2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke

Many people believe that the film 2001: A Space Odyssey is an adaptation of Arthur C Clarke’s book but in fact almost uniquely for such a highly regarded novel the truth is the other way around. Stanley Kubrick the director of the film had read a short story by Clarke ‘The Sentinel’ and from the idea within that he decides to make an epic Sci-fi movie that was to explore some of the most basic and yet most complex themes, the origins of man, the nature of humanity and it’s future. He decided to co-opt the services of Clarke as a joint scriptwriter and only later after the movie had been released did Clarke publish his adaptation of the script as a ...  Read the complete review

One of the greatest science fictions films ever?, 'The proverbial good' science fiction film as envisioned by the creators. Weather the film is as good as its reputed to be isn't quite the case here, as what we're really looking for is, 'Is the book any good?'. Having watched the film of 2001: A Space Odyssey two or three times I came to read the book, it was recommended, though perhaps not my usual choice, it certainly seemed an interesting thing to do, but first...... ~~The Details~~ 2001: A Space Odyssey is mostly based on the short story by Arthur C Clarke, called 'The Sentinel', and is the book of the film of the ...  Read the complete review

Arthur C. Clarke is to Science Fiction what Tolkien has been to Fantasy. Both writers have created a marvelous series of stories, which have been inspired many, and whose works are envisioned as THE standard reading material in the field. Both Tolkiens' Lord of The Rings and Clarkes' 2001 series are still being read by current generations, and are still selling numerous books. The odyssey series consists of four books. It starts off with the classical 2001, followed by 2010, 2061 and 3001. (So much for originality in that area). In the Netherlands, all four books have recently been re-issued, which gave me good reason to add them to my 'invaluable ...  Read the complete review

The Making of... book is like many others, written by a fan for a fan, in this case this tiny paperback book seems to be a scrapbook of pictures and articles from the original release of 2001 at the cinemas. Unfortunately the pages dedicated to two legends, Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrik, are pretty much non existant. There are few diagrams and sketches made by the two that are fascinating, but this book is by an means a companion to the movie, it doesn't try to break down those great mysterious walls that surround this movie. For example, How did that monkey throw the bone when it is physically impossible for any moneky to do that kind of action? What happened ...  Read the complete review

I've always described the Stanley Kubrick film of '2001: A Space Odyssey' as "a great motion picture - but a terrible movie". Fortunately Clarke's novel much more of the former. If you've seen the film, you were probably left thinking "What's that all about?", but many things become much clearer in the course of the book. There are some things left unclarified, of course - otherwise we wouldn't have the next three books in the series - but that's part of the quality writing. The plot follows that of the film very closely - the two were written alongside each other - but differs in detail (in the novel we end up at ...  Read the complete review