
Just like the "new Rama" series before, "Bright Messengers" and "Double Full Moon Light" are actually one longer book split in two for publication purposes, so this review will be the same for both.
I was a big fan of the "remastered" Rama series, so I had at least modest expectations from these two novels. Unfortunately, I couldn't be more disappointed. The setting is pretty much the same, but the characters are supremely annoying, and the plot is one huge chunk of cheese. I was rolling my eyes every other page. I managed to get through the first book in hopes that the second will improve the situation. Fat chance of that happening.
Not a horrible series, but one to avoid, for sure.
I was a big fan of the "remastered" Rama series, so I had at least modest expectations from these two novels. Unfortunately, I couldn't be more disappointed. The setting is pretty much the same, but the characters are supremely annoying, and the plot is one huge chunk of cheese. I was rolling my eyes every other page. I managed to get through the first book in hopes that the second will improve the situation. Fat chance of that happening.
Not a horrible series, but one to avoid, for sure.
July 23, 2016
Another fairly bad book, but I can at least say I completed the entire series. The great majority of this book takes place like the previous novel, just after the first Rama book and runs for a few generations of the humans living on this advanced alien spacecraft as opposed to the other advanced alien spacecraft. It's like Lee thought they had a good idea, why not change a few things around and run with it. Helpful beings. Harmful beings. Good humans and of course humans written just to give you someone to dislike.
At the very end we jump PAST the end of the 4th (and last book Arthur C. Clarke really worked on) novel 'Rama Revealed' and the character rescued in the war is granted a chance to find out, this being her heart's desire, something about her past. Little (practically nothing) is revealed that reading the last two novels didn't already let the reader know. Then. . . it's over. No answers. No reasons. Two entirely different alien races using humans to learn, something, but we're never told what or why. I was really disappointed in how this ended. I would have liked a lot less 'you have to have faith' as the answer to everything. Well, the series is done. On to something new.
At the very end we jump PAST the end of the 4th (and last book Arthur C. Clarke really worked on) novel 'Rama Revealed' and the character rescued in the war is granted a chance to find out, this being her heart's desire, something about her past. Little (practically nothing) is revealed that reading the last two novels didn't already let the reader know. Then. . . it's over. No answers. No reasons. Two entirely different alien races using humans to learn, something, but we're never told what or why. I was really disappointed in how this ended. I would have liked a lot less 'you have to have faith' as the answer to everything. Well, the series is done. On to something new.
July 5, 2018
+ Love all the different aliens
+ Decent character development
- The story seems to be too artificial, doesn't flow naturally. Feels a bit like a D&D session where the group refuses to follow the storyline
- Lots of open endings, lots of questions unanswered, maybe in next book?
- The connection with Rama is , again, artificial, but it is nice to see some old acqaintances (SP?) again.
- No dragons
+ Decent character development
- The story seems to be too artificial, doesn't flow naturally. Feels a bit like a D&D session where the group refuses to follow the storyline
- Lots of open endings, lots of questions unanswered, maybe in next book?
- The connection with Rama is , again, artificial, but it is nice to see some old acqaintances (SP?) again.
- No dragons
June 29, 2020
Its o.k. it seems like it was really too much like the original Rama storylines. The characters are so so, nothing to brag about - none that I would describe as truly memorable (like Nichole & Richard.) The only saving grace was the ending. It fills in a question that could not be answered in the Rama series. All in all, it's part of the Rama universe so you may want to read it.. but must read part one "Bright Messengers " first.
July 21, 2017
90% of this book was "Hey, look at this zany alien creature, let's give it a stupid name before it captures us!"
Was all set to give it 2 stars, but the ending tied back to the Rama series nicely, so I'll add a half star and round up to be extremely generous. But without A.C. Clarke to feed him ideas, Gentry Lee just isn't a good enough writer on his own.
Was all set to give it 2 stars, but the ending tied back to the Rama series nicely, so I'll add a half star and round up to be extremely generous. But without A.C. Clarke to feed him ideas, Gentry Lee just isn't a good enough writer on his own.
April 2, 2025
Same here... another liberal hell hole where the entire world has drifted into economic collapse... why can Science Fiction author consider a bigger problem than those socialist society tends to get us into... and why can't anyone image the people standing up and tell the autocrats they're not buying their bullshit this time.
June 23, 2022
Although nothing particularly stands out as exceptional in this book, it was an engaging enough read that mostly kept my interest throughout. A satisfying wrap-up firmly tying it to the Rama universe. If you're a fan of the author or the Rama series, certainly no reason not to read.
February 14, 2025
4 Stars
Double Full Moon Night is Book #1.75 in the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke' and really is a 'must-read' for all sci-fi buffs out there. With so many reviews already posted for this title there isn't really much more for me to add that hasn't already been said.
So happy Reading....
Double Full Moon Night is Book #1.75 in the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke' and really is a 'must-read' for all sci-fi buffs out there. With so many reviews already posted for this title there isn't really much more for me to add that hasn't already been said.
So happy Reading....
July 31, 2009
Check out my review of
Bright Messengers
to see why I feel Gentry Lee often gets roughed up by readers.
This sequel to Bright Messengers is okay, not great. We are seeing a storyline that is much too like the one Lee and Arthur C. Clarke used in the Rama trilogy. That being said, I think Mr. Lee affects a marvelous climax in this book, simply marvelous. And it involves a central character shouting his name defiantly at a powerful opponent. Great moment! But I won't give away the ending to explain further.
If you enjoyed the Rama trilogy, these two books are worth trying out.
This sequel to Bright Messengers is okay, not great. We are seeing a storyline that is much too like the one Lee and Arthur C. Clarke used in the Rama trilogy. That being said, I think Mr. Lee affects a marvelous climax in this book, simply marvelous. And it involves a central character shouting his name defiantly at a powerful opponent. Great moment! But I won't give away the ending to explain further.
If you enjoyed the Rama trilogy, these two books are worth trying out.
September 17, 2016
Conclusion to the series. Finally finished it after years of not even knowing i had two more to read in the series.
It is not as good as Arthur Clarks books, but the feeling is similar. There are just too many questions in the book where faith and/or god is the answer.
It is not as good as Arthur Clarks books, but the feeling is similar. There are just too many questions in the book where faith and/or god is the answer.
August 17, 2015
Bright Messengers was a good book. Double Full Moon Nights is an even better book. In the first book, things were strange. In this book, things become even stranger.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2019
Disappointing
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews