Rating: 
Summary: Not Great, Not Bad, Just Different
Review: When I say Odyssey 3 is different than the first 2 books, I mean different. This book reads more like a Mark Twain travel journal than another Space Odyssey. Honestly, Clarke has nailed this new style down completely, and 2061 is an old-fashioned romp through the solar system in a metal stagecoach. Space has become a playground for the rich and famous, as seen when mankind first lands on Halley's Comet - aboard a luxury liner full of actors and composers! They are subsequently forced into an emergency search and rescue mission on Europa, and the required encounter with the monolith jumps in. However, this time around the alien encounter seems like an afterthought, and the book ends right when it seems to get started. The startling discovery this time around just isn't that startling.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best In The Series!
Review: The year is 2061, and the economy is truly global. Aerospace companies offer cruises to exotic destinations and Floyd is on one that will take him right to Halley's Comet! Floyd is now towards the end of his life but is in for one more adventure that will leave his grandson strandon the forbidden Europa. This is a great book full of action, adventure, and enigmas that leaves you hoping for such a hypothetical future.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As Either Prequel, But It Works
Review: 2061 is the third book of the odyssey series, and it doesn't live up to the previous two, but those are tough acts to follow. 2061 is decent, lively science fiction suceeding 2010, and picks up 51 years after the story. We catch up with Heywood Floyd, age 103, who has been exiled to space because of a fall on Earth. Floyd has been selected to go on a mission to land on Halley's Comet. The mission just begins to get interesting as the team is pulled out to rescue another ship which has crash landed on Europa, the forbidden planet. The things that bring this book down are the fact that Hal and Bowman only have a cameo appearance. When the rescue attempt itself is mounted, there is no fighting from either being. This book is slower than 2010 and does not have the same feeling of adventure and excitement that the others had. There is an explanation about the strange Mt. Zeus near the end, but what about the lights on Halley's? That could have been really interesting. Overall, this book manages to stay a fine sequel to 2010, definitely not better, but not as bad as some of the other reviewers say it is.
Rating: 
Summary: this book is really bad
Review: I was thoroughly dissappointed by this book. This is one of those books where you keep reading it because you think any minute somehting might happen but let me save you some trouble. Nothing ever happens. OK Ill give away the whole climax. They find a huge diamond the size of a mountain on europa! I read the last few pages of this book on a bus and when I was done I just threw the damn book out of the window for the next sucker. Did I mention this book is bad? Arthur C Clarke usually has a mystical visionary element in his books. I think when he wrote this book he just wanted some extra cash or something because its very shallow unlke say, Childhood's End.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened?
Review: I bought this books at the same time I bought "Childhood's End", "2010: Odyssey Two" and "Rendezvous with Rama", having read these three pieces straight, one per day, and being left with a sense of absolute wonder at the pondering the brilliant mind of Mr. Clarke makes us travel through, I was expecting to read this book uner the same vein. Unfortunately, that did not happen, at least for me. (Note that just because one does not like something, does not mean the object in question is bad) 2061, has nothing new to offer to the series, and although we have a chance to take a look at what's going on in Europa, you could skip this book and wouldn't miss any vital information. As a matter of fact, at the end of the book I was so uninterested at the situation, that I no longer remember the ending. If you, just like I used to, think that you need to read this book in order to understand 3001, just as you need to read 2010 to understand 2061 and 2001 to realise what's going on in 2010, the truth is that you don't have to. Of course, someone out there might like this book, just like some of the reviews below show, so, give it a try, you might like it after all.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing important
Review: You can read this book if you like, but I wouldn't recommend it. I think that the series should have ended with 2010, because it had the perfect open-ended way of finishing the series, and everything that had to be explained was explained but also something was left for the imagination of the readers. As a stand alone book, 2061 really isn't that bad, but as a part of the Odyssey series there is nothing really in it.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book in the 2001 saga.
Review: Arthur C. Clarke at last reveals how the fates of Dave Bowman, Hal, and Dr. Heywood Floyd are tied to the Monolith in 2061; Odyssey Three, a thrilling book that brings the story full circle and ends. This is a very easy to read novel full of scientific explanations that a non-scientist could understand. Would make a great movie if MGM secured the film rights and did it with as much care to detail as 2001 and 2010 were filmed.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing special.
Review: This book wasn't anything special. Personally I didn't see its purpose. Its plot was meaningless. We had to read an entire book just to understand that the monolith is only a tool. I didn't see why Clarke wrote this.
Rating:
Summary: 2061 -- not a timeless masterpiece
Review: This third book of the series is fairly bad. The characters were two dimensional--if they got in trouble, I didn't even care whether they would survive. The way Clarke returned some of the characters from 2001/2010 is contrived at best. The biggest disappoint with 2061 is that Clarke chose to project political intrigue going on when he wrote it some 75 years into the future, as had been done on a shorter timeframe with 2010. The trouble is that he chose something that was a transient issue. Having done this, the plot builds (with no excitement) to an absolutely silly and preposterous ending. I suggest skipping it altogether. Just say to yourself, "What with one thing and another, the oblisk arranged for some of the old characters to be around for the next book" -- and then jump to 3001. (I don't think that counts as a spoiler since that information is on the back covers of 2061 and 3001.)
Rating:
Summary: Good, Not Great
Review: This book is not at all bad, but it pales in comparison to the two great novels (two of the best of all-time) that preceded it. It is a fairly interesting book, but does little to advance the Odyssey series. Actually, the best part of the book is the first half, where a landing is made on Haley's Comet. Sure, it has nothing to do with the rest of the book (or the series, for that matter), but it is undeniably cool. It almost makes you wish that Clarke has extended it to a different novel of it's own, outside the Odyssey series. About the only interesting development in this book as far as the series is concerned is that Heywood Floyd joins (or appears to join) Bowman and Hal in the monolith. However, this fact is contradicted in 3001, so one could actually read 2001 and 2010 and skip over this book to 3001 and lose nothing as far as continuity was concerned. If indeed, one felt the need to do that. Read this is you are a fan of the series, but don't start here.
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