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Space Odyssey #2
2010: Odyssey Two
Not yet published
Expected 1 Jan 49The Leonov is beaten to Jupiter by a Chinese mission which lands on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and falls victim to its unknown terrain. The last astronaut to die on the alien surface broadcast a message - there is life on Europa.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1982
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20482 people want to read
About the author
Arthur C. Clarke
1,647 books11.6k followersStories, works of noted British writer, scientist, and underwater explorer Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, include
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968).
This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.
He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.
This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.
He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,759 reviews
February 5, 2025
Arthur C. Clarke simultaneously produced the second part of a series after the first volume, and it is one of Stanley Kubrick's most beautiful films. The film takes place in 2010, ten years after the disappearance of Discovery and astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole.
This section continues a fascinating story and extends Kubrick's remarkable film. It also allows you to deepen the notions developed in the first volume and explain them more. The famous last sequence, "Beyond the Stargate," has prompted many comments.
We find Professor Heywood Floyd on the outskirts of Jupiter and its moons, whose mysterious Europe holds many secrets to come.
This novel is a beautiful companion for those who want to travel in the solar system. It is exceptionally engaging and fluid to read.
This text takes on a credible dimension with scientific data inspired by reality. There are even inventions there that will be used years after their writing.
This section continues a fascinating story and extends Kubrick's remarkable film. It also allows you to deepen the notions developed in the first volume and explain them more. The famous last sequence, "Beyond the Stargate," has prompted many comments.
We find Professor Heywood Floyd on the outskirts of Jupiter and its moons, whose mysterious Europe holds many secrets to come.
This novel is a beautiful companion for those who want to travel in the solar system. It is exceptionally engaging and fluid to read.
This text takes on a credible dimension with scientific data inspired by reality. There are even inventions there that will be used years after their writing.
January 14, 2023
The enigma of the Spaceship Discovery lost in Jupiter's orbit ( the setting has been changed from Saturn in the original book, to match Kubrick's film). The imaginative Arthur C. Clarke's sequel to 2001, has Dr. Heywood Floyd again recruited on a joint U.S. and Soviet, woops,(written in 1982) expedition, to the giant sphere, the numerous colors yep orange too, planet, to find out what happened. The crew of the Soviet ship Leonov consists of seven Russians and three Americans, with both male and female members. Dr.Floyd, Dr. Chandra, builder of the malfunctioning computer Hal (a long repair trip) and Walter Curnow a systems specialist, are the Americans. Curnow job is to get Discovery working again before it crashes down on Io a hellish volcanic world and one of the many exotic Jovian moons. But the real reason of the trip is of course just a little more complicated people are so devious. Discovery's Captain David Bowman's disappearance and his last words"My God it's full of stars" haunts the Earth still to this very day ...what does he mean ? The mysterious black monolith that is floating in space between Jupiter and her moon , how dangerous a threat is it to Earth? The quite able Captain Tatiana Orlova is in charge and even has her husband on board makes for an interesting voyage, but no time for a honeymoon. All the crew begin to call the monolith "Big Brother", even the uncomfortable Soviets. A shocking development arises when the Chinese send the spaceship Tsien, ahead of the Leonov using all their fuel to arrive first. An unbelievable suicide mission? What is their ultimate goal steal valuable information from the Discovery and Big Brother... The puzzle continues when the Chinese land on another Jovian moon, the strange ice satellite Europa. An understandable confusion in the spaceship, indeed but meanwhile the view of Jupiter's dazzling atmosphere is not to be missed. Its constant color changes, white, red , orange, and the Great Red Spot nonetheless something strange is seen from the Leonov, a black image is spreading on the Fifth Planet.Soon it will engulf the entire sphere....What is it doing and more important for what reason maybe to cause trouble for the Soviets and Americans a chilling prospect. Exciting follow up to 2001, not as good to be honest since few book could top the original in the genre, however an agreeable space adventure.
October 2, 2022
4/5 Estrellas
En esta 2ª entrega, una misión conjunta ruso-estadounidense parte 9 años más tarde al rescate de la nave Discovery, varada en la órbita de Júpiter (bueno, era Saturno, pero el autor ha preferido seguir el guion de la película en lugar del primer libro). Muchas dudas quedan por resolver: ¿Qué pasó con el último tripulante David Bowman? ¿Podrá saberse algo más de la unidad HAL que se rebeló contra la tripulación? ¿sigue allí el monolito o Gran Hermano, como lo llama la tripulación? En este caso la nave es rusa y se llama Leonov.
Impresionante la descripción de Júpiter y sus satélites. Ío, Ganímedes, Calixto, Europa.....Impresionante la descripción de estos mundos, su geología, su atmósfera (si la tienen), sus posibles formas de vida. No olvidemos que este libro se escribió en 1982 y las primeras misiones a este sistema planetario las realizaron las sondas Pioneer y Voyager en los años 70.
No sé como describir a esos entes superiores que llevan remodelando los distintos mundos donde hay vida durante millones de años y que, parece que están detrás de nuestra evolución, a la vez que ellos mismos evolucionan hacia formas de vida cada vez más desmaterializadas, inteligentes y poderosas. ¿Qué pretenden? ¿Ayudarnos, reconducirnos, suprimirnos porque no hemos evolucionado como ellos pretendían? Reconozco que esta es la parte de estos libros que más me está gustando, no deja de ser un planteamiento religioso-filosófico muy interesante, un escalón más en la atribulada búsqueda humana de sus orígenes.
Qué decir de la formación del sistema solar joviano. Me he quedado atónito. Impresionante paja mental, con la que se descuelga aquí el autor. Supongo que no he entendido la mitad del planteamiento y sospecho que mucho de lo que propone aquí contraviene la mayoría de las leyes de la física y de la química, pero da igual, el despliegue de imaginación lo compensa con creces.
Lo que menos me ha gustado son los personajes, sin duda. Flojos y sin empaque en su caracterización, pese al gran potencial que tiene la situación que están viviendo. Diálogos sin chispa . Las relaciones humanas quedan en segundo plano ante la grandiosidad de las descripciones planetarias y de esos entes superiores que no sabemos muy bien qué pretenden.
Seguiré sin duda con la tercera entrega.
En esta 2ª entrega, una misión conjunta ruso-estadounidense parte 9 años más tarde al rescate de la nave Discovery, varada en la órbita de Júpiter (bueno, era Saturno, pero el autor ha preferido seguir el guion de la película en lugar del primer libro). Muchas dudas quedan por resolver: ¿Qué pasó con el último tripulante David Bowman? ¿Podrá saberse algo más de la unidad HAL que se rebeló contra la tripulación? ¿sigue allí el monolito o Gran Hermano, como lo llama la tripulación? En este caso la nave es rusa y se llama Leonov.
Impresionante la descripción de Júpiter y sus satélites. Ío, Ganímedes, Calixto, Europa.....Impresionante la descripción de estos mundos, su geología, su atmósfera (si la tienen), sus posibles formas de vida. No olvidemos que este libro se escribió en 1982 y las primeras misiones a este sistema planetario las realizaron las sondas Pioneer y Voyager en los años 70.
No sé como describir a esos entes superiores que llevan remodelando los distintos mundos donde hay vida durante millones de años y que, parece que están detrás de nuestra evolución, a la vez que ellos mismos evolucionan hacia formas de vida cada vez más desmaterializadas, inteligentes y poderosas. ¿Qué pretenden? ¿Ayudarnos, reconducirnos, suprimirnos porque no hemos evolucionado como ellos pretendían? Reconozco que esta es la parte de estos libros que más me está gustando, no deja de ser un planteamiento religioso-filosófico muy interesante, un escalón más en la atribulada búsqueda humana de sus orígenes.
Qué decir de la formación del sistema solar joviano. Me he quedado atónito. Impresionante paja mental, con la que se descuelga aquí el autor. Supongo que no he entendido la mitad del planteamiento y sospecho que mucho de lo que propone aquí contraviene la mayoría de las leyes de la física y de la química, pero da igual, el despliegue de imaginación lo compensa con creces.
