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Summary: One of the best science fiction novels of all time
Review: If you like science fiction, this book should be high on your priority list.Widely regarded as a benchmark to all of science fiction, it is invigorating, visionary, thoughtful, symbolical, and, above all, mysterious and entertaining. If you liked the movie, people say you should also read the book, as there are snipets that the movie left out. An essential part of your science fiction collection, or, if you haven't read much science fiction, a good place to start.
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Summary: greatest novel known to man
Review: the part namend THE DAWN OF MAN change ones life read the book and thotsh the spirit of creation of human civiliation
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Summary: This Book was very spacy!
Review: This book wuz like not like very like good yakno! bla bla bla bla bla blablablablabalblabalblavlabalblablabla etc.....
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Summary: When Science Fiction transcends the genre
Review: 2001 is Mr Clarke at his best, with the added bonus of having Mr. Kubrick peeking over his shoudlers.What more could one want?? Forget we're so close to 2001.The issues treated in this wonderful book are still relevant, technically and philosophically.This book represents Science Fiction at its best, transcending genre. Just read it!!!!
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Summary: A Great Novel
Review: Clarke has written a wonderful novel
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Summary: Helpful in understanding the film.
Review: The book version of 2001 is a very useful tool in understanding the great but confusing film of the same name.
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Summary: The most interesting, mind-wrenching book ever!!!
Review: This book is SO great! I am very eager to read the rest of the series. This book is about a black, rectangular slab, about a mile high, called TMA-1(The Monolith Anomaly #1)which is discovered on the moon about 30 feet under. Earth sends a spaceship, called Discovery, which is supposed to investigate. But the two crew members, David Bowman and Frank Poole, don't know about it. They think they are supposed to rendevouz with the Discovery II while in hibernation. The only people who know anything about TMA-1 are three frozen hibernauts, and the computer that controls the ship, HAL 9000. But HAL starts malfunctioning, and Bowman and Poole want to disconnect HAL. And HAL, who knows this mission is most important, cannot let them do that. This adventure leads to Saturn's imaginary moon, Japetus, where the most mysterious things begin to happen.....But, i'm not going to tell you what happens, you'll just have to read the book. So hop aboard! Join Bowman and Poole, aboard Discovery, while the science-fiction mystery begins to unravel......Based on one of the most fantastic movies of all time, directed by Stanley Kubrick, director of Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut, 2001: A Space Odyssey will bend your mind and spark your imagination!
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Summary: A very good collaboration with Stanley Kubrick
Review: First, let me recommend watching the movie before reading the book. The book is much more powerful after you have tried to puzzle the meaning of the monolith for yourself. Then, if you did not understand the movie, or want clarification on certain points, this book is the place to turn. It answered my two main questions: "What did the story of HAL 9000 have to do with the story of the monolith?" and "What did the ending mean?" Unless you are a fan of the old school of "hard" science fiction, you'll probably be annoyed by Clarke's overly-expository writing style and obsessive devotion to scientific accuracy. This story was obviously written when the science was much more important than the fiction. At times, it reads like an astronomy textbook. But, in the end, all your questions from the movie will be answered. If you like the answers, you'll like the book. If you enjoyed "figuring out" the movie, the book will spoil the mystery for you. In the final analysis, this novel deserves high marks because without it the classic film would never have been made, or at least would have turned out much differently. In his companion book "The Lost Worlds of 2001," Clarke describes how the movie and novel were developed simultaneously with feedback in both directions. Clarke would write a chunk of the story, Kubrick would film it, then Clarke would revise what he had written to parallel the movie. Both Clarke and Kubrick wanted the movie and the novel to be viewed as one collaborative effort, even though there are some minor discrepancies between the two. The story was originally inspired by Clarke's much older short story "The Sentinel".
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Summary: CONFUSING BOOK JUMPS AROUND
Review: This book is definitely for sci-fi types only!!! I read it as a part of an assignment and hated it. While it does touch on the advances of technology and their lead to man's downfall, it falls short of having a steady plot that is easy to follow. The characters are not entirely described before you even find out who they are and where they are headed, or even what time period you're in!!!
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Summary: The greatest sci-fi book of all time. (forget the movie!)
Review: I suppose I came of age after Star Wars had transformed special effects far, far beyond 2001, but I've never been able to make it past the first forty minutes of the movie. I actually consider it the most deadly boring movie ever made, and see no need to afflict myself with it as long as Arthur C. Clarke has written a much more clear and interesting novel. So, those Gen X-ers like myself who can't appreciate the movie for nostalgia, which seems to be the only reason anybody likes it anymore: take heart, the book is actually readable! More than that, it's amazing. Any novel that can start in prehistoric Africa and end with a whole new path of evolution for humankind has got to have something to it. The entire tone of the novel portrays an air of mystery and intrigue, and the ideas and resolutions are fascinating and imaginative. And, just for clarification, this is *not* Clarke's interpretation of Kubrick's ambiguous 'genius' (ahem . . . ); Clarke and Kubrick wrote the storyline together, and Kubrick actually waited to finish the screenplay until Clarke had finished the novel. Perhaps we should call the movie Kubrick's juxtaposition of his own ambiguous nature upon Clarke's more definite ideas.
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