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Product: Book
ISBN-10: 0-451-45799-4
ISBN-13: 9780451457998
Publisher: Roc
Country:
Year: September 1, 2000
Size: 10.41 x 17.02 x 3.05cm
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 159gr
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN-10: 0-451-45799-4
ISBN-13: 9780451457998
Publisher: Roc
Country:
Year: September 1, 2000
Size: 10.41 x 17.02 x 3.05cm
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 159gr
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
editions
Arthur C. Clarke
G. K. Hall & Company; 1994
Hardcover
Arthur C. Clarke, Dick Hill (reader)
Brilliance Audio Unabridged; 2000
Audio Cassette
13.) 2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke, Dick Hill (narrator)
Brilliance Audio; 2000
Audio Cassette
16.) 2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke, Dick Hill (reader)
CD Unabridged Library Edition; 2000
Audio CD
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Product Description
2001: A Space Odyssey is the classic science fiction novel that changed the way we looked at the stars and ourselves … 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired what is perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made- brilliantly imagined by the late Stanley Kubrick … 2001 is finally here … »Dazzling … wrenching, eerie, a mind-bender.«-Time »Full of poetry, scientific imagination and typically wry Clarke wit. By standing the universe on its head, he makes us see the ordinary universe in a different light … a complex allegory about the history of the world.«-The New Yorker »Brain-boggling.« –Life »Clark has constructed an effective work of fiction … with the meticulous creation of an extraterrestrial environment … Mr. Clark is a master.«--Library Journal »Breathtaking.«-Saturday Review
2001: A Space Odyssey is the classic science fiction novel that changed the way we looked at the stars and ourselves … 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired what is perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made- brilliantly imagined by the late Stanley Kubrick … 2001 is finally here … »Dazzling … wrenching, eerie, a mind-bender.«-Time »Full of poetry, scientific imagination and typically wry Clarke wit. By standing the universe on its head, he makes us see the ordinary universe in a different light … a complex allegory about the history of the world.«-The New Yorker »Brain-boggling.« –Life »Clark has constructed an effective work of fiction … with the meticulous creation of an extraterrestrial environment … Mr. Clark is a master.«--Library Journal »Breathtaking.«-Saturday Review
Amazon.com Review
When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing, after it's unearthed the artifact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self-aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well. He is capable of guilt, neurosis, even murder, and he controls every single one of Discovery's components. The crew must overthrow this digital psychotic if they hope to make their rendezvous with the entities that are responsible not just for the monolith, but maybe even for human civilization.
When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing, after it's unearthed the artifact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self-aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well. He is capable of guilt, neurosis, even murder, and he controls every single one of Discovery's components. The crew must overthrow this digital psychotic if they hope to make their rendezvous with the entities that are responsible not just for the monolith, but maybe even for human civilization.
Clarke wrote this novel while Stanley Kubrick created the film, the two collaborating on both projects. The novel is much more detailed and intimate, and definitely easier to comprehend. Even though history has disproved its »predictions,« it's still loaded with exciting and awe-inspiring science fiction. --Brooks Peck
reviews
Very Good 
My husband had watched to movie at least three thousand times, so I bought him the book. He liked it.
My husband had watched to movie at least three thousand times, so I bought him the book. He liked it.
The book that started it all
The most realistic depiction of space travel I have ever seen or read (if you don't count the NASA documentaries). The incredible meets the mundane every day. It isn't better than the movie, but neither is it worse. Personally, I prefer it to the movie because Clarke can actually explain to you what is happening during Bowman's transformation, whereas in the film you are stuck with some crazy surrealism and a guess as to what has become of Bowman.
The most realistic depiction of space travel I have ever seen or read (if you don't count the NASA documentaries). The incredible meets the mundane every day. It isn't better than the movie, but neither is it worse. Personally, I prefer it to the movie because Clarke can actually explain to you what is happening during Bowman's transformation, whereas in the film you are stuck with some crazy surrealism and a guess as to what has become of Bowman.
Really 4.5 Stars –- A Classic for Science Fiction [62] 
Between 1964 to 1968, Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick collaborated to make the great science fiction novel. Much to his genius or credit, Kubrick asked that Clarke not write a screenplay. Clarke later noted that Kubrick and he agreed with John Fowles who put it very well: »Any novelist who has written scripts knows the appalling restrictions- obligatory detailing of the unnecessary-the cinema imposes. Writing a novel is like swimming in the sea; writing a film script is thrashing through treacle.« So in a matter of months, Clarke remembers, » … before embarking on the drudgery of the script, we let our imaginations soar freely by developing the story in the form of a complete novel.« And what a novel indeed. Full of detail and vast imagination, the book delivers a script/novel which completes for this reader what the movie could not. The perplexities of the black obelisk, the strange concept of the same, the black hole or similarly obscure convergence between Dave and »it«, and HAL's nervous breakdown all make sense in the book. Laden with symbolism (as much even as Kubrick's film), one could easily become confused of the purpose of the book. But, unlike the movie, this is not minimalist. The writer explains most of the major concepts. And, not until the end, does the ET's unique personality become less rationalized or explained. It simply is … »it.« And, from that description, the reader, like the movie goer, will have to use his or her own imagination to conclude the story – or read any of the remaining THREE novels of the 4-novel trilogy. The key to the revelation is the inner voice of Dave – through his contemplation of things happening to him or about him. Dave logically synthesizes these events and digests them in simple laymen terms to the reader. Although other times there are complicated mathematical or physical science interludes, Dave's voice is the one to reason, to make the reader best understand the world which no man ever would contemplate or maybe would never understand. This is a great science fiction novel. It is a very good novel. It was a lot of fun.
