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Arthur C. Clarke

Stanley Kubrick

2001: a Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey Series) Mass Market Paperback – September 1, 2000

by Arthur C. Clarke (Author)

2,395 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Space Odyssey Series

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The classic science fiction novel that captures and expands on the vision of Stanley Kubrick’s immortal film—and changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves.

From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man ventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.

This allegory about humanity’s exploration of the universe—and the universe’s reaction to humanity—is a hallmark achievement in storytelling that follows the crew of the spacecraft Discovery as they embark on a mission to Saturn. Their vessel is controlled by HAL 9000, an artificially intelligent supercomputer capable of the highest level of cognitive functioning that rivals—and perhaps threatens—the human mind.

Grappling with space exploration, the perils of technology, and the limits of human power, 2001: A Space Odyssey continues to be an enduring classic of cinematic scope.

Print length

296 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ace
Publication date

September 1, 2000
Dimensions

4.15 x 0.83 x 6.76 inches
ISBN-10

9780451457998
ISBN-13

978-0451457998
Lexile measure

1060L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Dazzling...wrenching...a mind bender.”—Time

“Brain-boggling.”—Life

“Full of poetry, scientific imagination, and typical wry Clarke wit. By standing the universe on its head, he makes us see the ordinary universe in a different light...[This novel becomes] a complex allegory about the history of the world.”—The New Yorker

“Clarke has constructed an effective work of fiction...with the meticulous creation of an extraterrestrial environment, the sort of extrapolation of which Mr. Clarke is a master.”—Library Journal

“Breathtaking.”—Saturday Review

About the Author

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) wrote a hundred books and more than a thousand short stories and essays covering science fiction and science fact in a career spanning more than six decades. Among his bestselling novels are Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Rendezvous with Rama.

In 1945, he proposed global broadcasting via communication satellites in geostationary orbit. One of his short stories inspired the World Wide Web, while another was expanded into 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he cowrote with Stanley Kubrick.

Born in Somerset, England, Clarke was educated at King’s College, London. He worked in the British civil service and the Royal Air Force before turning full-time author in 1950. The recipient of dozens of awards, fellowships, and honorary doctorates, Clarke had both an asteroid and dinosaur species named after him. Queen Elizabeth II gave him a knighthood in 1998.

Clarke lived in Sri Lanka since 1956, engaged in diving, astronomical observations, and underwater tourism.

Product details

ASIN : 0451457994
Publisher : Ace; Reissue edition (September 1, 2000)
Language : English
Mass Market Paperback : 296 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780451457998
ISBN-13 : 978-0451457998
Lexile measure : 1060L
Item Weight : 5.4 ounces
Dimensions : 4.15 x 0.83 x 6.76 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #35,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #293 in Technothrillers (Books)
- #343 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- #438 in Classic American Literature

Customer Reviews:
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Bryan J. KautzmanTop Contributor: Pets

How did this become a classic?

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2020

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I'm not sure if I've ever been more disappointed in a book. This has been on my reading list for decades, and I finally got to it.

As a huge fan of authors like Robert Heinlein, David Brin, and Phillip Dick, I thought this would be right up my alley. I really couldn't have been more wrong.

The first 3/4 of the book were filled with outstanding hard science fiction that ha sstood the test of time very well. That's the reason why I gave it two stars.

The last 1/4 of the book transforms into a mystical fantasy world that would be more at home for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It would seem as if the author's intention was to leave us with the feeling of not knowing what the heck was going on, but I really could have done without all of the magical mysticism.

Perhaps this book was groundbreaking and insightful back in the 1960s, but in the year 2020, the only compelling part about this story left is HAL, who occupies a very minor (and consequently quite insignificant role) in the story. Many of the concepts explored have stood the test of time well. The story has not, and the transformation from hard science fiction to whimsical fantasy left me scratching my head.

I am so glad that this is now in my past. Meanwhile, I've removed everything written by Arthur C. Clarke from my list of "books to read". The only time in the last year where I have been more bored was when I was watching the movie, but that's a review for a different product.

