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2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey #1)
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.
Paperback, 297 pages
Published
September 1st 2000
by Roc
(first published June 1968)
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João Sousa
This book is very well written, so I would say it is a "page turner". Sometimes I still pick it up just to read a chapter or two.
Tobias Taylor
Without question. I couldn't exist on Earth wondering at the possibility I had turned down.
Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
The book is always better than the film, but I'd never read 2001 before. What I didn't know, until reading the foreword, is that this novel was literally written in tandem with the film, with Clarke and Kubrick feeding each other ideas. At some points, however, filming overtook writing, or vice versa, and the two stories, though similar, split along two different paths.
After reading the book, the film becomes little more than a very well crafted container: It's pretty and neat to look at it, bu ...more
After reading the book, the film becomes little more than a very well crafted container: It's pretty and neat to look at it, bu ...more
Classic.
I read 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was a teenager and knew it was a very influential work of fiction because of the film and all the attention it had received. Still, though I found it very entertaining, I did not really get it.
Thirty years later, I have read it again, and though I may not completely get it the second time around, the more mature reader can better grasp the vision and message of the genius author. I especially enjoyed the many allusions to other works and found the re ...more
I read 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was a teenager and knew it was a very influential work of fiction because of the film and all the attention it had received. Still, though I found it very entertaining, I did not really get it.
Thirty years later, I have read it again, and though I may not completely get it the second time around, the more mature reader can better grasp the vision and message of the genius author. I especially enjoyed the many allusions to other works and found the re ...more
An alien artifact teaches a man-ape to use tools. Heywood Floyd goes to the moon to investigate a mysterious situation. Dave Bowman and his crewmates, most of them in cryogenic sleep, head toward Saturn....
Let me get my two big gripes out of the way first.
1. Arthur C. Clarke's characters are cardboard cutouts and largely interchangeable with one another.
2. Arthur C. Clarke's prose doesn't bring all the boys to the yard.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I enjoyed this book very much. Some o ...more
Let me get my two big gripes out of the way first.
1. Arthur C. Clarke's characters are cardboard cutouts and largely interchangeable with one another.
2. Arthur C. Clarke's prose doesn't bring all the boys to the yard.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I enjoyed this book very much. Some o ...more
When I first read this book as a teenager I hated it, I thought it was so dry and impenetrable. I loved the Kubrick movie for its weirdness though. Clearly I was not one of the brighter kids of my generation. Having said that while I like it very much on this reread I can see why I could not appreciate it in my teens. Clarke’s scientific expositions can be very detailed but I would not call them dry now because I find them quite fascinating. The fact that when you are on the moon Earth is the mo
...more
Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disc ...more
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disc ...more
Wow. This is really something. Forget what you think you know if you’ve seen the film.
This is surely a landmark piece of Science Fiction. Although Clarke divulges a lot more detail here than Kubrick incorporated into his film, the mystic aspect of space is still present. I also enjoyed learning more about the monoliths and their true nature and/or purpose.
For some reason I thought the opening sequence (the Dawn of Man) would be boring. It wasn’t. In fact, despite being much more comprehensive th ...more
This is surely a landmark piece of Science Fiction. Although Clarke divulges a lot more detail here than Kubrick incorporated into his film, the mystic aspect of space is still present. I also enjoyed learning more about the monoliths and their true nature and/or purpose.
For some reason I thought the opening sequence (the Dawn of Man) would be boring. It wasn’t. In fact, despite being much more comprehensive th ...more
Jan 02, 2016
Brendon Schrodinger
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
first-contact
Daah daaahh dah
DA DA!!!
boom boom boom boom boom
That's how the book starts. I swear. No lie. Then there is twenty pages of men in rubber suits called Oog and Ugg.
No, not really.
I'm like most people I guess (only in this regard) in that I saw the movie before the book. And it's a damn fine movie if you have some patience. It's beautiful and oh my god it's full of stars. So it's natural that the comparison is made between text and movie here. But, unusually, the book was written alongside the movi ...more
DA DA!!!
boom boom boom boom boom
That's how the book starts. I swear. No lie. Then there is twenty pages of men in rubber suits called Oog and Ugg.
No, not really.
