Product Description

Arthur C. Clarke has been the presiding genius of science fiction for almost fifty years. His works include the ground-breaking and profound CHILDHOOD'S END, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA and EXPEDITION TO EARTH. Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, made into one of the most influential films of our century, brilliant, compulsive, prophetic, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY tackles the enduring theme of man's place in the universe.

On the moon an enigma is uncovered. So great are the implications that, for the first time, men are sent out deep into the solar system. But, before they can reach their destination, things begin to go wrong, horribly wrong...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44137 in Books
• Published on: 2001
• Format: Special Limited Edition
• Binding: Paperback
• 266 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 artefact 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

NEW YORK TIMES
'Arthur C. Clarke is awesomely informed about physics and astronomy, and blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations...'

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION
'For many readers Arthur C. Clarke is the very personification of science fiction'

Customer Reviews

RIP Arthur C Clarke
This novel introduced me to the wonders of sci-fi and opened my mind in so many ways.

Rest in Peace - Arthur C Clarke

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The film upon which the book is based looks so much like a remake of the 1960 Italian film, Assignment: Outer Space, I even have to wonder about the title; 2001: Space Oddyssey is even formulated the same way - word, colon, two words.

Pretty much all of the "ground breaking" ideas in 2001, are already there in Assignment; from hybernation to make it through a long journey to a force to be reckoned with exacerbated by an out-of-control computer that kills a pilot. In Assignment, top secret military information is kept from a reporter. In the 2001 movies, the information is kept from HAL's inventor. Both characters end up solving the problem in the end.

The book of the film... of the book....
Interestingly the book was written specifically to create a film from and in turn filming changed the book.

The film itself is 2.5 hours of classical music, long shots, little dialogue or exposition. Very much an enigma.

The book is absolutly opposite. Far more dialogue, far more plot, far easier to understand. The book will help lovers of the film to comprehend what their watching.

It's a good story, well told and scientifically accurate... mostly.