Rating: 
Summary: Another Great One
Review: I think Clarke's 2061 stacks up well with the two preceding odysseys. I believe the plot was well-developed with its two separate, yet inevitably linked parts. The famous Dr. Heywood Floyd relaxes while on his way to rendezvous with Halley's Comet while his grandson sets his sights with Galaxy on his way to the forbidden landing satellite of Europa. With the beautiful twist of the force landing on the Jovian (now Luciferian) moon and the rescue mission that the Universe is then sentenced to, the suspense becomes great and the awe plentiful. Clarke's lucid description of the planets, moons, and new-found life are real, stunning, and exciting. The recurrence of the 'spirit' of Dave Bowman and the secret of the mysterious Monolith in a more subtle manner simply add to the essence of the well-formed plot. The characters come alive about their realistic struggles in the Space Age. Clarke is a remarkable author, and has proved once again his superiority with the wonders of Space in his third odyssey.
Rating: 
Summary: Lucy is here. I repeat Lucy is here.
Review: Before I read 2061, I read all the reviews of it here. And they made me believe that I was about to read a horrible, horrible book. But, since it is an Odyssey book, I figured "why not?" and I bought it used for 70 cents. 2061 is not a great book. It is no where near as good as 2010 or 2001. However, it is not a horrible book either. It probably seemed a lot better to me than it does for most, because I was planning on reading the worst book ever written. It tells the story of Heywood Floyd, who is now 103 years old, and other "celebrities" who go on a luxury "cruise" ship, the Universe, to Halley`s Comet. However, while they`re there, Galaxy, Universe`s sister ship, crashes onto the forbidden moon of Europa, who has suddenly seen the birth of a giant mountain.... While 2061 does not continue the story of monoliths and the Star Child as well as 2010 did, it has a fun story of its own. And don`t wait for the Dave Bowman or Hal to appear. We don`t actually see them until the very last chapter. The ending, in my opinion, was very well done. However, it sets you up for something great to happen, but, from what I`ve heard, only leads to dissapointment. What I don`t get about the book is that people on board Universe all remember the Star Wars movies, but no one remembers the Beatles, although the book itself will bring a nice, little grin to any Beatles fan reading it. Overall, I`d have to say that 2061 is a fun little book that is at least worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Typical downward spiral from Clarke
Review: This series is SOOOO typical of Clarke. He astounds us with a mind-blowing idea then, because of his inability to develop characters with which we can identify, he must rely on the original story or variations thereof. The same thing happens here. 2001 was a masterpiece of writing (and a cinematic jewel to boot). Then came the almost as good 2010. No novel characters were added, though, and we are stuck with the original plot only it's fifty years later. This might have been a good story if it had not tried to be a sequel...the story of the flight to the comet, the message from Dave, the rescue - these are all good in themselves IF - and this is a big if - there are interesting characters. There aren't and it fails in this respect.
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: Lucy is here. I repeat Lucy is here.
Review: Before I read 2061, I read all the reviews of it here. And they made me believe that I was about to read a horrible, horrible book. But, since it is an Odyssey book, I figured "why not?" and I bought it used for 70 cents. 2061 is not a great book. It is no where near as good as 2010 or 2001. However, it is not a horrible book either. It probably seemed a lot better to me than it does for most, because I was planning on reading the worst book ever written. It tells the story of Heywood Floyd, who is now 103 years old, and other "celebrities" who go on a luxury "cruise" ship, the Universe, to Halley`s Comet. However, while they`re there, Galaxy, Universe`s sister ship, crashes onto the forbidden moon of Europa, who has suddenly seen the birth of a giant mountain.... While 2061 does not continue the story of monoliths and the Star Child as well as 2010 did, it has a fun story of its own. And don`t wait for the Dave Bowman or Hal to appear. We don`t actually see them until the very last chapter. The ending, in my opinion, was very well done. However, it sets you up for something great to happen, but, from what I`ve heard, only leads to dissapointment. What I don`t get about the book is that people on board Universe all remember the Star Wars movies, but no one remembers the Beatles, although the book itself will bring a nice, little grin to any Beatles fan reading it. Overall, I`d have to say that 2061 is a fun little book that is at least worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Good adventure, but not much added to the trilogy
Review: It was a bit odd that the first trip to the Halley comet (the reason why the story is in 2061) was in a space ship full of tourits instead of astronauts, but it was interesting anyway. The depiction of the new melted Europa were good as well, and the adventures happened there fun as well.