I'm like most people I guess (only in this regard) in that I saw the movie before the book. And it's a damn fine movie if you have some patience. It's beautiful and oh my god it's full of stars. So it's natural that the comparison is made between text and movie here. But, unusually, the book was written alongside the movi ...more
4.5 Stars. The books of Arthur C. Clarke (at least the ten or so that I have read) have been consistently good and of very high quality. When I pick up one of his books, I can be confident that I won't be disappointed. This book is terrific and don't think that if you have seen the movie you know what is going to happen.
Posle čitanja jednog ovakvog remek-dela teško je naći prave reči koje bi iskazale divljenje koje osećam prema Arturu Klarku; čovek je pravi genijalac, vizionar, a na momente mi se činilo kao da nije sa ove planete.
Priznajem, oduvek sam bila fascinirana Svemirom. Kada sam bila mala, Mesec je za mene bio nešto najveličanstvenije što postoji. Svakakve ideje su mi se u to vreme motale po glavi, počev od toga da li neko živi na Mesecu, pa do toga šta bi bilo kad bi Mesec jednog dana pao na Zemlju?! Š ...more
Subversive, mysterious, incredible, mind-boggling, and ultimately hopeful, Arthur C. Clarke's "proverbial good science-fiction" novel--written concurrently with his and Stanley Kubrick's screenplay--is the ultimate trip into the universe and mankind's cycle of evolution. The apes of the first section evolve into spacefaring humankind, and then the protagonist, David Bowman, morphs into the Star Child, showcasing hope that from the darkness and the slime, this fragile human species might see beyo
...more
One of the few instances where the movie was better than the book, but not by much. The remarkable thing about this book is how it stands the test of time. The science, the technology, the language, the style, all fit into our modern view as if it was written last week. It was published in 1968, before men walked on the moon, before cell phones, before...well, almost everything we take for granted these days. It is science fiction at it's best.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
2001: A Space Odyssey: The perfect collaboration between book and film
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Arthur C. Clarke collaborated with Stanley Kubrick to produce the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in order to provide the basis for the brilliant film of the same name. So although the book can be considered the original work, Kubrick also had a role in its creation, and Clarke rewrote parts of the book to fit the screenplay as that took shape.
Readers and viewers will foreve ...more
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Arthur C. Clarke collaborated with Stanley Kubrick to produce the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in order to provide the basis for the brilliant film of the same name. So although the book can be considered the original work, Kubrick also had a role in its creation, and Clarke rewrote parts of the book to fit the screenplay as that took shape.
Readers and viewers will foreve ...more
The opening scene , a tribe of ape- men ,in Africa,finding a strange gyrating monolith .Another rock to these few primitives, at first.But after the light show,the tribe is fascinated.It teaches them how to make and use tools.Kill animals and prevent their own extinction. With an unlimited supply of food and not be dependent on plants and fruit ,for survival.Very rare during the long drought conditions(millions of years long).The human race might reach its destiny ,for better or worse ,after all
...more
3 – 3.5 stars
Another entry in my occasional forays into classic SF and I’d have to say this one was definitely a success. The Big Ideas in this one are sufficiently big and yet handled deftly enough that they don’t completely overshadow the story. The prose and characterisation, as I generally expect from ‘classic’ SF, were unexceptional (one might say ‘workmanlike’), but I didn’t find them to be off-putting as I often do when I try dipping into earlier examples of the genre where the ‘big idea’ ...more
Another entry in my occasional forays into classic SF and I’d have to say this one was definitely a success. The Big Ideas in this one are sufficiently big and yet handled deftly enough that they don’t completely overshadow the story. The prose and characterisation, as I generally expect from ‘classic’ SF, were unexceptional (one might say ‘workmanlike’), but I didn’t find them to be off-putting as I often do when I try dipping into earlier examples of the genre where the ‘big idea’ ...more
Dec 29, 2016
Lisa
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-books-to-read-before-you-die
Without doubt this is a science fiction classic, and an early example of a novel and a movie that are born at the same time, adding detail and nuance to each other by the makers’ consistent communication and reflection on the respective effects of different media on the end result.