10 people found this helpful

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John

2001: a Space Odyssey is a very good book, and might just be my favorite in a long time. (Spoilers)

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2018

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After remembering the movie, which I watched when I was very young, and did not understand at all, and having a very boring summer, I decided to order this book to revisit a story that I oftentimes remembered, but did not ever understand. However, I got the book, and never got around to reading it until the end of July, where I read in small increments, and finished in October.
Being something I often remembered, reading this story reconnected me to many things I “subconsciously” stored from when I watched the movie, such as the transformation of one of the main characters, David Bowman, into the Starchild, which was a transformation, as well as name, I remembered for a while, but not quite sure where it came from. However, after finally finishing the book, I would say this book definitely improved upon my childhood’s loose interpretation of the story, and surpassed my expectations in just about every way. Going back to the transformation of Bowman into the Starchild, a good example of this book’s excellence, Bowman, who has been one of the main characters throughout the story, ends the story with one last act of characterization that ties his whole character together, becoming the Starchild, which is a very good end to his story after finally defeating the evergrowingly sentient AI that has control over his ship, as well as receiving the true purpose of the mission that was given to him shortly before his transformation. All in all, I would recommend this book to anybody, of any age group, so long as character deaths, and possibly even seriously deep thought of our universe, is okay, that is looking for a piece to read that is truly enjoyable, and promotes thinking, as well as people, like myself, who enjoy science fiction and space exploration.

14 people found this helpful

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John Cook

Stands the Test of Time

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2015

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The Kindle version of this book was cleanly formatted without any noticeable typos, making this a pleasant reading experience in portrait mode. I did notice there were some issues with not allowing for columns for reading in landscape mode on my iPad, but I prefer portrait mode to reading and it was fine with that.

Onto the actual book:

Having seen the film 2001: A Space Odyssey many years ago and being blown away by how powerful it was, and also a bit scared by it. I loved the way it told a story without necessarily explaining everything, and really allowing one's own imagination to fill in some of the gaps. Knowing that there was also a novel, I had always wanted to read it, but never got around to it...upon seeing this Kindle version on sale, I decided to give it a go.

First of all, it was very interesting reading Arthur C. Clarke's introduction at the beginning. Sometimes I don't like reading such introductions because they either somewhat spoil the book you're about to read or don't add a whole lot, but this one was an interesting read for someone who had seen the film but not yet read the novel. I didn't realize that both the screenplay and book were written at the same time...making this a very unique pair as typically one comes before the other...so although this isn't a novel that simply came before a film like many are, or a novelization of a film that had been made (which is typically not worth the time of day to read), it is a novel written by a fantastic science fiction writer inspired by the collaboration of writing the screenplay with Stanley Kubrick.

Much of the book is very similar to the movie, but the way it is written adds many details without being bogged down...this is a very fast-paced read. The writing is focused on the big picture more so than the characters, but the main characters involved in each individual section get fleshed out well enough that it is very gripping to read.

Being written before we'd ever even landed on the moon, it's amazing how well this story stands the test of time. I enjoy stories involving space travel and a lot of times the era something is written can occasionally take you out of the story by laughable concepts or dated science. The feeling I got from this reading was that it explained things in a way that don't date the technology being discussed in any way that ruins the overall story. Although 2001 is 14 years before the writing of this review and clearly many of the breakthroughs and events leading up to this specific story haven't taken place yet or are different than actual history, it is fascinating on some of the things that are part of our reality now...beyond that, this is full of what ifs related to our own existence within a vast universe.

I definitely recommend this reading, whether or not you've seen the film and whether or not you plan to read the rest of the series. I likely will at some point, but this book is great as a stand-alone title.

28 people found this helpful

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Chainsaw Charlie

Audio Book - 5 star content but 3 star recording quality!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

After enjoying the movie (once again!) and deciding to re-visit the novel, I thought I would like to try this well-reviewed audio book. After listening to the book I find myself agreeing with other reviewers comments on the 'reader' (NOT A.C.Clarke as is somewhat misleadingly labelled by the cd manufacture!) Dick Hill - he does a very good job indeed of dramatising the novel and I would give a five star rating for what he brings to the reading. The novel itself is five star content. Unfortunately, the recording quality is not five star (and I have taken the trouble to examine the actual waveform of the recording on all six discs) - it is 'clipped' to say the least - and often makes the sound seem somewhat 'robotic' in places. Considering the time which must have been involved in getting six hours worth of Dick Hill reading the book, it's a pity that the sound engineers didn't do as good a job as the narrator! The producers of the recording have also done themselves no favours whatsoever in that they haven't even bothered to insert a chapter list (the book itself is divided into six parts with several chapters per part). It would have been a simple task for the producers to show where each 'part' and 'chapters' occurs across each of the discs. Overall, I would still recommend this as an interesting way to listen to the novel - it's just a pity that the recording lets the overall 'experience' down slightly.