Lo que menos me ha gustado son los personajes, sin duda. Flojos y sin empaque en su caracterización, pese al gran potencial que tiene la situación que están viviendo. Diálogos sin chispa . Las relaciones humanas quedan en segundo plano ante la grandiosidad de las descripciones planetarias y de esos entes superiores que no sabemos muy bien qué pretenden.
Seguiré sin duda con la tercera entrega.
July 13, 2018
“Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do.”
Funny that this innocuous kiddies’ tune always reminds me of a homicidal supercomputer.
Arthur C. Clarke, in spite of being a sci-fi legend, is not known for his characterization, but HAL 9000 is one of the most memorable sci-fi characters ever, with his friend Dave Bowman not far behind.
With 2010: Odyssey Two, we are back to “the future” which is now the past. Some people will be put off from reading this book because it is set six years ago and nothing like what transpires in the book occurred in the real 2010. Us long time sci-fi readers are very tolerant of the real future overtaking the fictional one. The important thing is the story, and the alien technology in this book has not been made to look silly by today’s Earthly tech. Better still, Clarke makes the super tech seems believable.
2010: Odyssey Two takes place nine years after the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (thank you, Captain Obvious!). At the end of the previous book the spaceship Discovery is abandoned in Jupiter’s orbit and the ship’s single survivor, David Bowman, went through a gigantic monolith that turns out to be a portal of some kind, and nobody has heard from him since. And what is all this “OMG! - it’s full of stars” business? Has he sneaked off to Beverly Hills?
Spacecraft Discovery
This sequel is centered on the Russian spacecraft The Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, manned mostly by Russian crew with a couple of Americans to legitimize entry into The Discovery, which is US property. Their mission is to find out what happened to Discovery, HAL 9000 and Bowman, and also to investigate the giant “Big Brother/Zagadka” monolith that Bowman went through. What they discover is a project of cosmic proportions.
The early part of 2010: Odyssey Two is less than riveting as Clarke goes into detail about the family life of the book’s protagonist, Heywood Floyd and their pet dolphins. Then there are several lengthy scientific expository passages leading up to the rendezvous with the Discovery which are too dry for my taste. I do like hard SF, the real world science enhances the verisimilitude of the futuristic plot. Unfortunately, long infodumps tend to be very dry read like extracts from a scientific journal article. This is a trap that hard sf authors often fall into, though, to his credit, Clarke’s expositions are more accessible than most. Science in tandem with storytelling, on the other hand, can be very effective and fascinating. The best parts of this book are where Clarke successfully integrate the science into the narrative.
The giant "Big Brother/Zagadka" monolith at Jupiter (click to embiggen)
For example, Clarke’s application of scientific minutiae during Floyd’s exploration of the Discovery derelict makes for a wonderfully atmospheric scene (love the surprising Ridley Scott’s Alien reference). The restoration andrebooting revival of HAL 9000 is my favorite part of the book, gotta love that HAL! As for David Bowman, he has become something posthuman, but still retains much of his humanity in his thoughts and actions.
Not the same old Dave
For most of the book 2010: Odyssey Two chugs along at a deliberate pace, though the first half of the book is not all that compelling but readable enough to stay out of the bin. The narrative becomes much more exciting as things become increasingly outlandish, and David Bowman goes on his almost metaphysical missions at the behest of his inscrutable alien masters. The of HAL 9000 is also rather moving. The climax of the book is a real humdinger and the epilogue is also great.
I enjoyed 2010: Odyssey Two, though it is not nearly as compelling as 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don’t think I will be reading 2061: Odyssey Three as the principle of diminishing returns continues to operate. I recommend this book with the above-mentioned reservations.
TL;DR: It’s pretty good.
The Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov by Joseph Soiza (the smaller spaceship is the Discovery)
Notes:
• I can’t remember anything about the movie adaptation, 2010: The Year We Make Contact
• Love the stuff about the von Neumann machines “exponentiating”.
• My review of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Quotes:
“How did one annoy a two-kilometre-long black rectangular slab? And just what form would its disapproval take?”
“The fact that Nikolai’s English was much the worst on the ship was totally unimportant, since most of the time both men spoke a computerese wholly unintelligible to anyone else.”
“It was not hard to form the words, and to impose them on the currents pulsing in the audio circuits. The real difficulty was to slow down his thoughts to the glacial tempo of the human brain. And then to have to wait an eternity for the answer”
“You mean, we’ve just seen an example of astronomical engineering?”
Catchphrase for this book:
“ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.”
Funny that this innocuous kiddies’ tune always reminds me of a homicidal supercomputer.
Arthur C. Clarke, in spite of being a sci-fi legend, is not known for his characterization, but HAL 9000 is one of the most memorable sci-fi characters ever, with his friend Dave Bowman not far behind.
With 2010: Odyssey Two, we are back to “the future” which is now the past. Some people will be put off from reading this book because it is set six years ago and nothing like what transpires in the book occurred in the real 2010. Us long time sci-fi readers are very tolerant of the real future overtaking the fictional one. The important thing is the story, and the alien technology in this book has not been made to look silly by today’s Earthly tech. Better still, Clarke makes the super tech seems believable.
2010: Odyssey Two takes place nine years after the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (thank you, Captain Obvious!). At the end of the previous book the spaceship Discovery is abandoned in Jupiter’s orbit and the ship’s single survivor, David Bowman, went through a gigantic monolith that turns out to be a portal of some kind, and nobody has heard from him since. And what is all this “OMG! - it’s full of stars” business? Has he sneaked off to Beverly Hills?
Spacecraft Discovery
This sequel is centered on the Russian spacecraft The Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, manned mostly by Russian crew with a couple of Americans to legitimize entry into The Discovery, which is US property. Their mission is to find out what happened to Discovery, HAL 9000 and Bowman, and also to investigate the giant “Big Brother/Zagadka” monolith that Bowman went through. What they discover is a project of cosmic proportions.
The early part of 2010: Odyssey Two is less than riveting as Clarke goes into detail about the family life of the book’s protagonist, Heywood Floyd and their pet dolphins. Then there are several lengthy scientific expository passages leading up to the rendezvous with the Discovery which are too dry for my taste. I do like hard SF, the real world science enhances the verisimilitude of the futuristic plot. Unfortunately, long infodumps tend to be very dry read like extracts from a scientific journal article. This is a trap that hard sf authors often fall into, though, to his credit, Clarke’s expositions are more accessible than most. Science in tandem with storytelling, on the other hand, can be very effective and fascinating. The best parts of this book are where Clarke successfully integrate the science into the narrative.
The giant "Big Brother/Zagadka" monolith at Jupiter (click to embiggen)
For example, Clarke’s application of scientific minutiae during Floyd’s exploration of the Discovery derelict makes for a wonderfully atmospheric scene (love the surprising Ridley Scott’s Alien reference). The restoration and
Not the same old Dave
For most of the book 2010: Odyssey Two chugs along at a deliberate pace, though the first half of the book is not all that compelling but readable enough to stay out of the bin. The narrative becomes much more exciting as things become increasingly outlandish, and David Bowman goes on his almost metaphysical missions at the behest of his inscrutable alien masters. The of HAL 9000 is also rather moving. The climax of the book is a real humdinger and the epilogue is also great.
I enjoyed 2010: Odyssey Two, though it is not nearly as compelling as 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don’t think I will be reading 2061: Odyssey Three as the principle of diminishing returns continues to operate. I recommend this book with the above-mentioned reservations.
TL;DR: It’s pretty good.
The Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov by Joseph Soiza (the smaller spaceship is the Discovery)
Notes:
• I can’t remember anything about the movie adaptation, 2010: The Year We Make Contact
• Love the stuff about the von Neumann machines “exponentiating”.
• My review of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Quotes:
“How did one annoy a two-kilometre-long black rectangular slab? And just what form would its disapproval take?”
“The fact that Nikolai’s English was much the worst on the ship was totally unimportant, since most of the time both men spoke a computerese wholly unintelligible to anyone else.”
“It was not hard to form the words, and to impose them on the currents pulsing in the audio circuits. The real difficulty was to slow down his thoughts to the glacial tempo of the human brain. And then to have to wait an eternity for the answer”
“You mean, we’ve just seen an example of astronomical engineering?”
Catchphrase for this book:
“ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.”
