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2001: A Space Odyssey | 
 enlarge | Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Publisher: Roc
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $3.36
You Save: $4.63 (58%)
New (44) Used (23) Collectible (6) from $3.36
Rating:  252 reviews
Sales Rank: 5302
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1
ISBN: 0451457994
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780451457998
ASIN: 0451457994
Publication Date: September 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: EX-LIBRARY; used item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned for refund. Buy with confidence - your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics!
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Amazon.com
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
Book Description
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....
"Dazzling...wrenching, eerie, a mind-bender."-Time
"Full of poetry, scientific imagination and typically wry Clarke wit. By standing the universe on its head, he makes us see the ordinary universe in a different light...a complex allegory about the history of the world."-The New Yorker
"Brain-boggling." -Life
"Clark has constructed an effective work of fiction...with the meticulous creation of an extraterrestrial environment...Mr. Clark is a master."--Library Journal
"Breathtaking."-Saturday Review
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| Customer Reviews: Read 247 more reviews...
 Arthur C. Clark: Travelogues of the Mind May 15, 2008
Bruce Butler (Mona, Utah United States)
I don't know that I would classify Clark as a creator of great fiction; as mentioned in other reviews, the "human equation" in his works is largely missing. Clark excels and creating vivid descriptions of technology and alien grandeur, but his books are a bit lifeless at they have almost no character developement or interesting dialog.
I've read most of his books, and find he is a great alternative in those times I would find myself reaching for an atlas or a National Geographic. Honestly, I think AC Clarke is one of those sacred cow authors--praised by those who think it raises their intellectual profile, and read mainly when bored by those who can see that the emperor, while not entirely naked, could do with more than a loincloth.
 Where Did We Come From? Where Are We Going? April 20, 2008
CV Rick (Minneapolis, MN, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Because Arthur C. Clarke recently died I decided to reread his classic novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some people say that the major knock against science fiction is that it's necessarily dated soon after written because of the progress of society and technology. While this may be true of many stories, 2001 is timeless. It's hopeful, it's beautiful and it's filled with themes that speak to what we are as humanity.
Evolution is probably the most important element of the story. From the beginning when primitive man finds a black obelisk and it teaches the concept of tool use and subtly changes these creature's minds the idea that our improbable evolution was guided by alien intervention. Then, just as humanity gained the power to destroy its own planet those same aliens had planned to help the descendants of those early creatures jump to the next step, as equal in advancement as using stones for tools were to starving primitives. The message I took from the story was that we are limited in how forward we can think and until we break through another evolutionary barrier we'll be butting our heads against an invisible barrier on creativity. It's profound and humbling to consider the possibility that there are beings who look at our restrictions as simplistic as we view the idea of making a fire for survival.
Invariably this novel gets compared with the Stanley Kubrick film and rightly so. Unlike any pair I've encountered, both the novel and screenplay were developed simultaneously and in conjunction. With slight differences the stories are complementary and equally brilliant. What makes me favor the book more than the movie is the ending, which is explained better revealing the true scope of the evolutionary step man is about to make.
- CV Rick, April 2008
A Fitting Monument to the Vision of Arthur C. Clarke March 19, 2008
Mark R., Whittington (Houston, Texas USA)
It is hard to believe that it has been forty years since 2001, the book and the film, was released. In 1968 it was a strange, mind bending, fascinating vision of the future. It is a worthy monument to the vision of Arthur C. Clarke, bard of the space age.
R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke March 19, 2008
Samuel Weiland (West Pico)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Goodbye! Your legend will endure as long as their is a mankind alive to read your words.
One of the great sci-fi books. Does anyone need to say more?
 Similarities to "Contact" February 26, 2008
C. Juliet (San Diego, CA)
**Some Spoilers!***
Love how Clarke uses factual science like the most obvious crater on the moon to house the monolith, the tycho crater, as well as the very strange Saturn moon that has an all white side, Iapetus. How more obious can an alien make it for us to make first contact by keeping monoliths in the center of these obvious places? Besides the changes from jupiter orbit to the Saturn moon as staging grounds for the stargate I found the book to be similar to the movie/ book "Contact" by Carl Sagan. Not sure if you've seen or read, but i think Carl has read 2001. His story involved his character going through a wormhole to end up in a familiar earth environment (the beach) as well so as to be comfortable. Very similar here although in 2001 it is a hotel room, from that point however the stories change. A signal from deep space was sent to earth in Contact and from the moon monolith to deep space in 2001.
I did know that Bowman became something more from watching the sequel 2010 but not from 2001. Wonder why Kubrik left all that out.
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