Gentry Lee, who has inherited the Rama mantle from SF legend Arthur C. Clarke, continues the story he began in Bright Messengers. In the first book, mysterious clouds of sparkling white particles beckon Beatrice and Johann into a strange craft that whisks them, and nine other colonists, from their homes on Mars to a deserted island inside a huge alien sphere. Beatrice dies after delivering a child, Maria.

As Double Full Moon Night begins, Maria has just turned 8. Their idyllic island life is suddenly ruined when a deadly creature threatens their lives, so Johann leaves his little paradise to find the other colonists. Their happy reunion is short-lived when they are transported to a strange place where they must start over and learn to survive. Lee effectively captures the sense of mystery and excitement that characterize the Rama universe. This long-awaited sequel will please fans of his first solo Rama book. --Adam Fisher


From Publishers Weekly
Bizarre aliens and mysterious technologies are rife in this sequel to former NASA scientist Lee's first solo novel, Bright Messengers. Lee got his start in SF by co-authoring four novels with Sir Arthur Clarke, three of them sequels to Rendezvous with Rama, and the two books he's written on his own are both set in the Rama universe. In Bright Messengers, a group of colonists was rescued from certain death on Mars by a gigantic and mysterious alien spacecraft. Deposited on several islands within the spacecraft's inner sea, the humans have barely survived, fighting off hostile aliens as well as their own worst impulses. Now, led by Johann Eberhardt, former engineer and champion swimmer, the colonists are transported to a distant, seemingly benign planet with two moons. Eberhardt, however, is in periodic communication with someone or something that claims to be his long-dead love, Sister Beatrice of the Order of St. Michael, and this apparition has warned him that their new world will turn deadly in the near future when the two moons are full simultaneously. The colonists' survival evidently depends on Johann's ability to convince them that he has indeed spoken with Beatrice. Although this novel may appeal to admirers of the earlier Rama books, there's little here to attract new readers. Lee's prose is leaden, particularly his dialogue, and he exhibits a poor sense of pacing. Neither Johann nor any of the other colonists comes alive on the page?a flaw that robs the novel of emotional depth or power, despite its handful of moderately successful action sequences. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
For eight years, Johann Eberhardt and his adopted daughter Maria have dwelled in seclusion inside a gigantic, spherical spaceship built by ribbonlike aliens and populated by a host of mysterious creatures. When a monstrous creature threatens their peaceful retreat, Johann and Maria set out in search of Johann's former companions?and discover more than they bargained for. This sequel to Bright Messengers (LJ 4/15/95) continues the adventures begun by sf veteran Arthur C. Clarke in his Rama novels. Lee's combination of sf and mysticism should appeal to fans of the original tales. Suitable for large sf collections.Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Praise for the Rama novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee:

Rama II

"This is a space trip that no reader will want to miss."
--Playboy

"Offers one surprise after another."
--The New York Times

The Garden of Rama:

"A fascinating mix of technology and humanity, soaring high into the mysteries of the universe and far into the depths of the soul."
--Chicago Tribune

Rama Revealed:

"Breathtaking."
--The New York Times Book Review

"More than fulfills the awesome scale of size,  alien presence and spiritual exploration that were introduced in Rendezvous With Rama 20 years ago."
--The Indianapolis Star


From the Hardcover edition.


Review
Praise for the Rama novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee:

Rama II

"This is a space trip that no reader will want to miss."
--Playboy

"Offers one surprise after another."
--The New York Times

The Garden of Rama:

"A fascinating mix of technology and humanity, soaring high into the mysteries of the universe and far into the depths of the soul."
--Chicago Tribune

Rama Revealed:

"Breathtaking."
--The New York Times Book Review

"More than fulfills the awesome scale of size,  alien presence and spiritual exploration that were introduced in Rendezvous With Rama 20 years ago."
--The Indianapolis Star


From the Hardcover edition.


Book Description
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.



From the Inside Flap
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.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
In Double Full Moon Night, the sequel to the highly praised Bright Messengers, author Gentry Lee reintroduces readers to the gigantic white spacecraft that might be a visitor from another planet or a harbinger from heaven. The Rama node, first seen in Arthur C. Clarke's Rendevous with Rama, is itself a small world full of alien life forms and mysterious, perhaps even mystical incidents. Once again, with great concentration on the finest of details, Lee manages to provide a deeply poetic, absorbing novel that takes traditional questions of existence in the universe and presents them with a unique amalgam of science fiction, theological debate, and outright eerie suspense.

