There’s something so exhilarating and daunting about reviewing one of the most influential sci-fi books of all time by one of the most influential authors: 2001: A Space Odyssey. But is it as transcendent an experience as the 1968 film? I honestly think so.
You might already know the plot of 2001, but I’m going to explain it anyway. The book begins with a tribe of ape-like beings who encounter a strange entity called a monolith. In the present, the same entity reappears, and, without realizing it, a crew sets out on a mission to Jupiter to investigate it. The principal crew, including David Bowman and Frank Poole, knows nothing about the true purpose of the mission. The artificial intelligence HAL 9000, on the other hand, must keep the mission directive a secret, even if it means the crew forfeits their lives.
I need to ramble on some context really quick. Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey was based on Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel,” published in 1951 (which I’ll review later). However, Clarke expanded the story into a novel in conjunction with the film, meaning the 2001 story that we know and love today came about at the same time as the film. However, Kubrick and Clarke’s stories occasionally diverged.
Now, the film was a transcendent experience for me. It’s a film that truly belongs on the greatest of all time lists, no matter how many times I hear people complain that it moves at a snail’s pace. When I got to the book, I was afraid it wouldn’t recreate that magic.
Boy, was I wrong.
Reading the book, despite the changes Clarke made, was like watching the film for me. I knew while I was reading it that I would likely never pick up a book like this again. It looks at humanity and wonders what it’ll be up to next, and it looks at the stars and recognizes that there are things out there beyond our imagination.
This rings true for me in some of the ways that Clarke expanded the story differently from the film. For one, Clarke expands on the beginning with the apes, not only adding more dynamics to the monolith’s influence, but also focusing on the character of Moonwatcher. The character explains his thoughts on the strange monolith as well as the worries of leading the tribe. By then, the beginning becomes an integral part of the overall story. I also greatly enjoyed how Clarke expanded on the vortex Dave gets sucked into. He spends pages on Dave being taken through various star systems and galaxies, creating rich prose and powerful imagery. As I continue writing more science fiction, I plan to use the way Clarke approached writing descriptions as a kind of blueprint. It definitely helped put things into perspective.
But there are also ways in which the film and book parallel each other. For one, HAL’s shutdown might be my favorite scene in the film. When reading, I felt the same heartbreak and terror, which I thought I wouldn’t get from reading as opposed to seeing. This showed me just how monumentally impactful Clarke’s prose was. It even gets into Dave’s headspace, detailing how he knew he’d be alone once HAL was gone. The quote below nearly destroyed me.
“Good… morning… Doctor… Chandra…. This…is… Hal…. I… am… ready… for…my… first … lesson… today….”
Bowman could bear no more. He jerked out the last unit, and Hal was silent forever.”
I will be honest, though. The book does have its moments of tediousness. But people have the same criticisms for the film as well, don’t they? There were just parts of the story that I felt could have been cut down and sped up a little bit, like Heywood’s journey to the monolith, which I thought was better utilized in the film.
If you want to get into science fiction, this book is one of the must-reads. You might go in thinking it can’t possibly be better than the film, but like the best science fiction, it infiltrates your mind and changes it.
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