The Garden of Rama

The Garden of Rama (1991) is a novel by Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke. It is the second book in a three book series: Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed. It is the third book in the Rama series and follows where Rama II left off.

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, heading out towards deep space. Along the journey, five children are born and, after a twelve year journey, arrive in 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 with 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.