2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey Series #1) by Arthur C. Clarke

This bis an amazing book. I really enjoyed this bookby Anonymous

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June 08, 2009: 2001: A Space Odyssey is an amazing book. There is suspense, action, and mystery. The book is thrilling story about finding and alien made structure buried thirty feet below the surface on the moon. In an attempt to discover these alien creatures David Bowman sets of on a one way trip to Saturn, and the stars beyond.. The theme of the book is space exploration and evolution. The author uses imagery, and figurative language.

David Bowman is alone at the far reaches of the solar system. To him earth is just a dream. He knows he'll never see it again. All of his friends who started this journey with him are now dead, killed by the rouge computer in command of the ship Discovery. From the Orbiting Space Base filled with the scientists, to the still developing colony beneath the moons surface, to Japetus one of Saturn's most mysterious moons this book describes our universe.

Experts from the United States Astronautics Association discovered an object of alien material buried beneath the moons surface. When it was revealed to the sun it sent out a burst of electro-magnetic waves to Saturn. This scared all of the scientists on the moon proving that there really was another intelligent life form at in the stars. That is why David Bowman was sent to investigate.

I have always wondered about the far reaches of the solar system. It has always fascinated me to learn more about our universe. This book just helped me inflame my curiosity. This book will probably motivate our country or world to explore more of space.

Overall this book really captures your attention. Through mystery, action, and suspense the author reveals what is really at the far reaches of our universe. I would most definitely recommend this book. If you like science fiction and fantasy than this is the book for you.

I Also Recommend: A Darkness at Sethanon, The King's Buccaneer, Magician, Magician, Prince of the Blood.

Look at the future with optimism.by Dierckx

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April 28, 2009: This review contains possibly a spoiler. I explain what happens at the end of the film. I do this because the end is confusing if you don't know something about the ideas of Arthur C.Clarke, an English scientist and SF writer who wrote the script for this movie along with Stanley Kubrick.

The basic idea of the film is that the 'Homo Sapiens' evolved from the apes (Darwin) and the 'Homo Cosmos' will in time evolve from the 'Homo Sapiens'(A.C.Clarke). The 'Homo Cosmos' will be a human creature that is able to live in outer space like we are able to live on Earth. Space will be his natural environment.

Arthur C.Clarke writes about this idea ( and many other scientific speculations ) in his book 'Profiles of the Future', first published in 1962 - he calls it 'An inquiry into the limits of the possible' - and revised in 1999 for millennial edition published by Indigo.

Before I carry on I have to say that the characters in this film are very cold and distant (all of them with perhaps the exception of the six year old daughter of one of the scientists.)They are polite but they could be mindless robots. I don't know if this was on purpose or that the scriptwriters didn't care about human psychology.

The movie has four parts.

First is the long winded part where you can witness the daily life of large apes. I presume that stunt men crawled almost literally in the skin of those apes. The special make-up must have cost a fortune. I give the film 4 stars because this first part is extremely slow-paced and is of very little importance for the rest of the film.

You start wondering if you are watching the wrong movie but at the end of that first part, you understand that the basic idea was that the apes are climbing up the ladder of evolution by using large bones as a tool or a weapon.

In the second part some scientists travel to the moon (there are already several colonies on the moon), to visit a mysterious artifact dug up in the vicinity of one of the colonies. We are told that the artifact points toward Jupiter where possibly another artifact can be found, floating like a satellite around the giant planet.

The third part is the mission to Jupiter. Something happens and the only survivor of the mission takes one of the space-capsules. He uses the gravity of Jupiter to gain speed and he makes a discovery voyage beyond Jupiter. The enormous speed he has is one of the most impressive scenes of the film.

In the fourth and last part of the movie, we witness the decay of the Homo Sapiens and we look at the foetus of the Homo Cosmos, floating in outer space.

A professional reviewer called The Space Odyssey a movie with a pessimistic vision. He apparently didn't read 'Profiles of the Future' because if there is one SF movie that is optimistic and welcomes the future with open arms (so to speak) it's The Space Odyssey.

After all, a whole new kind of humans with different and powerful possibilities is about to be born.