Some background first: When the Rama nodes entered our universe, the world was divided on whether the great ships were piloted by aliens or were messengers from God. After the global depression of the 22nd century left the world economy shattered, the Order of St. Michael grew upon the belief that the spheres were divine in nature and followers should do all they could to ease humanity's suffering. Sister Beatrice, a priestess of St. Michael, encountered white ribbons of light that she believed to be angels. Johann Eberhardt, a German engineer, studied the spheres with the eye of a scientist steeped in logic. After traveling to Mars to aid colonists there, Johann and Beatrice met and were taken aboard one of the gigantic craft, along with several other colonists. Once inside, Johann and Beatrice were separated from the others and lived on a beautiful island they called Paradise, where theysoonfell in love. Beatrice refused to break her vows of chastity, however, and was raped by one of her fellow travelers, Yasin, who managed to come ashore to Paradise after being expelled from a distant land. Johann killed Yasin, but Beatrice became pregnant and died during childbirth. Johann swore to protect Beatrice's daughter, Maria, and encountered a being who might have been the ghost of Sister Beatrice, a figure who told him that eventually all would be explained.

Double Full Moon Night begins eight years later, with Johann having taught Maria everything about her benevolent mother and nothing of her evil father. Johann has carved her an intricate set of figurines representing all the missing colonists, so that he might teach her earth history and geography and help her to develop in a social environment, even if it's only in her imagination. Johann and Maria have a comfortable life on the island, playing with kindly porpoiselike sea creatures called Hansel and Gretel, until the multitentacled "nozzlers" begin to attack. Johann finds the corpse of one of the lost colonists in the water, locked in a death-grip with a nozzler. He realizes that the others must have survived and probably live on the other side of the ocean. Unsure of whether this is the sign that the ghostly Beatrice has asked him to wait for, Johann builds a boat and prepares to depart. Before the launch, Maria discovers that the ribbons of light have painted the boat white and red, the same colors as the vast starship they're currently inside. They begin their journey across the water and battle nozzlers along the way before finally reaching land and discovering the other members of their group, including the former prostitute Vivienne, Sister Beatrice's onetime acolyte.

Vivienne, though, is no longer a member of the Order of St. Michael, having chosen to marry and bear children instead. Many of the original kidnapped colonists are now dead, but several children have been born. After a brief courtship, Vivienne and Johann are married, and soon he finds that he's going to be a father. After a number of adventures in which Johann meets alien creatures known as maskets and helps them defeat an awful enemy, the nozzlers again attack and force the remainder of the colony into a grotto, where they're imprisoned in caves. Some characters previously thought to be dead are found to be alive and trapped in the complex cave system. Johann attempts to escape and is isolated from his pregnant wife, yet when he is at his most desperate, the spirit of Sister Beatrice returns and tells him that they are all about to begin another strange journey.

Style, minutiae, and well-wrought characterization are of primary concern to the author, who knows how to compound elements into an intriguing mixture of personal responsibility, action, and moral dilemma. Showing how Maria uses her figurines to relate to her environment and the earth history of her extended family is an engaging and honest device. Social contact is unknown to the girl except through her imagination, and the growing friction between her and the others is a subtle but intricate plot element. At times the reader is likely to feel somewhat like Maria, connected to this bizarre world only through characters caught in extremely puzzling circumstances that have no apparent link to each other. Gentry Lee's storytelling ability is the height of form, but his technique is built upon story threads begun in earlier novels that are so slowly unveiled (if they are unveiled at all) that readers unfamiliar with the Rama universe and Bright Messengers might find themselves a bit overwhelmed by chunks of exposition and quickly covered plot elements.

The journey is a fascinating one, though: a mixture of philosophical grandeur and the foibles and fears that often make mankind the oddest of all species. Lee's sensitive attention to dialogue, attitude, and poignant realizations are always of interest. Even in the most alien landscape, the emphasis remains on the human condition: thirst for knowledge, protection of loved ones, and the hope of a heaven. The reader will be wound into an intricate and sensational series of thoughtful, emotional explorations of human existence.

—Tom Piccirilli

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For engineer Johann Eberhardt, life has come down to this: a tiny but bountiful island inside a vast alien sphere that is both paradise and prison. Eight years ago, Johann, accompanied by nine Martian colonists, entered the sphere with his beloved Beatrice, priestess-bishop of the Order of St. Michael, searching for the true nature of the mystical visitors some said were extraterrestrial - and others said came from God. Once inside the sphere, the colonists were separated and Johann has since lived in virtual isolation to raise the daughter Beatrice left behind after her tragic death. Now the island paradise Johann shares with the child Maria has been invaded by a violent and enigmatic life-form. Risking everything, Johann begins a dangerous journey across the water in search of safety and his fellow colonists. It is an odyssey that is beset with deadly peril: from strange sentient creatures to imprisonment in an underwater world by a species whose motives may be benevolent. But it is when the colonists are reunited and transported to an exotic planet that the true challenge for survival begins.