January 13, 2011
As soon as I finished reading this I thought, man, I wish I didn't suck so badly at science, because being an astronomer would be SO FREAKING COOL.
But I do suck so badly at science, so I just get to read wonders like this and wish I was half as good a writer as Arthur C. Clarke, who gets to be really friggin' smart in TWO CAREERS, which is totally unfair.
There are several great things about this book. First, and one of the things that I love to read old sci-fi books for, is what Clarke in the 80s thought 2010 was going to look like. Some of it is actually kind of close, which is pretty cool, and some of it is either useless and we never bothered to create it or it's still beyond us in terms of technology. Second, I read the first book about seven years ago and have completely forgotten it, so the references in this were a little lost on me. But that totally doesn't matter! This isn't a completely stand-alone book, but it's not nearly as intricately dependent on the first book as it could be. Yes, you need to know the original plot, but beyond that you're good to go. Third, HOW DOES CLARKE MANAGE TO KEEP YOU ENGAGED WITHOUT ANY SORT OF REAL VILLAIN? This is how you know you're scary good; half of the book is trying to figure out what's going on with crazy computer Hal, unless it's dealing with the strange things on Europa, or wait, there are these aliens that aren't aliens SURPRISE DAVID BOWMAN I mean what? And yet, I couldn't put it down. I really, really wanted to know what was going to happen, and I may track down the next book, because Clarke is made of scientific awesome.
Also, the descriptions of the solar system? Beautiful, man. Word paintings.
I only give it four stars because the ending felt a little flat (and by ending, I mean the last 5 or so pages, and the epilogue was...I don't know what it was, but it felt a little forced). Perhaps this will be remedied by reading book three, I don't know, but it felt a tad anticlimactic, and therefore is cheated out of its fifth star. Sorry, Zagadka.
But I do suck so badly at science, so I just get to read wonders like this and wish I was half as good a writer as Arthur C. Clarke, who gets to be really friggin' smart in TWO CAREERS, which is totally unfair.
There are several great things about this book. First, and one of the things that I love to read old sci-fi books for, is what Clarke in the 80s thought 2010 was going to look like. Some of it is actually kind of close, which is pretty cool, and some of it is either useless and we never bothered to create it or it's still beyond us in terms of technology. Second, I read the first book about seven years ago and have completely forgotten it, so the references in this were a little lost on me. But that totally doesn't matter! This isn't a completely stand-alone book, but it's not nearly as intricately dependent on the first book as it could be. Yes, you need to know the original plot, but beyond that you're good to go. Third, HOW DOES CLARKE MANAGE TO KEEP YOU ENGAGED WITHOUT ANY SORT OF REAL VILLAIN? This is how you know you're scary good; half of the book is trying to figure out what's going on with crazy computer Hal, unless it's dealing with the strange things on Europa, or wait, there are these aliens that aren't aliens SURPRISE DAVID BOWMAN I mean what? And yet, I couldn't put it down. I really, really wanted to know what was going to happen, and I may track down the next book, because Clarke is made of scientific awesome.
Also, the descriptions of the solar system? Beautiful, man. Word paintings.
I only give it four stars because the ending felt a little flat (and by ending, I mean the last 5 or so pages, and the epilogue was...I don't know what it was, but it felt a little forced). Perhaps this will be remedied by reading book three, I don't know, but it felt a tad anticlimactic, and therefore is cheated out of its fifth star. Sorry, Zagadka.
August 24, 2020
The movie sequel is not as good as the original, but in many ways this might be Clarke's most polished effort. He actually takes the time to think out a plot and characters, and it's interesting to see what happens following the events in the first book/movie.
July 6, 2019
'...And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the field of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.'
Guys, I think I've found my new favourite series... ever? These books are SO GOOD. The amount of work and research put into them is incredible and both the first book and this one have completely blown my mind.
Proper review to come.
Guys, I think I've found my new favourite series... ever? These books are SO GOOD. The amount of work and research put into them is incredible and both the first book and this one have completely blown my mind.
Proper review to come.
May 1, 2020
Está saga de Arthur C. Clarke me está gustando TANTO, pero tanto, tanto, que menos mal que aún me quedan otros dos libros por leer porque no quiero que esto se acabe.
He disfrutado de principio a fin las dos primeras entregas de la serie, pero es que además los finales me parecen espectaculares; el de esta segunda novela me ha emocionado especialmente.
He disfrutado de principio a fin las dos primeras entregas de la serie, pero es que además los finales me parecen espectaculares; el de esta segunda novela me ha emocionado especialmente.
September 18, 2021
Better than I expected it to be, enjoyable, but it feels like it's missing much narrative drive.
I mean, they're going to see TMA-2, close to Jupiter, and reclaim Discovery, but when they get there even the crew members seem to be unsure what to do next. It's all.. reactive.
Generally it feels like a transitional novel.
I mean, they're going to see TMA-2, close to Jupiter, and reclaim Discovery, but when they get there even the crew members seem to be unsure what to do next. It's all.. reactive.
Generally it feels like a transitional novel.
July 19, 2016
Jedna od omiljenih stvari kod ovih knjiga su imaginacija pisca pri smisljanju novih svetova i vrsta i njihov uverljiv opis. Kada se cita prosto imas pred ocima sve ono o cemu gosn Klark pise. Prosto ne verovatno.
S druge strane isto mi se svidja kolko je covek ispred svog vremena kada govori i o daleko ljudskijim stvarima ka sto seksualnost ili brak bez problema provlaceci veze izmedju vise ljudi ili ljudi stog pola. A jos veci plus je nacin na koji je prikazan da to uopste ne bode oci vec ide varijantom podrazumeva se. Iskreno kada sam bio u osnovnoj ovakve stvari su mi totalno i promakle dok sada se nadam da i drugi pisci mogu biti ne napadni u takvim segmentima.
Sta drugo reci, odlican nastavak na jedan od naj knjiga SF zanra i jos jedno obavezno stivo.
S druge strane isto mi se svidja kolko je covek ispred svog vremena kada govori i o daleko ljudskijim stvarima ka sto seksualnost ili brak bez problema provlaceci veze izmedju vise ljudi ili ljudi stog pola. A jos veci plus je nacin na koji je prikazan da to uopste ne bode oci vec ide varijantom podrazumeva se. Iskreno kada sam bio u osnovnoj ovakve stvari su mi totalno i promakle dok sada se nadam da i drugi pisci mogu biti ne napadni u takvim segmentima.
Sta drugo reci, odlican nastavak na jedan od naj knjiga SF zanra i jos jedno obavezno stivo.
February 8, 2021
Both Arthur C. Clarke's novel "2010" and the film version directed by Peter Hyams are generally regarded as disappointments compared to its predecessor "2001". While I do find things to appreciate in both, I have to agree with the consensus. The book of "2010", like "2001", contains quite a bit more exposition and more subplots that were left out of the film for pacing or budgetary reasons.
The first thing I notice is that Clarke's "2010" novel retcons the Discovery mission's destination in the first book from Saturn to Jupiter, to concur with Stanley Kubrick's film since the special effects crew could not make a convincing model of Saturn's rings. The second thing I notice is that there is way more focus on geopolitics and character-driven drama than in not just "2001" but also the film of "2010": Clarke spends a good deal of the page count getting into the heads of both the Western-affliated scientists and the crew of the Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov they hitch a ride on in order to retrieve the Discovery. To be honest, neither characterisation nor political drama are among Clarke's strengths as a novelist if this book is any indication since he struggles to give the many different characters interesting personalities and make the geopolitics suspenseful.
Perhaps the biggest difference between book and film of "2010" is the addition of an entire subplot about a doomed Chinese expedition to Jupiter's moon Europa that culminates in the crew being attacked and killed by bizarre Europan wildlife except for one Taikonaut who manages to escape. This subplot is very effectively written, being full of eerie cosmic horror atmosphere that feels more like John Carpenter's "The Thing" or H. P. Lovecraft's "Mountains of Madness" than something at home in a "2001" sequel, I can understand why it was cut from the film but to be honest I find that more engaging than the main storyline.
