If I try to put that aside, however, and look at 2010 more objectively, I still encounter one of Clarke's best works. It's one of the few discrete things I can point to as being influential on the kind of writer I would become, and one of the starting points for my love of science-fiction (which was bolstered by my father's infatuation with Forbidden Planet and my entire family's obsession with Star Trek).

I was so young, I barely understood what was happening, but I knew it was fascinating, important, and wonderful. I had a regular babysitter who would read this novel to me, and I grew to demand it. Like with its predecessor, it's difficult for me to be objective, but rather than it being the result of intense academic study in my youth, it's because 2010 was something of a bedtime story for me when I was even younger. It's fitting, then, that this was the first Clarke novel I was exposed to. No matter the reason, 2010 is a less dense affair and one of Clarke's most accessible books. Or maybe it's Clarke's more refined writing style. It could also be the slightly lowered sense of mystery for the reader given the reader already knows the solution to the mystery that drives Floyd: what happened to Bowman. Perhaps this is simply the streamlining of protagonists down to just Heywood Floyd (with brief interruptions from the Star Child version of Dave Bowman) and the lack of a primitive man opening. Heywood Floyd.Įven though it has a more complicated plot, 2010: Odyssey Two feels like a tighter, more focused story than the previous novel.

A Russian craft, the Alexi Leonov is constructed to rendezvous with the derelict Discovery as it begins falling towards the moon of Io, and in a remarkable show of cooperation between superpowers, three Americans are allowed to tag along, including the man who organized the Discovery mission to begin with: Dr. Humanity still doesn't know what happened at Jupiter, and the young Star Child hasn't yet learned its purpose in the grand scheme of an ever-expanding cosmos. The story of Dave Bowman, HAL, and the monoliths isn't over. Strap in and prepare yourselves for a journey into the stars and the mind, and let us never forget how much richer the world of fiction is for having been blessed by the incomparable Sir Arthur C. This summer, I am going to look at a few of his most famous works, including the entirety of his 2001 series and the tiny handful of adaptations that have been made for film, television, and video games.

Clarke, my personal favorite of the 'Big Three' from the Golden Age of the genre (Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein). Of all the sci-fi greats, none have influenced me more than the late Arthur C. On the heels of last year's popular Slasher Summer, this year I'm leaving behind the guilty pleasure of the niche horror genre and exploring something a little closer to my own heart: namely science-fiction. Clarke: 2010: Odyssey Twoīefore I begin, welcome to my Summer of Arthur C.

2010 arthur c clarke