SYNOPSIS

An ex-NASA engineer and the coauthor of three of Arthur C. Clarke's epic Rama adventures, Gentry Lee continues the classic saga with a new solo effort, Double Full Moon Night. With scientific intrigue, deadly enemies, and thrilling adventure galore, Lee has molded Clarke's amazing vision into something special of his own. Hop onboard the next exciting phase of one of science fiction's most awe-inspiring multivolume rides.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Bizarre aliens and mysterious technologies are rife in this sequel to former NASA scientist Lee's first solo novel, Bright Messengers. Lee got his start in SF by co-authoring four novels with Sir Arthur Clarke, three of them sequels to Rendezvous with Rama, and the two books he's written on his own are both set in the Rama universe. In Bright Messengers, a group of colonists was rescued from certain death on Mars by a gigantic and mysterious alien spacecraft. Deposited on several islands within the spacecraft's inner sea, the humans have barely survived, fighting off hostile aliens as well as their own worst impulses. Now, led by Johann Eberhardt, former engineer and champion swimmer, the colonists are transported to a distant, seemingly benign planet with two moons. Eberhardt, however, is in periodic communication with someone or something that claims to be his long-dead love, Sister Beatrice of the Order of St. Michael, and this apparition has warned him that their new world will turn deadly in the near future when the two moons are full simultaneously. The colonists' survival evidently depends on Johann's ability to convince them that he has indeed spoken with Beatrice. Although this novel may appeal to admirers of the earlier Rama books, there's little here to attract new readers. Lee's prose is leaden, particularly his dialogue, and he exhibits a poor sense of pacing. Neither Johann nor any of the other colonists comes alive on the page -- a flaw that robs the novel of emotional depth or power, despite its handful of moderately successful action sequences.

VOYA - Tom Pearson

Gentry continues the story begun in Bright Messengers (Bantam Spectra, 1995/VOYA December 1995). Johann Eberhardt, chief engineer at the Mars water production facility, enters a sphere of mysterious origin with ten other colonists. One of the other passengers is Johann's priestess-bishop beloved, Beatrice. The sphere is both a paradise and a prison; the colonists receive what food and shelter they need to survive, but few answers about the sphere or the mysterious beings who constructed it. After Beatrice is raped by another colonist and dies in childbirth, Johann and the child are separated from the other colonists. Johann raises Maria as his own daughter on an island paradise. When Johann and Maria are forced to leave their home due to a potentially lethal life-form, they discover the other surviving colonists and for a time all is well. Their idyllic existence, however, is soon marred by dissension, jealousy, and Maria's increasingly erratic behavior. Johann then receives a warning from one of his captors, who has taken on Beatrice's persona: "Beware double full moon night." Johann must persuade his fellow colonists that the danger is real and imminent, even though he has not yet figured out what the danger is or how to escape it. Failure, Johann knows, means certain death for himself and those he loves. The smoothly flowing writing style is combined with a plot spiced with plenty of action. Readers learn a lot about the sphere and the colonists' captors, although some secrets remain unrevealed. Some of the characters, unfortunately, never become more than straw men used to drive the plot forward, while others by book's end are fully-formed individuals. Another good read set in the Rama universe of Lee and Arthur C. Clarke. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P S A/YA (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult).

Library Journal

For eight years, Johann Eberhardt and his adopted daughter Maria have dwelled in seclusion inside a gigantic, spherical spaceship built by ribbonlike aliens and populated by a host of mysterious creatures. When a monstrous creature threatens their peaceful retreat, Johann and Maria set out in search of Johann's former companions--and discover more than they bargained for. This sequel to Bright Messengers (LJ 4/15/95) continues the adventures begun by sf veteran Arthur C. Clarke in his Rama novels. Lee's combination of sf and mysticism should appeal to fans of the original tales. Suitable for large sf collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Lee's sequel to Bright Messengers (1995) comes with a solid synopsis: eight years previously, engineer Johann Eberhardt, some Martian colonists, and a number of saintly Michaelite nuns, previously tantalized by particle-ribbon beings that the nuns regard as angels, entered a strange spacecraft and were whisked off into the unknown. Now Johann and his young daughter, Maria, live on an island in a sea inside a vast spaceship-until, forced to leave by the threat of the squidlike, perhaps intelligent, nozzlers, they find other survivors on another island, and exchange histories. Johann explains about his visions: the particle-beings have re-created his beloved Beatrice, who died in childbirth, as a glowing simulacrum that occasionally visits to offer advice. The island's other intelligent inhabitants, the small, furry maskets, ask Johann to help dispose of a troublesome predator. But soon the nozzlers grab everyone and confine them in a grotto. Glowing Beatrice appears, telling Johann that they're all traveling to a new planet with two moons. Here, years later, Beatrice reappears to warn Johann that something bad will happen on Double Full Moon Night, and what to do about it. He informs the others, but most don't believe in his visions and refuse to help-these are captured by insectlike bronkers, and vanish. Three decades pass; Johann falls off a cliff and must be abandoned to the bronkers. Only two teenagers survive, to be whisked away by yet another spaceship. Their daughter, another Maria, is eventually picked up by the alien, Eagle, aboard spaceship Rama. Eagle takes Maria to visit the particle-beings, who re-create Johann; he tells her about her family. Neither thedesultory plot nor the plodding prose generates much narrative tension: imaginative, sometimes, but this unengaging space odyssey's mostly just pointless.