The point in the plot where David Bowman as an incorporeal energy-being visits his left-behind family on Earth allows Clarke to comment on the convergence between the themes of "2001" and George Adamski-style UFO contactees' concerns, which I noticed in my own review of the former book in the series, something I did appreciate... but I still found that follow-up to Bowman's transformation into the Starchild something of an anticlimax. I feel even more so about the monolith-building aliens' endgame for humanity turning out to be... transforming Jupiter into a new sun. For all the transcendence of humanity's limitations through provoking another step up the evolutionary ladder to divinity that "2001" focused on, it feels out of character for the monolith-builders to just want to give a new sun to people who are entirely human in the current sense of the term. I get the mental imagery of Clarke beginning work on "2010" without having decided which exactly grand plan for humanity's future the monolith-builders would have in store, writing down all his ideas for that on separate notes and then picking one at random out of a hat.
The book of "2010" is not a total loss, however. The subplot about the doomed Chinese expedition to Europa would have made an amazing science-fiction horror story as the focus of an entire novel, showing quite the imagination for dreaming up alien environments from Clarke's side. Once the Leonov finally gets to Jupiter we get some impressive descriptions of the beauty of Jupiter and its moons on par with the special effects mastery in the film, as well as more in depth descriptions of what I kept expecting to see when I first watched Kubrick's "2001" film: The TMA-2 monolith being examined by a team of expert scientists from different academic fields while they ponder the philosophical questions of humanity's place in the cosmos.
Still, all the answers that Clarke puts forward here in "2010" to the questions asked in "2001" feel at best disappointing at worst downright baffling. The result is a very uneven reading experience. There is still good writing to be found in here, but nobody really needs to read "2010".
The first thing I notice is that Clarke's "2010" novel retcons the Discovery mission's destination in the first book from Saturn to Jupiter, to concur with Stanley Kubrick's film since the special effects crew could not make a convincing model of Saturn's rings. The second thing I notice is that there is way more focus on geopolitics and character-driven drama than in not just "2001" but also the film of "2010": Clarke spends a good deal of the page count getting into the heads of both the Western-affliated scientists and the crew of the Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov they hitch a ride on in order to retrieve the Discovery. To be honest, neither characterisation nor political drama are among Clarke's strengths as a novelist if this book is any indication since he struggles to give the many different characters interesting personalities and make the geopolitics suspenseful.
Perhaps the biggest difference between book and film of "2010" is the addition of an entire subplot about a doomed Chinese expedition to Jupiter's moon Europa that culminates in the crew being attacked and killed by bizarre Europan wildlife except for one Taikonaut who manages to escape. This subplot is very effectively written, being full of eerie cosmic horror atmosphere that feels more like John Carpenter's "The Thing" or H. P. Lovecraft's "Mountains of Madness" than something at home in a "2001" sequel, I can understand why it was cut from the film but to be honest I find that more engaging than the main storyline.
The point in the plot where David Bowman as an incorporeal energy-being visits his left-behind family on Earth allows Clarke to comment on the convergence between the themes of "2001" and George Adamski-style UFO contactees' concerns, which I noticed in my own review of the former book in the series, something I did appreciate... but I still found that follow-up to Bowman's transformation into the Starchild something of an anticlimax. I feel even more so about the monolith-building aliens' endgame for humanity turning out to be... transforming Jupiter into a new sun. For all the transcendence of humanity's limitations through provoking another step up the evolutionary ladder to divinity that "2001" focused on, it feels out of character for the monolith-builders to just want to give a new sun to people who are entirely human in the current sense of the term. I get the mental imagery of Clarke beginning work on "2010" without having decided which exactly grand plan for humanity's future the monolith-builders would have in store, writing down all his ideas for that on separate notes and then picking one at random out of a hat.
The book of "2010" is not a total loss, however. The subplot about the doomed Chinese expedition to Europa would have made an amazing science-fiction horror story as the focus of an entire novel, showing quite the imagination for dreaming up alien environments from Clarke's side. Once the Leonov finally gets to Jupiter we get some impressive descriptions of the beauty of Jupiter and its moons on par with the special effects mastery in the film, as well as more in depth descriptions of what I kept expecting to see when I first watched Kubrick's "2001" film: The TMA-2 monolith being examined by a team of expert scientists from different academic fields while they ponder the philosophical questions of humanity's place in the cosmos.
Still, all the answers that Clarke puts forward here in "2010" to the questions asked in "2001" feel at best disappointing at worst downright baffling. The result is a very uneven reading experience. There is still good writing to be found in here, but nobody really needs to read "2010".
April 21, 2023
The Universe isn't just stranger than you ever imagined. The Universe is stranger than you CAN imagine.
This novel is a slow-build, a slowly revealed unraveling of cosmic triggers.
Clarke writes a narrative that doesn't just entertain--it informs, it elucidates and it expands the mind beyond its narrowly defined corridors. And that's the point.
March 18, 2020
Wow! This was a very fun read! I loved it!
June 22, 2023
Jun 21, 740am ~~ Review asap.
110pm ~~ This book was originally published in 1982, and was not intended as a literal sequel to 2001 A Space Odyssey. In the foreword to my edition of that book, Clarke explains that for years he had never intended to write a sequel.
But in his author's note for this book, Clarke explains how the advances in scientific knowledge about the moons of Jupiter inspired him to pick up his pen again. Also, he mentions the fact that the earlier book was written five years before Man landed on the moon, and he felt that the landing was a point where "history and fiction have become inextricably intertwined".
I thought this was a great story, but I did not like it as much as I did 2001. Of course I was coming directly from the final page of that book to this one, and since I never read Introductions or Author's Notes until the end (they often contain numerous spoilers) I was confused about more than a few things that did not match the events in the other book. When I did read the Note, I found that where the book and movie of 2001 differed, for this story Clarke followed the screen version. Which is why I kept saying to myself "wait, that's not the way things happened!" when I was reading the sections that recapped past events.
For some reason I needed quite a few chapters to get over my annoyance about that. Not sure I ever did, to be honest, and I am also not sure why it bothered me so much.
But anyway, our main man Dr. Heywood Floyd is back in space here with a crew of mostly Russians on their way to Jupiter where the abandoned ship Discovery is in orbit. (Even that is different: in the movie it was Jupiter so it is here also, but in the book of 2001, everything took place at Saturn. Sigh.)
Anyway (again) once I got my mental GPS recalibrated, I was finally able to lose myself in the story. The second monolith is there on one of Jupiter's moons, but what does it do, how does it work, where are the stars that Dave said he saw inside it? Will anyone ever figure out what it all means?!
I am now ready to jump ahead 50 years and see what Clarke puts Dr. Floyd through in 2061: Odyssey Three. See you on the other side.
110pm ~~ This book was originally published in 1982, and was not intended as a literal sequel to 2001 A Space Odyssey. In the foreword to my edition of that book, Clarke explains that for years he had never intended to write a sequel.
But in his author's note for this book, Clarke explains how the advances in scientific knowledge about the moons of Jupiter inspired him to pick up his pen again. Also, he mentions the fact that the earlier book was written five years before Man landed on the moon, and he felt that the landing was a point where "history and fiction have become inextricably intertwined".
I thought this was a great story, but I did not like it as much as I did 2001. Of course I was coming directly from the final page of that book to this one, and since I never read Introductions or Author's Notes until the end (they often contain numerous spoilers) I was confused about more than a few things that did not match the events in the other book. When I did read the Note, I found that where the book and movie of 2001 differed, for this story Clarke followed the screen version. Which is why I kept saying to myself "wait, that's not the way things happened!" when I was reading the sections that recapped past events.
For some reason I needed quite a few chapters to get over my annoyance about that. Not sure I ever did, to be honest, and I am also not sure why it bothered me so much.
But anyway, our main man Dr. Heywood Floyd is back in space here with a crew of mostly Russians on their way to Jupiter where the abandoned ship Discovery is in orbit. (Even that is different: in the movie it was Jupiter so it is here also, but in the book of 2001, everything took place at Saturn. Sigh.)
Anyway (again) once I got my mental GPS recalibrated, I was finally able to lose myself in the story. The second monolith is there on one of Jupiter's moons, but what does it do, how does it work, where are the stars that Dave said he saw inside it? Will anyone ever figure out what it all means?!
I am now ready to jump ahead 50 years and see what Clarke puts Dr. Floyd through in 2061: Odyssey Three. See you on the other side.
