Rendezvous with Rama: goodish.. Clark's good. Anyone who have read science-fiction, should have read several books by him. Another book to think about, The Mote in God's Eye [joint between Larry Niven and Kerry Pournelle]. That with Clark's Childhood's End, there's a lot of extraterrestrial society ideas there. The Ringworld Engineers: hmmm. Seemed rather 'young' personally. The first one was a bit better. Finished Snow Crash. La. It's a good read. Apparently it's popular! If you spend serious time to contemplate the research that's gone into it (and you can live through the billion pages of it) it puts a new perspective on everyday language. Leaping Gnome: Ahhh I enjoyed Diamond Age immensely. Starting something different now: Nimitz Class by Patric Robinson. Looks promising, but can't say yet.