Leather bound
Published Aug. 13, 1974 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. N.Y..
Written in 1973, a massive 50 kilometre long alien cylinder begins to pass through the solar system provoking a hurried effort to intercept it. The closest available ship rushes to rendezvous so as to have a quick study before it gets too close to the sun. Able to enter via an airlock on one end of the ship, the crew explores the huge world found inside, a world full of wonder and mystery. As usual, the science is spot on. This is the best novel of Clarke's since 2001 and Childhood's End and is a truly grand adventure full of puzzles and ideas that lead you asking more questions than are answered. Enough questions in fact to lead to numerous inferior sequels, but enough answers to leave you satisfied. Don't pass up this gem of hard science fiction.
A promising opening of mysterious object and dry elder academic panel bickering.... oh don't let this be just a cool exploration of the physical properties of this space... in space... with bonus tangential misogyny... oh, the physical properties and some cold-war-commentary at least accelerate... pity for the futuristic anachronisms, 1973 feels closer to Jules Verne than to us.
... that is, it's 50% description of a docking maneuver, and 50% setup for an exciting book.
I guess that makes it one of those books you should read once, but I didn't manage to enjoy it much.
the characters were a bit no-nonsense and technical, but the setting was immensely good
Great setting and a classic writing, I could understand why this could be called a classic hard science fiction, having gotten released in 1972. The story revolves around a mysterious space object that was previously thought out as an asteroid, is actually an alien space-craft. With a rapid rotation period of 4 minutes and incredibly big, the spacecraft presents as being a boring plain object to the cameras of Sita, a space probe launched from Phobos, until the manned vessel Endeavor reaches it for exploration.
Grand ideas, perfect setting for the series, although the text is philosophical and subtle looking into the nature of Humans, this is one book that should not be missed by a fan of fiction much less by a fan of sci-fi.