September 2, 2019
This book was really good concerning characters and their relationships. I loved reading their interactions and some of their personal issues.
However, for some reason, the actual plot didn't get me hooked. Maybe one aspect of it was that we spent too few time on aspects I was interested in (e.g. Hal) but the things we spent time on too often just couldn't hold my attention. The last third was much more interesting to me, but I couldn't really say for sure what my problem was before that.
I would say it works as a continuation of 2001, even though it feels as if on a smaller scale.
However, for some reason, the actual plot didn't get me hooked. Maybe one aspect of it was that we spent too few time on aspects I was interested in (e.g. Hal) but the things we spent time on too often just couldn't hold my attention. The last third was much more interesting to me, but I couldn't really say for sure what my problem was before that.
I would say it works as a continuation of 2001, even though it feels as if on a smaller scale.
October 5, 2021
Better than the first book, and better than its movie. 2010 was very readable and accessible, and the wrap up of the HAL storyline was much more fleshed-out than it was in the movie.
After the events of 2001, the derelict spacecraft Discovery is in a terminal orbit around the Jovian moon Io. 2010 follows a crew of Russian and American scientists who seek to retrieve its data and find out what went wrong with HAL, investigate the mysterious monolith in orbit nearby, and to send Discovery back to Earth.
Some of those goals are achieved, and some are not.
What's nice about 2010 is that the chapters focusing on MIA astronaut David Bowman (or more accurately, the being that used to be David Bowman) are not nearly as difficult to read or understand as they were in the previous novel. Good story.
After the events of 2001, the derelict spacecraft Discovery is in a terminal orbit around the Jovian moon Io. 2010 follows a crew of Russian and American scientists who seek to retrieve its data and find out what went wrong with HAL, investigate the mysterious monolith in orbit nearby, and to send Discovery back to Earth.
Some of those goals are achieved, and some are not.
What's nice about 2010 is that the chapters focusing on MIA astronaut David Bowman (or more accurately, the being that used to be David Bowman) are not nearly as difficult to read or understand as they were in the previous novel. Good story.
October 4, 2025
2010 is the direct sequel to 2001, published about fifteen years after the original. It's a nice series of puzzles and plots but doesn't offer much in the way of character. 2001 left a lot of questions, and I thought it was better off just leaving it to the reader (or, in this it's more likely they were viewers-of-the-film) to draw their own conclusion. It's a fine, surprisingly fast read, and I don't have any quarrel with it other than some books just don't need a sequel. I believe it may have been the only science fiction novel to be serialized in Playboy, and it was nominated for a Hugo as best novel of the year but ironically lost to another sequel of a genre classic, Isaac Asimov's Foundation's Edge. Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, right?
March 19, 2023
4.5 zaokruženo na gore, jer mislim da bi mi knjiga bolje legla da sam je pročitala “u cugu” a ne iz dva dela kao što je to bio slučaj.
Manje mi je mind-blowing od prvog dela moram priznati, ali to ne umanjuje činjenicu da mi se svakako JAKO dopala. A kako je ovo prva knjiga u pisanoj formi koju sam pročitala za ovih mesec dana, mislim da to samo po sebi govori dosta o njenom kvalitetu i mom uživanju.
Jako me zanima kako će se priča dalje odvijati u naredna dva dela ovog serijala, s obzirom na to da Klark na kraju ovog romana sebi otvara jako velike mogućnosti za dalju ekspanziju sveta (ili možda bolje rečeno svetova?). Also - dva sunca? Kul!
Manje mi je mind-blowing od prvog dela moram priznati, ali to ne umanjuje činjenicu da mi se svakako JAKO dopala. A kako je ovo prva knjiga u pisanoj formi koju sam pročitala za ovih mesec dana, mislim da to samo po sebi govori dosta o njenom kvalitetu i mom uživanju.
Jako me zanima kako će se priča dalje odvijati u naredna dva dela ovog serijala, s obzirom na to da Klark na kraju ovog romana sebi otvara jako velike mogućnosti za dalju ekspanziju sveta (ili možda bolje rečeno svetova?). Also - dva sunca? Kul!
June 29, 2015
Boooooring. Having read the first book many years ago, one thing I remember with that story was just how dazzling and daring it felt. Much like the movie, certain images will forever be ingrained in my head. That Odyssey I loved journeying on. But this one, not so much. I mostly think it's all the characters, none of whom are interesting. Their voyage doesn't really seem all that harrowing in this story, and even if it was, I was so uninterested with the characters that I probably would have appreciated it more if they had all died. As it stood, I couldn't make a connection with any of them.
I also thought the questions left by the last book, like what happened to David Bowman, and was HAL really insane, didn't have satisfying answers. Yes, those characters were probably the most, if not only, interesting part about this book, but even they couldn't salvage this yawn - inducing mission. I won't be investing time in the third book, 2061.
Oh, and PS. Arthur C. Clarke really liked the word "myriad." It's all over this book. So much so, that if one were to make a drinking game every time they saw the word here, they would probably go blind and die. He used it SO much.
I also thought the questions left by the last book, like what happened to David Bowman, and was HAL really insane, didn't have satisfying answers. Yes, those characters were probably the most, if not only, interesting part about this book, but even they couldn't salvage this yawn - inducing mission. I won't be investing time in the third book, 2061.
Oh, and PS. Arthur C. Clarke really liked the word "myriad." It's all over this book. So much so, that if one were to make a drinking game every time they saw the word here, they would probably go blind and die. He used it SO much.
July 13, 2023
La trama se centra en el rescate de la nave de la primera novela y en determinar que fue lo que ocurrió con ese primer viaje.
Me ha parecido un poco aburrida, era pasar y pasar las páginas esperando que ocurriera algo interesante, pero nada... Llegué al final y no sentí que ocurriera algo importante, así que creo que no continuaré con la saga, ya que me imagino que los otros serán parecidos.
Me ha parecido un poco aburrida, era pasar y pasar las páginas esperando que ocurriera algo interesante, pero nada... Llegué al final y no sentí que ocurriera algo importante, así que creo que no continuaré con la saga, ya que me imagino que los otros serán parecidos.
October 10, 2018
Εννιά χρόνια μετά την καταστροφική αποστολή του Discovery στο Δία, μια κοινή αποστολή των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών και της Ρωσίας ξεκινά με σκοπό να συναντηθεί με το εγκαταλελειμμένο διαστημόπλοιο ώστε να ψάξουν τις αποθήκες της μνήμης του υπολογιστή HAL 9000 για να μάθουν τι πήγε στραβά και τι συνέβη στον Dave Bowman.
Χωρίς προειδοποίηση, μια κινέζικη αποστολή στοχεύει στον ίδιο στόχο, μετατρέποντας την αποστολή ανάκαμψης σε ένα φρενήρη αγώνα για τις πολύτιμες πληροφορίες που μπορεί να έχει το Discovery για τον αινιγματικό μονόλιθο που περιβάλλει τον Δία.
Εν τω μεταξύ, η ύπαρξη που ήταν κάποτε ο Dave Bowman - ο μόνος άνθρωπος που έχει ξεκλειδώσει το μυστήριο του μονόλιθου - ρέει προς τη Γη σε μια ζωτική αποστολή της δικής του.
Το δεύτερο βιβλίο της σειράς έχει πολλή περισσότερη δράση απ' το πρώτο και απίστευτες σκηνές. Είναι πραγματικά η επιστημονική φαντασία στα καλύτερά της!! Πολύ ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές του Δία και των δορυφόρων του, παρ' όλο που δεν υπήρχαν όλα τα στοιχεία που έχουμε σήμερα γι' αυτούς. Σε συνδυασμό με την απαράμιλλη φαντασία του Clarke έχουμε ένα αποτέλεσμα άνευ προηγουμένου. Αν το είχα διαβάσει σε μικρότερη ηλικία θα είχα κάνει τα πάντα για να γίνω αστροναύτης.
Το μόνο αρνητικό του βιβλίου είναι η κακή του μετάφραση η οποία αρκετές φορές σε κουράζει και σε κάνει να μη θες να διαβάσεις. Οπότε προτείνω, αν θέλετε να το διαβάσετε κάντε το στα αγγλικά ή σε κάποια άλλη μετάφραση.