Between 1964 to 1968, Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick collaborated to make the great science fiction novel. Much to his genius or credit, Kubrick asked that Clarke not write a screenplay. Clarke later noted that Kubrick and he agreed with John Fowles who put it very well: »Any novelist who has written scripts knows the appalling restrictions- obligatory detailing of the unnecessary-the cinema imposes. Writing a novel is like swimming in the sea; writing a film script is thrashing through treacle.« So in a matter of months, Clarke remembers, » … before embarking on the drudgery of the script, we let our imaginations soar freely by developing the story in the form of a complete novel.« And what a novel indeed. Full of detail and vast imagination, the book delivers a script/novel which completes for this reader what the movie could not. The perplexities of the black obelisk, the strange concept of the same, the black hole or similarly obscure convergence between Dave and »it«, and HAL's nervous breakdown all make sense in the book. Laden with symbolism (as much even as Kubrick's film), one could easily become confused of the purpose of the book. But, unlike the movie, this is not minimalist. The writer explains most of the major concepts. And, not until the end, does the ET's unique personality become less rationalized or explained. It simply is … »it.« And, from that description, the reader, like the movie goer, will have to use his or her own imagination to conclude the story – or read any of the remaining THREE novels of the 4-novel trilogy. The key to the revelation is the inner voice of Dave – through his contemplation of things happening to him or about him. Dave logically synthesizes these events and digests them in simple laymen terms to the reader. Although other times there are complicated mathematical or physical science interludes, Dave's voice is the one to reason, to make the reader best understand the world which no man ever would contemplate or maybe would never understand. This is a great science fiction novel. It is a very good novel. It was a lot of fun.
In comparison to the film … 
I should say at the beginning that I do prefer the film to this. Clark envisions this narrative as a sort of Homeric epic across space, one that is ultimately rooted in humanity's evolutionary progress. HAL becomes a simple blot on the way to these ends, an offshoot of humanity's ability to give cognizance to a machine that resembles human logic freed from human needs and emotions. The ET force with a power to shape reality and to warp in time is only fully explored at the end, when Bowman becomes a star-child and theoretically melds with this ET force thought to be remote from all human settlments. It also relies heavily on the fact that one has seen the film to give it visual juice, which diminishes greatly from the book's impact. Compare this to the film: a visual tour-de-force; a world that, at the time, was unfamiliar and exciting (and still is, in many ways); reality being fought for by several forces (HAL, the humans within, and the ET forces just to name three); a celebration of the unknown possibilities out there, while in the book there is a stupidly cold ending that tries to explain the purpose of Bowman's journey to the Japetus stargate. The film gave us a version of what space was supposed to, at least to the human imagination, look like at the time and has since become a reference point. The book can only palely copy that lead –- I think it is one of the few times when I prefer the film to the book. The playing down of the reality blurring, as well, particularly with HAL, really takes away from what makes the film so special to my mind. I find this one still worth reading, if only to remind one of and sharpen the impact of Kubrick's rightfully celebrated film. I suppose that would be the danger of writing a book based on a film script.
I should say at the beginning that I do prefer the film to this. Clark envisions this narrative as a sort of Homeric epic across space, one that is ultimately rooted in humanity's evolutionary progress. HAL becomes a simple blot on the way to these ends, an offshoot of humanity's ability to give cognizance to a machine that resembles human logic freed from human needs and emotions. The ET force with a power to shape reality and to warp in time is only fully explored at the end, when Bowman becomes a star-child and theoretically melds with this ET force thought to be remote from all human settlments. It also relies heavily on the fact that one has seen the film to give it visual juice, which diminishes greatly from the book's impact. Compare this to the film: a visual tour-de-force; a world that, at the time, was unfamiliar and exciting (and still is, in many ways); reality being fought for by several forces (HAL, the humans within, and the ET forces just to name three); a celebration of the unknown possibilities out there, while in the book there is a stupidly cold ending that tries to explain the purpose of Bowman's journey to the Japetus stargate. The film gave us a version of what space was supposed to, at least to the human imagination, look like at the time and has since become a reference point. The book can only palely copy that lead –- I think it is one of the few times when I prefer the film to the book. The playing down of the reality blurring, as well, particularly with HAL, really takes away from what makes the film so special to my mind. I find this one still worth reading, if only to remind one of and sharpen the impact of Kubrick's rightfully celebrated film. I suppose that would be the danger of writing a book based on a film script.
2001: A Space Odyssey
This is a gift but it came very promptly. And it was exactly what I ordered.
This is a gift but it came very promptly. And it was exactly what I ordered.
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last update: 3/21/2010
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