Product Description

Arthur C.Clarke's space saga contines in 2061, when an Earth vessel landing on Halley's Comet marks the beginning of another confrontation between Heywood Floyd and David Bowman - or whatever Bowman has become - a newly independent HAL and the unseen alien power that controls the destiny of Earth. Arthur C.Clarke, one of most popular science fiction writers of the 20th century, has written over 50 books including "The City and the Stars", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Childhood's End", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "2010: Odyssey Two".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13263 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Born in Somerset in 1917, Arthur C. Clarke has written over sixty books, among which are the science fiction classics '2001, A Space Odyssey', 'Childhood's End', 'The City and the Stars' and 'Rendezvous With Rama'. He has won all the most prestigious science fiction trophies, and shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of the film of 2001. He was knighted in 1998. He passed away in March 2008.

Customer Reviews

How to make a living...
A writer must write to earn his living. Doing a sequel, he sometimes violates whatever magic there once were in the beginning of that sequel. In my oppinion Clarke did that with this book (and also with RAMA II). The story goes on only 51 years after the new star Lucifer was turned on and with the message "All these planets..." still sounding in the ears of humans. The son of Dr. Floyd does the Buck Rogers thing (landing on Europa) and we - the readers - must follow the show / dramae like some over-sentimental soap opera. Not good, and it does not bring anything new to the saga!

At this point in time as a writer, it seems to me that Clarke writes one or two pages of text, then looks at it, says "hmm... OK!", gives it a suspense-heading (like "Downfall" or "Life!" or something) and calls the output a chapter. This is a book to read between bus-stops - a chapter is just the right size for that. But for serious readers, I don't think this book is good.

Fine, but not worthy of the series
There's nothing wrong with this novel per se; it has an intriguing plot, and the scenes on Halley's Comet are interesting. The problem is that alongside the visionary brilliance of 2001 and 2010, a common-or-garden sci-fi thriller is not what the fans were looking for. People crash on Europa, have some adventures, see a bit of the local fauna, and then get rescued. End of story. Fine in itself, but it doesn't actually add anything to the central idea of the monoliths in the way that 2010 added to its predecessor. One cannot help suspecting financial motivations for its creation, although surely Clarke doesn't need the money?

2061 A Strange Odyssey
Non Spoiler Section:

This book is the third in the monolith series (2001/2010). It continues 50 years after the climactic and brilliant end of 2010. My problem with this book is that it is pointless and doesn't fit the series.

The story isn't overly coherent or seemingly complete, almost as if A.C.C had a 300 page limit and had to quickly wrap things up. The writing style is very different, much shorter chapters, every one with a little cliffhanger or reveal.

It has some great ideas, but that does not warrant this book. I have yet to read 3001, if it has good reviews then get this to complete the series, if not I'd stop at 2010.


Spoilers:

Ok, so what's wrong with it? Hal and Bowman turn up for approx 2 pages. Heywood has no real relation to the story, in fact his trip to the comet never recieves a pay off later on. His becoming immortal made little sense in terms of the how, the why or the when.

The plot involving Europa, while more interesting, is closer to a thriller than an adventure. There's little climax to it all, the rescue is glossed over in a few words, the 'diamond' revelation appears early on in the script. The USSA 'intrigue' is not resolved. It's poor storytelling.

In regards to moving on the series plot, the cliffhanger is AWFUL, it's a sloppy one line at the end that has no reference to events before or it's ramifacations. The monoliths don't actually do anything at all in this book.

This story, to me, would make far more sense as a stand alone book than a "2010" sequal.