Χωρίς προειδοποίηση, μια κινέζικη αποστολή στοχεύει στον ίδιο στόχο, μετατρέποντας την αποστολή ανάκαμψης σε ένα φρενήρη αγώνα για τις πολύτιμες πληροφορίες που μπορεί να έχει το Discovery για τον αινιγματικό μονόλιθο που περιβάλλει τον Δία.
Εν τω μεταξύ, η ύπαρξη που ήταν κάποτε ο Dave Bowman - ο μόνος άνθρωπος που έχει ξεκλειδώσει το μυστήριο του μονόλιθου - ρέει προς τη Γη σε μια ζωτική αποστολή της δικής του.
Το δεύτερο βιβλίο της σειράς έχει πολλή περισσότερη δράση απ' το πρώτο και απίστευτες σκηνές. Είναι πραγματικά η επιστημονική φαντασία στα καλύτερά της!! Πολύ ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές του Δία και των δορυφόρων του, παρ' όλο που δεν υπήρχαν όλα τα στοιχεία που έχουμε σήμερα γι' αυτούς. Σε συνδυασμό με την απαράμιλλη φαντασία του Clarke έχουμε ένα αποτέλεσμα άνευ προηγουμένου. Αν το είχα διαβάσει σε μικρότερη ηλικία θα είχα κάνει τα πάντα για να γίνω αστροναύτης.
Το μόνο αρνητικό του βιβλίου είναι η κακή του μετάφραση η οποία αρκετές φορές σε κουράζει και σε κάνει να μη θες να διαβάσεις. Οπότε προτείνω, αν θέλετε να το διαβάσετε κάντε το στα αγγλικά ή σε κάποια άλλη μετάφραση.
January 28, 2015
I'll suggest the reader of this review to go through plot-summary of this novel and a little familiariation with its prequel, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'll only be expatiating here on some aspects I found fascinating.
Although, the novel contains many captivating sub-plots and a driving, gripping backdrop; I want to credit Arthur C Clarke for the most wonderful depictions of the Jovian system. Within the first half, he describes the bands of Jovian clouds, the cyclonic storms, the radiation belt and the high-energy electron beam connecting Io to Jupiter; he depicts Io, a land of fiery volcanoes, violent eruptions making umbrella clouds and molten lava lakes; and he uses all the available information about Callisto, Ganymede and Europa to paint a vivid and entrancing picture of the moonscapes using his never-exhausting arsenal of beautiful, sublime metaphors. Perhaps, Clarke's level of ingenious and prolific depiction of the real planets and satellites could only be matched by none other than the Great Carl Sagan.
I give Clarke enormous credit and due respect for not weaving mystical and unreal, speculative scenery of the worlds, but instead relying on the available information to show such a scenario that could possibly never be imagined by any of the Earth-bound fantasy writers. It is true, that the Universe is not stranger than we imagine, but it is stranger than we can imagine.
Also, it turns out that the strange, eerie, surreal and enigmatic Universe is actually much more profoundly beautiful and enchanting than we can possibly imagine.
However, Clarke does resort to speculation in the latter half when he begins to describe the non-corporeal Dave Bowman's descent into sub-surface Europa to look for indigenous life and his descent into Jovian atmosphere to look for gaseous life, metallic hydrogen and the diamond core as big as the Earth. These speculations still stand on the solid ground of research and inferential hypotheses propounded by reputable scientists. However, the climax of Jupiter condensing and initiating nuclear fusion is absolutely speculative fantasy and couldn't be given much serious consideration, even though the condensation is said to be trigerred by higher forms of technological intelligence.
I should point out that, in the prequel, Dave Bowman was converted by the invisible masters of the Galaxy into a pure-energy life-form, retaining his memory and consciousness. The invisible masters are the entities which look for developing intelligence across the Galaxy and then ensure its survival and development by setting up dark rectangular slabs which direct the life-forms and protect them. This patronizing sort of intelligence occurred to me as highly disturbing and rather unsettling one; this hypothesis regards humans as highly vulnerable to self-destruction and incapable of supporting themselves against the follies and vices they commit, threatening their prospects of survival in consequence. Which is obviously true, but I find my own ideas to be better in sync with those of Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan which hold the belief in human intelligence, our ability to overcome our weaknesses and the potential of conquering the cosmos without needing any sort of external intervention.
It also occurs to me that despite being a close friend of Carl Sagan, Clarke was highly inclined towards theistic philosophies and his idea, showing invisible masters guarding and helping the intelligences, can be said to be the manifestation serving his purpose of having deities in real world.
His description of HAL 9000, the self-conscious artificial intelligence aboard Discovery, and the treatment it is subjected to, raises many questions and concerns about our ethics of dealing with non-human, non-organic intelligence. The crew never regards HAL as a person, and they stand at a ready to dissipate it in case it disobeys them, they even abandon HAL to save themselves while running from Jovian collapse and ignition. Clarke's HAL talks and behaves distinctively like a person, it shows efforts for self-preservation and even subdued fear. But Clarke doesn't go into details about it unlike his contemporary, Isaac Asimov. It holds imperative that we review our understanding and ethics about treating other forms of consciousness, robots, computers and even animals in a better and compassionate way.
It is rather a hard-science fiction novel, relying almost exclusively on pure scientific facts and inferences, and almost negligibly on unrealistic speculations. His description of space travel, the environment aboard the ship, interactions and relationships of the crew; are satisfying.
Clarke is a master at weaving dark, haunting atmospheres which always show his cynicism and impart fear and thrill into reader's mind. He succeeds superbly at it, while describing the anxiety, fear, stress and agony of the crew whose characters are otherwise, at best, a little more than single-layered caricatures.
Although, the novel contains many captivating sub-plots and a driving, gripping backdrop; I want to credit Arthur C Clarke for the most wonderful depictions of the Jovian system. Within the first half, he describes the bands of Jovian clouds, the cyclonic storms, the radiation belt and the high-energy electron beam connecting Io to Jupiter; he depicts Io, a land of fiery volcanoes, violent eruptions making umbrella clouds and molten lava lakes; and he uses all the available information about Callisto, Ganymede and Europa to paint a vivid and entrancing picture of the moonscapes using his never-exhausting arsenal of beautiful, sublime metaphors. Perhaps, Clarke's level of ingenious and prolific depiction of the real planets and satellites could only be matched by none other than the Great Carl Sagan.
I give Clarke enormous credit and due respect for not weaving mystical and unreal, speculative scenery of the worlds, but instead relying on the available information to show such a scenario that could possibly never be imagined by any of the Earth-bound fantasy writers. It is true, that the Universe is not stranger than we imagine, but it is stranger than we can imagine.
Also, it turns out that the strange, eerie, surreal and enigmatic Universe is actually much more profoundly beautiful and enchanting than we can possibly imagine.
However, Clarke does resort to speculation in the latter half when he begins to describe the non-corporeal Dave Bowman's descent into sub-surface Europa to look for indigenous life and his descent into Jovian atmosphere to look for gaseous life, metallic hydrogen and the diamond core as big as the Earth. These speculations still stand on the solid ground of research and inferential hypotheses propounded by reputable scientists. However, the climax of Jupiter condensing and initiating nuclear fusion is absolutely speculative fantasy and couldn't be given much serious consideration, even though the condensation is said to be trigerred by higher forms of technological intelligence.
I should point out that, in the prequel, Dave Bowman was converted by the invisible masters of the Galaxy into a pure-energy life-form, retaining his memory and consciousness. The invisible masters are the entities which look for developing intelligence across the Galaxy and then ensure its survival and development by setting up dark rectangular slabs which direct the life-forms and protect them. This patronizing sort of intelligence occurred to me as highly disturbing and rather unsettling one; this hypothesis regards humans as highly vulnerable to self-destruction and incapable of supporting themselves against the follies and vices they commit, threatening their prospects of survival in consequence. Which is obviously true, but I find my own ideas to be better in sync with those of Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan which hold the belief in human intelligence, our ability to overcome our weaknesses and the potential of conquering the cosmos without needing any sort of external intervention.