But as a continuation of 2001 and 2010, it is a bit disappointing. It lacks the uncanny riddles of 2001 and simply repeats part of the ideas of 2010. The end of 2010 made buy 2061 in the following week, but 2061 didn't make me buy 3001 that fast.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Especially If You Made It This Far
Review: I loved the first one, liked the second and really thought this one would finally get to answering the questions floating around after the first two books, not so. With a little mystery surrounding the actual fate of HAL and Dave Bowman raised towards the end of the book there appears to be little else from this book that actually contributes to this universe. I thought this book was disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: 300-Page Segue
Review: That's about all 2061 is: a nearly 300-page segue into the next book in the series and not enough to make a novel on its own. 2001 is a classic and a pretty good read. 2010 was a very good read--enjoyable, well-paced, engaging with interesting and surprising characters, etc. 2061 is a big disappointment. It's almost completely devoid of plot or point, centering on an implausible twist with no bearing on anything else going on in the series--and that one simple twist is all that's here. What there is of suspense and adventure is flimsy and doesn't support a whole novel. This is just scientific (and pseudo-scientific) exposition about Europa, Jupiter (nee Lucifer), Earth and the rest of the Solar System and it's pretty boring exposition at that. Not at all up to its predecessors. Presumably it leads up to something in 3001; this whole novel should have been maybe two chapters at the start of that book.
Rating: 
Summary: Scientific and mundane awe -- An excellent book!
Review: 2061 is one of my favorite science fiction books. I love the way it goes into technical detail. (If you know of science fiction that has more technical detail, please e-mail it to me!) This book had potential to degenerate into a horror book. It didn't take that route, and for me that made it more eerie. You need to suspend disbelief for this book. In real life humankind has not had any widely observed direct evidence of extraterrestrial life or a "creator". In this book series, humanity finds such evidence... when Jupiter becomes a small star and the Discovery's computer sends a mysterious message calling for humans to make peace and granting humans permission to explore the solar system with the exception of Europa-- no other commandments or explanations. Humankind knows it's powerless against something that could create a star, and so it obeys the monolith's laconic directives. Imagine the scene at the end of the movie 2010. We are shown that Euopa is changing thanks to Jupiter having been turned into a sun. We see water an plant life. In the distance we hear movement. Could animal life have developed? Although it looks like a swamp, we know the atmosphere is mostly methane-- the environment is nothing like anything on Earth. Then we see the monolith silently towering over the swamp, influencing it perhaps as it influenced Earth a billion years ago. Now for 50 years human kind has diffidently avoided Europa. There has been no further activity associated with the monolith. They have tired to observe from a distance, but clouds of vapor resulting from the heat of Jupiter obscure Europa most of the time. Humans are getting more and more daring about how close to Europa they venture. In this book, humans decide to risk sending down a probe. While they're launching the probe, a hijacking forces them to land on this forbidden planet. The stranded researchers focus on staying alive and cautiously exploring Europa while they are waiting for a rescue. They come in contact with many natural phenomena and one supernatural phenomenon. If you can imagine contact with something as powerful and laconic as the monolith appearing and you can imagine the awesome temptation to study it while trying to remain as dispassionate as possible, you will really enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: A must read, but buy 3001 as well . . .
Review: I bought this book because I was interested in following the saga of David Bowman, Heywood Floys and HAL beyond what was available in the movies. It is 50 years after Jupiter has imploded and people live in a highly technological world where the Chinese space program sets the standard. A mishap in space, followed by starnge events leads us on an unforgettable adventure where we begin to learn what the monolith's peurpose is. The reason I state that you should also buy 3001, is that this book, while important to the story, does not provide the answers to the monolith's mission, but serves as pre-text to the final story where everything is revealed. While I am not an enormous sci-fi fan, I truly enjoyed Clarke's description of the future. If you are looking for closure, read the last two books, it is a wild ride, very informative and in the end everything will beceom a whole lot clearer.
|
