Title: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Genre: Science Fiction, Fiction, Classic
Pages: 297
Publication Date: 1968
StoryGraph* Moods: Adventurous, Mysterious, Reflective
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: SciFi/Fantasy Book Club
Other Books by Clarke: So Many
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.
I spent a lot of time looking forward to the year 2001 – but not because of a book or movie. That was the year I graduated high school – and I could not wait to for the next step of college. That year seems so long ago now, but here I am finding myself once again entrenched in it.
During my second year of graduate school, I had a Graduate Assistantship with the Film Studies department. Part of my duties included attending the classes, and therefore watching the films. (I’ll admit it hurt while watching Dirty Dancing and realizing most of those in the room had been born after the film’s release…) I remember distinctly when the professor showed 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’d never seen it before, but there were pop culture references I was at least aware of. Now I would understand more about where they came from.
I thought it was an odd film, and so I did appreciate the discussion that followed it. Most of which I don’t remember anymore. Because that was somehow almost twenty years ago?
Cut to now, and my SciFi/Fantasy book club read the book for our last meeting. I have to admit there’s a lot I didn’t know about how this film/book came into being. For one, I had always assumed Kubrick had based his movie on Clarke’s book. But that turns out to be not quite true. The idea for both the film and book was based on a few of Clarke’s short stories – the film and book were actually written in tandem. The differences between the two are a result of the book being written alongside an earlier draft of the script that was then revised (thus, the movie goes to Jupiter, and the book goes to Saturn). I have to be honest and say that I didn’t go into this book with high hopes – but there’s a reason it’s one of the best-selling SciFi books ever – well, many reasons. For me, the top reason is how well written it is. Some SciFi focuses more on story than craft – this did both.
Description: As an allegory, the book follows man’s evolution starting with our time as apes discovering tools. (If you’ve seen the movie, read the book – there’s so much more access to the thoughts of these ape-men. The monolith plays a much more interesting role, too.) The book jumps in time a couple times – first to a discovery on the moon, then on a voyage to Saturn. There are explorations of both human and technological evolution – some of which, looking at you HAL, feels a little too real at the present moment. We definitely aren’t ready to travel all the way to Saturn as the book predicts, but the AI stuff… [strained smile] I mean, are we anywhere near computers taking over? No, of course not. But AI is suddenly everywhere now.
I didn’t know at the time that this is actually a series – one of four, in fact, followed by 2010, 2061, and 3001. I’ve not read these yet, though most folks I’ve talked to that have read them all say that the next two are great, the fourth ‘meh’ (their word).
Why I recommend this book: The writing. Honestly, the prose is well done. Nicely detailed throughout. And the science is not at all hard to follow. (Andy Weir is still the master of this particular skill, but Clarke is up there with him.) But also, the insight into evolution and the questions is raises – namely, just because we can, should we? Last, if you have seen the movie, you need to read the book – it opens so much more of this world to you.
“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.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Ami Maxine 