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2001: A space odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
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2001: A Space Odyssey (original 1968; edition 2000)

by Arthur C. Clarke

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7,357105421 (4)245
Member:regilla
Title:2001: A Space Odyssey
Authors:Arthur C. Clarke
Info:Roc (2000), Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
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2001: A space odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)

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  1. 151
    2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke (ksk21)
  2. 90
    Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (riodecelis)
  3. 54
    I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (benmartin79)
  4. 00
    Shield by Poul Anderson (MinaKelly)
  5. 00
    The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson (Valashain)
    Valashain: Robinson's work shows the same kind of optimism in the future that Clarke seems to have. The style and subject of The Memory of Whiteness reminded me of Clarke most but this goes for other works by Robinson as well.
  6. 01
    The Cassiopeia Affair by Chloe Zerwick (MinaKelly)
  7. 24
    Titan by Stephen Baxter (jseger9000)
    jseger9000: The stories have many similarities (mainly a manned expedition to Saturn), though Baxter's story is much darker.
  8. 25
    I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream [short story] by Harlan Ellison (artturnerjr)
    artturnerjr: Another 60s SF tale that takes the notion of malevolent AI to nightmarish extremes.
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Update: The movie is just as boring as the book, if not more so. I'm watching it at 1.4x speed, and it's still boring me to death.

------------

It was okay. Mostly, it was was slow and rather boring. The part where HAL tries to take over the spaceship was interesting, but that only lasted for about 25 minutes (of the 6 hours). The ending was bizarre beyond belief and I never really got attached to the main character. I think it would have been MUCH more interesting as a movie... which it obviously is. I checked it out from the library, so I'll have to watch it.

The book was written in 1968, so there are some funny things as far as technology is concerned. Their idea of the future still included cameras in film, as well as cassette-tape-like magnetic rolls to store data on. It was hilarious. :)

( )
  saraferrell | Apr 3, 2013 |
This book sucks out the wonder, grace, mystery, and menace of the story as the movie represents it and injects instead a fussy gentleman-scientist narratorial voice that revels in scientific pedantry and renders everything it describes hopelessly flat and banal.

I skimmed the Star Gate section at the end but can't bear to devote any more time to reading the undoubtedly excruciating twenty-or-so pages between that and where I stopped.

  idlerking | Mar 31, 2013 |
I remember who lent me this book in HS, in what class, and the fact that I read the last page at his suggestion. That single page pushed me into a three to four year spiral of sci-fi reading that changed my life. perhaps not for the better or the worse, but changed I was. Mind-bending lit tends to attract we introspective, depressed nerds, but this book had such power that nothing else I read really struck me as hard (maybe Larry Niven's The Mote in God's Eye, but even that was a different fascination -- and I only read that one once). But Clarke introduced me to Niven and eventually I found myself buying stacks of used sci-fi.

I mean, what better compliment than "this book made me read more"? Only John Steinbeck can share that distinction in that point of my life. ( )
  evanroskos | Mar 30, 2013 |
Purchased this first edition ten years or so ago. It was autographed! Now my brother is looking after the book. First read 2001 in HS. Remember seeing the movie when it was first screen--rocked my mind. ( )
  Traveller1 | Mar 30, 2013 |
An excellent book by one of the best SF authors. ( )
  jamespurcell | Mar 8, 2013 |
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To Stanley
First words
The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight.
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. (Foreword)
Quotations
"I'm not going to do that, Dave."
Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.
Now they were lords of the galaxy, and beyond the reach of time. They could rove at will among the stars, and sink like a subtle mist through the very interstices of space. But despite their godlike powers, they had not wholly forgotten their origin, in a worm slime of a vanished sea.
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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0451457994, Mass Market Paperback)

When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing, after it's unearthed the artifact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self-aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well. He is capable of guilt, neurosis, even murder, and he controls every single one of Discovery's components. The crew must overthrow this digital psychotic if they hope to make their rendezvous with the entities that are responsible not just for the monolith, but maybe even for human civilization.

Clarke wrote this novel while Stanley Kubrick created the film, the two collaborating on both projects. The novel is much more detailed and intimate, and definitely easier to comprehend. Even though history has disproved its "predictions," it's still loaded with exciting and awe-inspiring science fiction. --Brooks Peck

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:35:20 -0500)

(see all 4 descriptions)

A special new Introduction by the author highlights this reissue of a classic science fiction novel that changed the way people looked at the stars--and themselves. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the classic science fiction novel that changed the way we looked at the stars and ourselves. 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired what is perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made--brilliantly imagined by the late Stanley Kubrick ... 2001 is finally here.… (more)

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