It is an experiment on many different levels, and a very successful one. As a story, I found it interesting and compelling, especially the hilarious initial chapter on early humans and the reason for their development ...more
It is an experiment on many different levels, and a very successful one. As a story, I found it interesting and compelling, especially the hilarious initial chapter on early humans and the reason for their development ...more
Apr 03, 2013
Scarlet
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
Jill
Recommended to Scarlet by:
Samadrita
I did not expect a book on extra-terrestrial life to leave me thinking about the evolution of mankind.
You won't find any alien action here, no war-of-the-worlds scenario. Instead, 2001 is a book that relies on the sheer strength of ideas - which is what I believe good science-fiction should be about. All those intriguing what-if and maybe questions that can challenge your beliefs and change your perspective.
Maybe light is not the fastest medium there is. How do we know what lies buried on the mo ...more
You won't find any alien action here, no war-of-the-worlds scenario. Instead, 2001 is a book that relies on the sheer strength of ideas - which is what I believe good science-fiction should be about. All those intriguing what-if and maybe questions that can challenge your beliefs and change your perspective.
Maybe light is not the fastest medium there is. How do we know what lies buried on the mo ...more
Επιστημονική φαντασία σημαίνει Άρθουρ Κλαρκ (και Ισαάκ Ασίμοφ και Φίλιπ Ντικ). Ο συγγραφέας - επιστήμονας και ο ίδιος, έχει να επιδείξει πολλές επιστημονικές ανακαλύψεις από το 2ο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο και μετά (ήταν αεροπόρος της Βασιλικής Αεροπορίας, από αυτούς που πρωτο-ασχολήθηκαν με τα ραντάρ (βασικά που σκέφτηκε ότι μπορεί να υπάρξουν), σπούδασε φυσική και μαθηματικά, συνεργάστηκε με τη ΝΑΣΑ, για να τα παρατήσει όλα και να .... πάει στη Σρι Λάνκα όπου αφοσιώθηκε στη συγγραφή.
"Πίσω από κάθε πλά ...more
"Πίσω από κάθε πλά ...more
That was my first science fiction book. I am impressed. Arthur Clarke was a genius. Nice story, lot of scientific details and unexpected siutations.
The HAL 9000 of course is the view to the future of Clarke.
I will recommended to friends of science fiction stories and to all quality readers.
Now, I will try to find similar books..
The HAL 9000 of course is the view to the future of Clarke.
I will recommended to friends of science fiction stories and to all quality readers.
Now, I will try to find similar books..
I was listening to the radio a few weeks back, and I came across an interview with a film critic and historian who'd recently published a book of 1000 movies everyone should see before they die. The host of the program asked about this film and that, how the book was compiled, what the author's favorite movies were, things of that nature. And then he asked him what he thought the most overrated film of all time was, to which the author immediately replied "Citizen Kane."
And of course he is quite ...more
And of course he is quite ...more
Before the book or the movie, since they are looks into the future, allow me to recall Clarke's wishes when he turned 90 (yes,"90 orbits" completed round the sun): (1) evidence of extraterrestrial life to be found, (2) humanity to kick its addiction on oil, rather than clean energies, (3) a lasting peace to be reached in "his" divided Sri Lanka--his abode for 50 years.
How would he like to be remembered? [though he had many trades, I would say]
---as a writer, like Kipling.



I've watched a lot o ...more
How would he like to be remembered? [though he had many trades, I would say]
---as a writer, like Kipling.



I've watched a lot o ...more
I haven’t read much science fiction, but I’m continuously awed by how incredibly devoted it is to instruction. Most fiction seeks to entertain or to describe or to prod, either intellectually or emotionally. Science fiction, on the other hand, wants to educate. Its readers are learners, its authors teachers. And the class syllabus is vast: it covers subjects like the functioning of planetary orbits or astronaut behavior in zero gravity, yet I’m tempted to label this area of instruction as pedest
...more
-Arthur C. Clark is obsessed with exposition.
-He loves the idea of first contact with aliens to the point of sickness.
-He thinks that humans (who matter) are essentially rational technocrats, making their behavior both boring and puppet-like.
-The only female characters in this book were ape-men [sic] and two stewardesses.
-There were several pretty problematic passages, like the following:
"Yet already...the warmth and frequency of the conversations with their girls on Earth had begun to diminish ...more
-He loves the idea of first contact with aliens to the point of sickness.
