2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
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Book Summary Information
Author: Arthur C. ClarkeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-09-01
ISBN: 0451457994
Number of pages: 296
Publisher: Roc
Book Reviews of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Book Review: The "tell" to Stanley Kubrick's "show (don't tell)"
Summary: 5 Stars
The edition I review is the 25th Anniversary printing, which begins with a lively and highly informative introduction by Arthur C. Clarke, providing rich information on the background of the story, and stories of he and Stanley Kubrick collaborating to create the story, Stanley cooking him a steak dinner, Stanley's playfully condescending comment that Clarke's idea that the aliens somehow hated and looked down upon organic creatures to be "cute", and Stanley going to see a movie based on Clarke's recommendation, then calling Clarke afterwards to tell him he'd never watch a movie Clarke recommended again.
It also provides very interesting insight into the writing process, and various decisions behind the differences between the book and the movie, and why they were made. For example, the novel sets the Discovery mission as headed for Saturn, whereas Stanley moved it to Jupiter because the artists on the film could not re-create a convincing enough Saturn for him to put on screen.
The book itself, meanwhile, is a brilliantly written, descriptive, and captivating affair. The story is essentially the exposition and wordy explanation to what was shown to us by Kubrick's film, and the book manages to not suffer as a result of its "obligation" to be the "tell" to Kubrick's "show".
Descriptions of Bowman and Poole's daily routine aboard the Discovery is jarring in its steadfast routine, and the fact that the men live like sentries, one man awake for much of the day, while the other sleeps, both meeting for an hour or so, then the first man sleeping while the other awakes. There is no morning save for what consists of the morning for each individual.
HAL's dialogue is just as succint and beautifully cold as in the film, and even his dialogue with Dave after Poole's death feels exactly like the sort of things HAL9000 would have said in the film, without feeling like either a superior or inferior representation of the computer character.
I only have a handful of minor complaints on the book. The most important, for me, is that much of the events are written as though in a heavily "wink wink, nudge nudge" future tense sort of thing, which is even more pervasive in the "Dawn of Man" chapters.
For example, almost every action occurring after the Apes encounter the Monolith, Clarke embellishes their actions with something like "This is something that would never be seen for a million years" or "The first instance of this in all of human history" as though we should know all this already, and he cannot stop insisting upon the scale, chronologically and evolutionary and in importance, to a degree that the sequence does not feel as though you are there with the Apes, living in their world, but that you are in present or future times, watching the Apes from a distance.
Thankfully after that, very few things occur in that manner beyond the scale of space objects and phenomena which gains an obligatory "But they would never realize what would happen next" sort of thing.
Another thing isn't really a problem, but felt more like a buzzkill for me, having been so accustomed to the movie. After Dave disconnects HAL (in which his "dying" words are far more incoherent than in the movie), he re-establishes contact with Earth, and rather than a pre-recorded message, Heywood Floyd himself informs Bowman of what was essentially revealed in the pre-recorded message of the movie.
I disliked this sequence because despite the book being the "tell" portion, it did far too much "telling" at the total expense of showing things itself. It was far too expository, and it felt unrealistic in how Dave Bowman could accept these facts without even a hint of disappointment that he was left out of it.
It also felt like a bit of spoilage for the final leg of the journey---I had thought it would play far more greatly if Dave Bowman were really truly alone after disconnecting HAL. And in fact, the novel does go and tell us and show us just how truly alone Dave feels after HAL's death. And yet his ability to remain in contact with Earth spoils that for me.
The final journey ("Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" for the movie) is almost a completely different one from the movie, and yet no less mindblowing or shockingly terrifying. It is far more scientific than the movie, involving descriptions of what is explained to be "like an intergalactic Grand Central Station", and approaching a Double-Star system (which provided for me in a bit of Fridge Logic the realization that this was probably the aliens' inspiration for making Jupiter into a star in "2010"---giving the Solar System two stars), what is described as an intergalactic parking lot full of alien ships that had been abandoned for millions of years, and a full explanation of the reasoning behind the "hotel room" and just how Dave Bowman ended up inside of it.
The epic scale of this last, dialogue-free sequence is so much like the movie in its impact---it radically diverts from the film's atmosphere, the same way the Dawn of Man sequence did in both film and novel, and more than makes up for my own personal disappointment at how Dave's final leg of the journey played out, with him in constant contact with Earth.
The entirety of the book retains an epic and dramatic feel, using its descriptive words and dialogue to convey what Kubrick could do with film. The Monoliths are also officially given their descriptive dimensions of 1x4x9 (and as stated later in the book which brought tears of awe into my eyes, "And how naïve to have imagined that the series ended at this point, in only three dimensions!")
Summary of 2001: A Space Odyssey
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....
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....
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
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