It also occurs to me that despite being a close friend of Carl Sagan, Clarke was highly inclined towards theistic philosophies and his idea, showing invisible masters guarding and helping the intelligences, can be said to be the manifestation serving his purpose of having deities in real world.
His description of HAL 9000, the self-conscious artificial intelligence aboard Discovery, and the treatment it is subjected to, raises many questions and concerns about our ethics of dealing with non-human, non-organic intelligence. The crew never regards HAL as a person, and they stand at a ready to dissipate it in case it disobeys them, they even abandon HAL to save themselves while running from Jovian collapse and ignition. Clarke's HAL talks and behaves distinctively like a person, it shows efforts for self-preservation and even subdued fear. But Clarke doesn't go into details about it unlike his contemporary, Isaac Asimov. It holds imperative that we review our understanding and ethics about treating other forms of consciousness, robots, computers and even animals in a better and compassionate way.
It is rather a hard-science fiction novel, relying almost exclusively on pure scientific facts and inferences, and almost negligibly on unrealistic speculations. His description of space travel, the environment aboard the ship, interactions and relationships of the crew; are satisfying.
Clarke is a master at weaving dark, haunting atmospheres which always show his cynicism and impart fear and thrill into reader's mind. He succeeds superbly at it, while describing the anxiety, fear, stress and agony of the crew whose characters are otherwise, at best, a little more than single-layered caricatures.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2018
A slow moving plot, the last 50 or so pages we get some results and some 'action', so to speak. However, HAL 9000 doesn't turn renegade as in 2001, as the sentient AI has been handicapped after the events of the first novel. In fact, the book is quite boring as no one ends up being killed and nothing much seems to go wrong, and in effect it just speculative Sci-Fi about Alien intellegences (this time on one of Jupiters moon - Europa). But the plant/hybrid intellegence does destroy a Chinese mission to try and get to the Discovery - the spacecraft featured in 2001 before the joint Russian/American venture to find out what happened to David Bowman and the renegade HAL 9000. It was ok as a read, not one of the better Arthur C Clarke books I have read, and some aspects of it - like Jupiter turning in a Sun at the end of the book (Bowmans being/spirit visits one of the joint venture crewpersons to warn them to leave the Jovian system before Jupiter goes kind of supernova from the Monolith they find that is millennia years old) was umm, quite boring. I digress. Short book and hence a short review, and ok to pass the time, but nothing really struck me as genius compared to Clarkes other works. It was average. I may or may not pick up the last two books in this series. Depends on how I feel. Unimpressed to be honest. 3 stars.
July 31, 2023
Bardzo polecam, bardzo astralne doświadczenie, super koncepty naukowe i kosmiczne i mózgowybuchające ich futurystyczne rozwinięcie, 2010 miało bardziej fabułę w której... coś się dzieje, a 2001 było bardziej konceptowo szalone i pokazało tyyyyle różnych perspektyw (i ludzkich i czasowych), a tutaj były tylko 2, z czego 1 tylko chwilę i mimo że mega mi się podobało backstory Bowmana i cała Zagadka (i to jak skończyła!!!) to w porównaniu do pierwszej części no muszę jakoś zaznaczyć, że byłam mniej oczarowana, a bardziej poprostu... zwyczajne fajnie wciągnięta w akcję👍👍 Ale ogólnie kocham odyseję kosmiczną, a ZWŁASZCZA NARRATORA KRYSTYNĘ CZUBÓWNĘ❤️
April 3, 2025
Not exactly sure why it took 50 years to read this book. I did because I saw the movie again for the first time since1968, and—in discussing my unchanged dislike of the movie with another on the Intertubes—said that no one who saw Kubrick without reading the novel first would have a clue what was happening. My correspondent claimed this sequel also helped, though obviously it didn’t help those of us who saw the movie in its first theatrical release (I might have seen it on Kwajalein).
Perhaps. But I still hate Kubrick for ruining a wonderful idea (from a distasteful man). The first “Dawn of Man” actually works in the movie. It starts going sideways from there, with Kubrick’s devotion to Johann Strauss (not, mind you, Richard) eradicating any plot. At the end of segment two, you don’t actually know what happened (and aren’t told until the end of segment 3, the longest of the 4). And Kubrick never explains why HAL goes nuts—perhaps the most interesting plot point.
Because this is supposed to be a review of the book 2010, I offer that it adds nothing you didn’t learn from the distasteful author’s first book in this series, that he has no idea how to draw women characters, except (seemingly) with the personality of young boys (distasteful again), and that in many ways this sequel subtracts from the story original, which ended with (without looking it up) “For he was master of the world and he did not know what next to do.
But he would think of something.”
If this crappy sequel is all he could think of, avoid it.
Perhaps. But I still hate Kubrick for ruining a wonderful idea (from a distasteful man). The first “Dawn of Man” actually works in the movie. It starts going sideways from there, with Kubrick’s devotion to Johann Strauss (not, mind you, Richard) eradicating any plot. At the end of segment two, you don’t actually know what happened (and aren’t told until the end of segment 3, the longest of the 4). And Kubrick never explains why HAL goes nuts—perhaps the most interesting plot point.
Because this is supposed to be a review of the book 2010, I offer that it adds nothing you didn’t learn from the distasteful author’s first book in this series, that he has no idea how to draw women characters, except (seemingly) with the personality of young boys (distasteful again), and that in many ways this sequel subtracts from the story original, which ended with (without looking it up) “For he was master of the world and he did not know what next to do.
But he would think of something.”
If this crappy sequel is all he could think of, avoid it.
December 7, 2018
This novel is the direct continuation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and in difference between the book and the movie it surprisingly follows the later. The novel was nominated for Hugo Award in 1983.
The story starts were the previous book ends – there is a unknown alien artifact on a moon of Jupiter and one human already assessed it, vanishing from our space-time. Now a new mission is sent there. The mission uses Soviet ship Leonov and a joint USSR-USA team to get to the earlier ship and to the artifact. It is interesting to note that the ship captain is a woman – it isn’t the first instant, but nevertheless quite unusual for the early 80s SF. This ship is not the only one – Chinese also try to get there (again, quite prophetic, for in 1980 China almost twice as poor as India and more than 10 times poorer than Brazil).
The astronaut David Bowman returns is a ‘spirit’ form to Earth. New alien life forms discovered. HAL 9000 is resurrected. A little of science stuff about orbital mechanics, physics, etc.
Overall an interesting fast read, which cares more about the plot than characters’ development.
The story starts were the previous book ends – there is a unknown alien artifact on a moon of Jupiter and one human already assessed it, vanishing from our space-time. Now a new mission is sent there. The mission uses Soviet ship Leonov and a joint USSR-USA team to get to the earlier ship and to the artifact. It is interesting to note that the ship captain is a woman – it isn’t the first instant, but nevertheless quite unusual for the early 80s SF. This ship is not the only one – Chinese also try to get there (again, quite prophetic, for in 1980 China almost twice as poor as India and more than 10 times poorer than Brazil).
The astronaut David Bowman returns is a ‘spirit’ form to Earth. New alien life forms discovered. HAL 9000 is resurrected. A little of science stuff about orbital mechanics, physics, etc.
Overall an interesting fast read, which cares more about the plot than characters’ development.
February 22, 2022
The first time I read 2010 was around 1987. I know this because that was the year that 2061: Odyssey Three was published in hardcover, and upon finishing 2010, I raced out and bought the new hardcover to read next.
1987 was the time when I began a serious deep dive into science fiction, and reading in general for that matter. I was just out of a relationship that stopped just short of the altar, and my beloved grandparents had just passed away. Reading became an escape for me (it still is, whether things are good or otherwise), and after a colleague had turned me onto a couple of sci-fi favourites, I was severely hooked on the sense of wonderment that the genre could promise.
This series stands out as one of those, and one of my retirement plans was to revisit it. 2001: A Space Odyssey lost nothing over 40 years for me. The sense of wonderment was there in living colour, and I understood the book and movie much better than I had before.
Ditto for 2010. Something I found interesting, but had forgotten about, was the forward where Clarke explains that this book was a sequel to the movie, rather than his novel. Therefore, Saturn was out of the picture. This installment of the series focuses primarily on Jupiter, which now, is something that really enhances the story for me.
