Rama II

Seventy years after the first Raman craft crossed the Solar System and left without explaining itself, a second one arrives. Twelve astronauts are chosen to go aboard: engineers, scientists, soldiers, a journalist, a doctor.

An accident kills the mission commander while the crew is still outside the ship, and the argument over who replaces him sets the tone for everything that follows. Inside Rama, the expedition is less a scientific survey than a group of people whose ambitions and grudges have nowhere to go.

By the end, three of the twelve are still inside Rama, and Rama is leaving the Solar System.

Book two of the Rama series, written by Gentry Lee from Arthur C. Clarke's world.