-He thinks that humans (who matter) are essentially rational technocrats, making their behavior both boring and puppet-like.
-The only female characters in this book were ape-men [sic] and two stewardesses.
-There were several pretty problematic passages, like the following:
"Yet already...the warmth and frequency of the conversations with their girls on Earth had begun to diminish ...more
Unfortunately, most of the best bits in the movie aren't in the book. The first one I think of is the sequence where Bowman has finally arrived at Jupiter. In the book, it's Saturn, and the Monolith is in the moon Iapetus; this is clever, and from a scientific point of view a more plausible place to put it, but poetically is completely flat.
In the movie, we get this unforgettable picture of all the Jovian satellites majestically lining up to the strains of Thus Spake Zarathustra; every time I h ...more
In the movie, we get this unforgettable picture of all the Jovian satellites majestically lining up to the strains of Thus Spake Zarathustra; every time I h ...more
389. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
آرتور سی. کلارک، 2001 یک ادیسه فضایی
عنوان: راز کیهان؛ نوشته: آرتور سی کلارک؛ مترجم: هوشنگ غیاثی نژاد؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، پاسارگاد، چاپ دوم 1374؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی قرن 20 م
آرتور سی. کلارک، 2001 یک ادیسه فضایی
عنوان: راز کیهان؛ نوشته: آرتور سی کلارک؛ مترجم: هوشنگ غیاثی نژاد؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، پاسارگاد، چاپ دوم 1374؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی قرن 20 م
This novel and the film stem from the same original project. Initially, Kubrick and Clarke have been working together on the same story, and while Stanley Kubrick went on to make what is now his masterpiece (and one of the most amazing films in the history of cinema), Arthur C. Clarke wrote one of his most famous novels. The narratives in book and movie run parallel and so closely to one another, that, while re-reading the novel, I have found it almost impossible to dismiss the images from Kubri
...more
“The thing’s hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God!—it’s full of stars!”
This was more a story about the universe observing us than it was us observing the universe.
Moonwatcher the caveman, David Bowman the astronaut, the black, rectangular monolith from the unknown and of course, Hal 9000. 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the Science Fiction greats. There are some slow moments but over all the book had that great quality of taking my mind to unexplored regions delving into the amazing mysteri ...more
I have seen Stanley Kubrick's movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, a handful of times and I think it is an incredible film as will as a cinematic achievement. I still like Clarke's novel version of the story even more. Clarke's genius was in telling stories involving complex science and history altering events and telling it in a way that was easily understood. If you have only seen the movie, the book is even better. At least I think so.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Fantasy Book ...: 2001: A Space Odyssey | 4 | 11 | Mar 13, 2017 02:47PM | |
| Book Review Website | 1 | 4 | Mar 05, 2017 04:16PM | |
| Where to go from here? | 5 | 26 | Jan 27, 2017 08:24AM | |
| Arters AP Literat...: Sam Review | 3 | 6 | Jan 06, 2017 06:47AM | |
| Clube de Leitura ...: * [Discussão] 2001: Uma Odisseia no Espaço (Arthur C. Clarke) | 3 | 13 | Oct 30, 2016 08:08PM | |
| Science Fiction A...: * July 2016-First Contact-2001:A space odyssey | 14 | 33 | Jul 27, 2016 10:48AM |
Arthur C. Clarke was one of the most important and influential figures in 20th century science fiction. He spent the first half of his life in England, where he served in World War Two as a radar operator, before emigrating to Ceylon in 1956. He is best known for the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-created with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke was a graduate of King's Co ...more
More about Arthur C. Clarke...
Clarke was a graduate of King's Co ...more
Other Books in the Series
Space Odyssey
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“Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell.
How many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than Mars or Venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars.
Men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. Increasing numbers, however are asking; 'Why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'
Why not, indeed? Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. But please remember: this is only a work of fiction.
The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
—
197 likes
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell.
How many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than Mars or Venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars.
Men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. Increasing numbers, however are asking; 'Why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'
Why not, indeed? Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. But please remember: this is only a work of fiction.
The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
“The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.”
—
97 likes
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