Anderson Rearick III’s Reviews > Rama II > Status Update

Richard’s conclusion that Francesca has no scruples seems a complete understatement, but that fits his oddly positive yet disconnected personality. He still doesn’t really understand why he came after Nicole. Of course we readers can see he’s in love with her.

Nicole’s rescue by Richard Wakefield, the British electrical engineer who had the Shakespearean robots introduces a very strange portion of the novel. They begin to e pliers but there is a rom- on quality in this. And while exploring there seems to be no concern for Takagishi their Japanese astronaut nor the murderous Sabatini.

Save the trapped mate. Classic primal communication.

The help Nicole gets from the creatures within Rama seem to me a bit far fetched. Hitching a ride on the back of the centipede is okay, but the gift of food from the bird likes creatures is never explained. Also after she escaped the pit, Nicole seems to forget Takagishi.

The movement from despair to emerging hope. The mythic vision she has seems a bit out of. Large’s taste but there it is.

Richard Wakefield’s good luck gift to Nicole of his robot Prince Hal, Shakespeare’s most chivalrous figures is taking on more suggestions. And what about the drug she plans to take?

Alone, abandoned in an utterly alien structure Nicole prays. Again a sharp line between her character and that of Francesca. Also Richard Wakefield concern for her is becoming overt.

Crime seems to come from not overt acts of murderous evil but from self serving choices. The death of Commander Valeriy Borzov was not intentional he was just in the way of a desired spot. Francesca did not push Nicole into the pit, but she was happy to have the doctor and her suspicions eliminated.

Dr. Takagishi’s death in the midst of his desperate lone exploration of New York is a bit surprising. Nicole des Jardins desperate attempt to find him and her rebuff of Dr. Brown and Sabatini’s concern for their own credit is interesting. Revealing to them while they are out of range about her awareness of their secret media contracts was a mistake.

Classic literature quotes turn up throughout the text. Richard Wakefield, the British engineer’s hobby of miniature shakespearean robots allows the author to quote the Bard in critical moments. (1@8) Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s murderous ambitions play out before real crimes are revealed among the crew. Francesca Sabatini’s casual abortion suggests that her choice to “unsexherself.”