7 people found this helpful

David Hartley

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do..."

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

I'm a recent convert to audio books. I once heard a dreadful version of (shall we just say tactfully) "a" book - so bad I abandoned it and swore never to listen to another audiobook ever again.
But I'm so glad I broke my own rule with this one! Dick Hill reads this exactly as my mind would do! In a novel which is mainly exposition, he reads with conviction and drama. Clarke's writing is descriptive and yet poetic; it's easy to lose the rhythm and gentle humour. No danger of that happening here. It's an excellent performance full of pace and passion.
Some people say the book is a way to help understand the film. I'm not entirely in agreement with that. The book stands by itself as a fine piece of Science Fiction. In fact, this story diverges from the film in several key scenes.
I've seen the film over 80 times, it is my favourite film and introduced me to Stanley Kubrick's other work. I was already a fan of Arthur C Clarke, and have been since school. So I came to this with a little trepidation and quiet hope. However, I have no hesitation in recommending this audiobook.

9 people found this helpful

Dennis Sisterson

Poignant view of future past

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

The film 2001, while a favourite of mine, has always seemed to me fundamentally flawed - something it shared with the book. Having done a bit of reading around it recently I think the problem is this: Most great novels - I think science fiction especially - begin with a great idea, from which the author has then successfully extracted a story. The development of 2001 was the reverse of this. Stanley Kubrick decided he wanted to make a great sci-fi film and then hunted around, with Clarke, for a sufficiently great idea to fit that plan. It didn't begin with a great idea seeking expression. Consequently, the search for narrative or conceptual greatness equal to the budget and production talent Kubrick's reputation had allowed him to bring to bear on the project continued right up to the last day of editing, and personally I think never quite made it. The film's mystique comes from the fact that its ending seems cryptic and impenetrable, but this in turn only stems from Kubrick's determination not to show the story in a cheesy or overly obvious way, not because there's anything particularly deep or profound about the ideas themselves. It's more about hiding the fact that there's really not much there.
The interest in the novel, written in parallel with the film, is in seeing how it differs. In Clarke's rush to get the book finished and on the market he was often working from versions of the script that were later altered by Kubrick after Clarke's involvement ceased. I enjoyed imagining how a film shot from this version might have looked.
It's also a slightly poignant read at this distance. Like a lot of people in the 60s Clarke was overwhelmed and delighted by the speed of technical progress and imagined things would continue along the same trend, with massive bases and cities on the moon before long. Alien contact did not seem far fetched to him. The futuristic framework for the story is still interesting, if dated now. Sadly - aside from a few throwaway predictions about video phone calls and such - it's looking more and more like the dystopian sci-fi writers of that period are the ones who got it right and the best predictions for the future now seem to be about how much disaster we can avoid, not how much of the universe we can explore, so in that respect it feels like a rather poignant "might-have-been" view of the world.

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

As good as I remember

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Originally read this just after the film came out, and, as was usual at that time, was surprised how different the book was to what is seen on the screen, (this was my first book-to-screen experience). A much more involved thread throughout, with very insightful writing about the state of human affairs and fears of the time. Although it's a brilliant read for any sci-fi fan, and the author was years ahead of his time, there are certain elements that the film actually does better, even though I am one of those people who will always think that imagination is better than anything film makers can come up with. Although there could be an argument for explaining too much in this book, (something, if I remember correctly the second film did), I feel some exposition would have been a good idea. Obviously this is just my opinion, and I'm sure there are plenty of A.C.C fans out there who would violently disagree. But all in all, this is one of those "must read" books for any generation.

2 people found this helpful

Denno

Ground-breaking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

This seminal book, written in conjunction with Kuberick's film of the same name has no doubt had a massive influence on 'hard sci-fi' fiction (and films) and works such as Contact are indebted to it. The set up in the first couple of chapters are key to the rest of the chapters and then the linear story telling eventually changes to exploring far greater concepts. The level of detail in the writing, especially when describing planets, stars, the solar system etc is just phenomenal and the imagery is fascinating. It only gets four stars because (and it's my fault) my limited human brain struggled to picture of even fully understand some of the concepts discussed, but overall this is a stunning novel.

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