Two Thousand and One
Over the weekend while I was staying warm and cozy on the couch under a great deal of crocheted afghan, I finished Arthur C Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was eight years old when I saw the movie in 1968, and I had vague memories of the basic plot, the monolith, HAL and Dave, and an image from the end. The book was written concurrently with the making of the film and was published just after, which was even before the first moon landing.
Yet despite being forty-five years old, it is still a wonderful science-fiction story.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Clarke's vision of what technology would be like around the turn of the millennium (including a device called a "newspad" which is an electronic tablet on which you could read stories from any newspaper in the world - even when you are on your way to the moon). The descriptive passages were vivd and effective at bringing the scenes, from the world of the proto-humans to the journeys in outer space, alive. The plot, despite the fact that it was built using several of Clarke's previous short stories, moved with agility through its successive stages to an ending I was delighted with.
There are several sequels (2010, 2061, and 3001), and I am certainly putting the next one on my to-be-read list.
This entry was originally posted at http://freshermind.dreamwidth.org/74092.html. Comments cheerfully accepted at either place.
Yet despite being forty-five years old, it is still a wonderful science-fiction story.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Clarke's vision of what technology would be like around the turn of the millennium (including a device called a "newspad" which is an electronic tablet on which you could read stories from any newspaper in the world - even when you are on your way to the moon). The descriptive passages were vivd and effective at bringing the scenes, from the world of the proto-humans to the journeys in outer space, alive. The plot, despite the fact that it was built using several of Clarke's previous short stories, moved with agility through its successive stages to an ending I was delighted with.
There are several sequels (2010, 2061, and 3001), and I am certainly putting the next one on my to-be-read list.
This entry was originally posted at http://freshermind.dreamwidth.org/74092.html. Comments cheerfully accepted at either place.