2001 A Space Odyssey

Rating:
Summary: Quite simply the BEST book I have ever read!
Review: Having done the obvious thing and read the Odyssey series in reverse order (from 3001 backwards) I can safely say that this book is simply the BEST book around.

3001 was quite bad, 2061 not much better, 2010, however, started to get quite good and 2001 was amazing.

ACC - you are a genius, but why oh why was 3001 so bad??

Rating:
Summary: The novel version of "2001" is a poor cousin of the film.
Review: The movie "2001 A Space Odyssey" doesn't play out like any ordinary film. The unique ideas of the story are told almost completely visually. The birth of intelligence in the apes, the vast emptiness of space, Bowman's bizarre journey, and the connection between the monoliths are shown to us, never narrated. No one tells us what is going on, the dialogue is merely an extra in the story. How then, does Arthur C. Clarke wish to put this into words? He defeated the whole idea. The best thing about the movie was Stanley Kubrick's unusual style. Besides giving Kubrick "The Sentinel" (which, by the way, is a fantastic story) and helping with scientific facts, Clarke should have left Kubrick's work alone.I haven't even gotten into some of the absurd parts of the book where, on more than one occasion, Clarke gives too much of the mystery away. The novel is no better than a companion piece to the movie. Only read it if you've seen the film and understand and appreciate the story.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: Definetly one of the greatest sci-fi books of all time. A. C. Clarke's masterpiece. Also a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: Without A Doubt-The BEST
Review: This book is what I expected, and more. You could never put it down, as if youre traveling through space by reading this book written in the best discriptions ever. If you are a true Science ficton fan, there is no way you can let this book pass you by.

Rating:
Summary: Unthinkable
Review: This Book is, in my opnion, the greatest Sci-Fi book ever written. If you want a book that you can never put down, buy 2001: A Space Odyssey

Rating:
Summary: comparable to Lord of the Flies
Review: This book shows (creatively) how the world might be in 2001. On the moon, archealogists have discovered a black monolith, but the US governement regards it as nothing serious to the press and examines it. The rock turns transparent and send a signal to one of Jupiter's moons! Two astronauts are sent off on a four-year journey to locate its destination. The ship's super computer goes mad, and that's where this gripping page turner really starts.

Rating:
Summary: HAL 9000: the artificial intelligence strikes back
Review: Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 is a mystic book which explains the possibility of e.t. intelligence in a very original way. Only a genius like Stanley Kubrick could transform it into an astonishing experience which I consider the greatest motion picture ever produced

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest books of all time
Review: I consider 2001: A Space Odyssey to be one of the greatest books of all time. It is not often in life that you come across a book which profoundly changes the way you think. Yet that was its effect on me when i first read it as a young teenager. I have re-read it many times since, and it is as inspirational and haunting each time. The book is sheer perfection.

Consider the time when it was written - at the dawn of the space race when travelling to the moon seemed scarcely possible, when computer technology was still rudimentary, when the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe was still largely a joke to the majority of the world population, before the field of artificial intelligence took off, when the details of space travel, space communications and other planets were still basic. For those of us born after this time, i don't believe we can ever accurately understand what it must have been like.

Consider the practical, realistic, scientific vision that 2001 provides. A breath-taking, awe-inspiring vision, that sweeps us along from primitive human life to what we are now and to what we may become. The issues that the book examines are as relevant and topical today as in the 1960s: the possibility of machine intelligence and the associated ethical dilemmas; the possibilities and problems of working with computers which provide crucial advice and make important decisions; the practical details of undertaking a long space voyage (the psychological impact on the travellers and their families back home, the communication difficulties, the vast amount of time to fill, the small crew each dependent upon the others, the lack of privacy, food and exercise, repairs and maintenance, loneliness and isolation); the possibility of different forms of existence; the possibility of first contact with other life forms; and the possibility of encountering the completely unknown.

The finale is mind-blowing... unsurpassable. Alone, isolated, at the frontier between the known and the unknown, terrified and exhilerated, after an epic, frightening journey. "Oh my God - its full of stars", is surely one of the most memorable lines ever written.

Rating:
Summary: An interpretation of the movie
Review: The problem with this book is that it interprets a lot of what YOU were left to interpret in the movie. So it is interesting but not mind provoking and much more close ended (like a story). If you are an SF fan then this is no different than many other books and it should be enjoyable, but if you were that person that really formed his/her conclusions on the movie, well this book will just sit there and disagree (or maybe agree) with you.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: The book started out with a definate goal and purpous but in the end, the novel seemed to just be wandering around with no real sense of direction.