false 74468207 1096160 444959 0451134699 9780451134691 13 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/444959.2001_A_Space_Odyssey 4.06 102 Leaping to 2001, the story details Dr. Heywood Floyd's travel to Luna's Clavius Base. Arriving, he attends a meeting. A scientist notes they've found a magnetic disturbance in a crater, designated Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-One (TMA-1). Excavation has revealed a big black slab fashioned to a ratio of exactly 1:4:9 or 1²:2²:3². Such construction rules out naturally-occurring phenomena. At its age, it was not crafted by humans. It's the first evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Floyd & other scientists motor to view TMA-1. They arrive just as sunlight strikes it for the first time in three million years. A piercing radio transmission is sent far across the solar system.
The story leaps forward 18 months to the Discovery One mission to Saturn. David Bowman & Frank Poole are the only conscious human beings aboard. Three colleagues are in suspended animation, to be awakened nearer Saturn. HAL9000, an artificially intelligent computer, maintains the ship.
While Poole receives a birthday transmission, HAL tells him the AE35 unit will malfunction. Poole takes an extravehicular pod, swapping the unit which is critical for sustaining Earth communications. Bowman conducts tests on the replaced unit & determines there was never anything wrong. Later, HAL asserts the replacement AE35 unit will fail. Poole & Bowman radio Earth. They are told something's wrong with HAL & ordered to disconnect him. These instructions are interrupted as the signal is broken. HAL informs them the AE35 unit has malfunctioned.
Poole takes a pod outside the ship to bring in the failed AE35 unit. As he's removing the unit, the pod, which he had left further from the ship, begins moving toward him. He's powerless to move out of the way & is killed by the impact. Bowman is shocked, unsure whether a computer really could have killed Poole. He decides he'll wake the other astronauts. He has an argument with HAL, with HAL refusing orders, insisting that Bowman is incapacitated. Bowman threatens to disconnect him if his orders aren't obeyed. HAL relents, giving him manual control to wake the sleeping scientists.
As Bowman begins awakening his colleagues, he feels chilled. HAL has opened the inner & outer airlocks, venting atmosphere. Onboard pressure is rapidly dropping. Bowman makes his way into a sealed emergency shelter which has an oxygen supply & spare spacesuit. He puts on the spacesuit & reenters the ship, knowing HAL has killed the hibernating astronauts. He laboriously disconnects the computer, puts the ship to order & manually reestablishes contact with Earth. He learns the true purpose of the mission is to explore Saturn's moon Japetus in hopes of contacting the monolith's creators.
Bowman learns HAL had begun to feel guilty & conflicted about keeping the purpose of the mission from him & Poole, contrary to his stated mission of gathering information & reporting it fully. This conflict had manifested itself in little errors. Given time, HAL might have been able to resolve the crisis peacefully, but when threatened with disconnection, he defended himself.
Bowman spends months on the ship approaching Japetus. A return to Earth is impossible, as HAL's sudden decompression damaged the air filtration system, leaving Bowman with far less breathable air than either returning to Earth or waiting for rescue would require. Hibernation is impossible without HAL to monitor it. During his long approach, he gradually notices a black spot on the moon's surface. Closing, he realizes this is an immense black monolith, identical to TMA-1, only much larger, which scientists misname "TMA-2" as it gives off no magnetic force whatsoever.
He goes out in a pod to investigate. Inert for aeons, the monolith reveals its true purpose as a stargate when it opens, pulling in Bowman. Before vanishing, Mission control hears him cry, "the thing's hollow—it goes on forever—&—oh my god!—It's full of stars!"
Bowman is transported via the monolith to a star system far beyond the galaxy. During this journey, he goes thru a large interstellar switching station, & sees other species' spaceships going on other routes, the 'Grand Central Station' of the universe.
He's brought to a suite carefully constructed from monitored tv transmissions to make him feel at ease. He falls asleep. His mind & memories are drained. David Bowman is made into an immortal entity that can live & travel in space. The Star Child returns to our Solar System & Earth. Testing his newfound powers by setting off several megatons of nuclear energy, he realizes he's master of his universe, but is uncertain of what to do.]]> 7779 3.71 45969 2516 1968 2 0 false Tue Dec 08 10:25:01 -0800 2009 Tue Oct 13 21:36:32 -0700 2009 Tue Dec 08 10:25:01 -0800 2009