2010: Odyssey Two (Space Odyssey #2)

by Arthur C. Clarke

Men knew better than they realized, when they placed the abode of the gods beyond the reach of gravity.

He became fully awake, and realized that his left hand was floating just a few centimeters in front of his eyes. How strange that the pattern of lines across the palm was so uncannily like the map of Europa! But economical Mother Nature was always repeating herself, on such vastly different scales as the swirl of milk stirred into coffee, the cloud lanes of a cyclonic storm, the arms of a spiral nebula.

He was beyond love and hate and desire and fear—but he had not forgotten them, and could still understand how they ruled the world of which he had once been part. Was that the purpose of the exercise? If so, for what ultimate goal? He had become a player in a game of gods, and must learn the rules as he went along.