You see, I'm a bit obsessed with Jupiter. Always have been. But when the Juno spacecraft sent back mind-blowing photos of the gas giant a few years ago, I became a lot obsessed with it.
Arthur C. Clarke's vision of Jupiter's clouds and storms is of course dated, being 1982 when he wrote this, but despite that, the imagery and imagination he portrays here was something that easily fell in mind with what we now know about it. It's unfortunate that he is no longer with us. I can only imagine the picture he could paint with what those incredible photos show. Regardless, he paints some amazing pictures.
This is what I love about Clarke. I read sci-fi, as I mentioned for a sense of wonderment. But, there are authors out there who are so overly descriptive that it's difficult to get the scope and imagery in your mind before you glaze over. Clarke always had a gift of descriptiveness with a relative economy of words, and would use perfect analogies
that paints a perfect picture and a sense of awe. There have been many nights while in a Clarke novel that I have lain awake visualizing his scenes, particularly from this series and of course, Rendezvous With Rama.
There are still many books of his I haven't read. I have read all of his best, probably, but I believe I will dip into more of his stuff.
But, they will have to wait for my re-read of 2061!
Five stars for the second time.
1987 was the time when I began a serious deep dive into science fiction, and reading in general for that matter. I was just out of a relationship that stopped just short of the altar, and my beloved grandparents had just passed away. Reading became an escape for me (it still is, whether things are good or otherwise), and after a colleague had turned me onto a couple of sci-fi favourites, I was severely hooked on the sense of wonderment that the genre could promise.
This series stands out as one of those, and one of my retirement plans was to revisit it. 2001: A Space Odyssey lost nothing over 40 years for me. The sense of wonderment was there in living colour, and I understood the book and movie much better than I had before.
Ditto for 2010. Something I found interesting, but had forgotten about, was the forward where Clarke explains that this book was a sequel to the movie, rather than his novel. Therefore, Saturn was out of the picture. This installment of the series focuses primarily on Jupiter, which now, is something that really enhances the story for me.
You see, I'm a bit obsessed with Jupiter. Always have been. But when the Juno spacecraft sent back mind-blowing photos of the gas giant a few years ago, I became a lot obsessed with it.
Arthur C. Clarke's vision of Jupiter's clouds and storms is of course dated, being 1982 when he wrote this, but despite that, the imagery and imagination he portrays here was something that easily fell in mind with what we now know about it. It's unfortunate that he is no longer with us. I can only imagine the picture he could paint with what those incredible photos show. Regardless, he paints some amazing pictures.
This is what I love about Clarke. I read sci-fi, as I mentioned for a sense of wonderment. But, there are authors out there who are so overly descriptive that it's difficult to get the scope and imagery in your mind before you glaze over. Clarke always had a gift of descriptiveness with a relative economy of words, and would use perfect analogies
that paints a perfect picture and a sense of awe. There have been many nights while in a Clarke novel that I have lain awake visualizing his scenes, particularly from this series and of course, Rendezvous With Rama.
There are still many books of his I haven't read. I have read all of his best, probably, but I believe I will dip into more of his stuff.
But, they will have to wait for my re-read of 2061!
Five stars for the second time.
September 5, 2016
3.75 stars
I liked this sequel way more than I thought I was going to. 2001 is such a staple of pop culture and most people have at least heard of the movie but I've never heard anyone talk about the sequels to the book. For me, the first book was slightly better. I liked the body of the story of the first book a bit more but I liked the last few chapters of this book and the ending more than I liked the ending of the last book.I also liked that in this book the cast of characters was bigger. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters of the first book, but I loved the way the many people who were in this book interacted.
I think the ending of the first book is known for being a little confusing and hard to understand what was going on, even in the movie, I did find that I could follow the plot of this book more easily. I thought the plot of this book was very good, much better than what I expected. I went into this book thinking that I would read this book but not read the last to book in the series but this book may have made me change my mind, which I see as being a good thing. I thought this book connected nicely to the first book with trying to explain some of the more confusing parts of the last book . There were some weird moments in this book, though. In the first couple of chapters, the book introduced another AI just like HAL 9000 called SAL 9000. I thought this other AI would play a bigger role but it never showed back up. Some plot things like that tripped me up a bit but overall I really enjoyed it. A was pleasantly surprised by this sequel.
In other news, this is the book that completes my 2016 reading challenge! This is my first year doing the challenge and I really liked doing it. I was a good way to try to get myself motivated to incorporate more time for reading into my life even when I am busy with other things like school. I definitely want to participate in more reading challenges in the coming years because this was very fun. I am excited to see how many more books I can read in 2016
I liked this sequel way more than I thought I was going to. 2001 is such a staple of pop culture and most people have at least heard of the movie but I've never heard anyone talk about the sequels to the book. For me, the first book was slightly better. I liked the body of the story of the first book a bit more but I liked the last few chapters of this book and the ending more than I liked the ending of the last book.I also liked that in this book the cast of characters was bigger. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters of the first book, but I loved the way the many people who were in this book interacted.
I think the ending of the first book is known for being a little confusing and hard to understand what was going on, even in the movie, I did find that I could follow the plot of this book more easily. I thought the plot of this book was very good, much better than what I expected. I went into this book thinking that I would read this book but not read the last to book in the series but this book may have made me change my mind, which I see as being a good thing. I thought this book connected nicely to the first book with trying to explain some of the more confusing parts of the last book . There were some weird moments in this book, though. In the first couple of chapters, the book introduced another AI just like HAL 9000 called SAL 9000. I thought this other AI would play a bigger role but it never showed back up. Some plot things like that tripped me up a bit but overall I really enjoyed it. A was pleasantly surprised by this sequel.
In other news, this is the book that completes my 2016 reading challenge! This is my first year doing the challenge and I really liked doing it. I was a good way to try to get myself motivated to incorporate more time for reading into my life even when I am busy with other things like school. I definitely want to participate in more reading challenges in the coming years because this was very fun. I am excited to see how many more books I can read in 2016
May 26, 2017
"Çok uzun zaman önce bu deneye başlamış olanlar insan ya da ona benzer bir canlı değillerdi. Ancak etten ve kandandılar ve uzayın derinliklerine baktıklarında korkuyla karışık bir saygı, merak ve yalnızlık hissetmişlerde. Güç elde eder etmez de, yıldızlara doğru yolculuk etmeye başlamışlardı.
Araştırma sırasında, çok çeşitli yaşam türleri ile karşılaşmışlardı ve binlerce gezegenin evrim süreçlerini izlemişlerdi. Kozmik gecede ilk zeka pırıltılarının ne sıklıkta parıldayıp söndüğünü görmüşlerdi.
Tüm Galakside, "bilinç"ten daha değerli bir şey bulamadıklarından, onun her yerde doğması için çaba gösterdiler. Yıldız tarlalarının çiftçileri oldular; ektiler, bazen de biçtiler.
Bazen de soğukkanlılıkla zararlı otları ayıkladılar."
Araştırma sırasında, çok çeşitli yaşam türleri ile karşılaşmışlardı ve binlerce gezegenin evrim süreçlerini izlemişlerdi. Kozmik gecede ilk zeka pırıltılarının ne sıklıkta parıldayıp söndüğünü görmüşlerdi.
Tüm Galakside, "bilinç"ten daha değerli bir şey bulamadıklarından, onun her yerde doğması için çaba gösterdiler. Yıldız tarlalarının çiftçileri oldular; ektiler, bazen de biçtiler.
Bazen de soğukkanlılıkla zararlı otları ayıkladılar."
October 3, 2018
One of the best yet thought provoking lines in this book is "In all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed. "
I enjoyed this book very much. This book tells the story about how intelligent life seem to foster the life on any planets or place, how would the civilization develop, what is the evolution trends that Earthlings and their technology would have to follow now.
And another thing, the facts used about the planets and the technology follows the past research and development and this is somewhat accurate book.
I enjoyed this book very much. This book tells the story about how intelligent life seem to foster the life on any planets or place, how would the civilization develop, what is the evolution trends that Earthlings and their technology would have to follow now.
And another thing, the facts used about the planets and the technology follows the past research and development and this is somewhat accurate book.
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