2001 - A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke (Book Review)

 

* The Audio review version of this book will appear in Reading in Bed Episode 53 at the start of May 2022 *

Arthur C Clarke – 2001 – A Space Odyssey

Blurb:

On the Moon, an enigma is uncovered.

So great are the implications of this discovery that for the first time men are sent out deep into our solar system.

But long before their destination is reached, things begin to go horribly, inexplicably wrong...

One of the greatest-selling science fiction novels of our time, this classic book will grip you to the very end

Strengths:

From my side, I first read this book when I was 11 and struggled with the complex narrative (so it seemed at the time to me) and watched the film version a few years afterwards. Now approaching 50, I felt it was time to reread the book (I will rewatch the film soonish but have fantastic memories of the soundtrack).

And now, Ambitious is a good word to describe considering this was wrote and released before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and the five separate sections in the book certainly show the scope and intelligence that went into this shows throughout the full of the book.

The book starts off with a number of chapters set in Africa, then we jump forward to the Year 1999 during which process travels to the Moon are certainly more common place you could say.

However, on one of the Moon’s crater, a monolith is found that sends out a strong and mysteries signal when sunlight touches it for the first time and results in a Signal is set to Saturn which is where the story gets really vivid.

I won’t say anything after that but just recommend read it as the last part of it was a rare of really colourful prose coming into life in Space. Its impressive defo.

Weaknesses:

The first few chapters focusing on man from millions of years ago didn’t really connect with me it has to be said and after a few chapters of this, I was really starting to think we were going to be going through every stage of mankind and the book would take forever to get going. Thankfully this was not the case and the book picked up gears fairly quickly after that.

Also I have to admit the characters to quote somebody else on good reads are “are cardboard cutouts and largely interchangeable with one another.”

Thankfully this doesn’t really impact on the quality of the book and for people who like action paced Science Fiction, this like Simak’s book ‘City’ from last month on my book review Podcast “Reading in Bed” is a book certainly more Science on the Science Fiction side of things and is a classic still, although perhaps has dated a little.

8/10