2001: A Space Odyssey
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing, after it's unearthed the artefact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self- aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well. He is capable of guilt, neurosis, even murder, and he controls every single one of Discovery's components. The crew must overthrow this digital psychotic if they hope to make their rendezvous with the entities that are responsible not just for the monolith, but maybe even for human civilization.
Clarke wrote this novel while Stanley Kubrick created the film, the two collaborating on both projects. The novel is much more detailed and intimate, and definitely easier to comprehend. Even though history has disproved its "predictions", it's still loaded with exciting and awe-inspiring science fiction. -- Brooks Peck
Review
'Arthur C. Clarke is awesomely informed about physics and astronomy, and blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations ever encountered in print' NEW YORK TIMES 'For many readers Arthur C. Clarke is the very personification of science fiction'THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION 'Arthur C. Clarke is one of the truly prophetic figures of the space age ... The colossus of science fiction' NEW YORKER
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Your theory is crazy, but not crazy enough to be true (N. Bohr),
By
This review is from: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Paperback)
This book is, by any standards, a monumental highlight in science fiction literature, as the movie was in science fiction film. It also explains the not so evident meaning of the last shots of the movie.The main `actors' in this novel are human space travelers, extraterrestrial life and artificial intelligence (a computer). The main actions are an encounter / transformation with / in extraterrestrial intelligence, time traveling in worm holes and the search for immortality. Vision on mankind For A.C. Clarke, `perhaps men were barbarians'. With and through artificial intelligence man built a computer, but failed to understand its psychology. The computer could mimic most of the activities of the human brain, but therefore (?) its mind, which never slept, was brilliantly sick. Like a man, it tried to take full power (of a spaceship it controlled). Immortality First, artifacts (of metal and plastic) could replace bones, flesh and blood. A further evolution could be the storing of knowledge, not in a brain anymore, but in the structure of space itself. Thought could be preserved for eternity in frozen lattices of light, in creatures of radiation, in pure energy. Weak point (matter-mind duality) For A.C. Clarke, `mind would eventually free itself from matter. The robot body would be no more than a stepping stone to something men had called a `spirit'. And if there was anything beyond that, its name could only be God.' But, as W. v. O. Quine has said in a famous interview with Bryan Magee: `Processes (like emotions) in physical objects (people) are always accompanied by microphysical changes. In fact, they are those changes.' Arthur C. Clarke's truly ground-breaking scientific fiction still could not be crazy enough, for as he states himself: `the truth, as always, will be far stranger.' This novel is a must read for all those interested in the future of the universe.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The peak of uncanny narrative power - a masterpiece,
By Hayden (Bristol, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 2001: Special Edition: A Space Odyssey (Hardcover)
I first read 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was 13 after watching the movie. This book is Arthur C. Clarke's ultimate masterpiece inwhich he challenges our very evolution, existence and place in the Universe. It is an uncanny read and daunting piece of literature. From the harsh plains of Africa and our beginnings to the far reaches of 'Jupiter and beyond the Infinite' and our deaths, 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most monumental books ever written. The triumphant Zarathustra theme now associated with the movie and book offers some of the power that is to come. Clarke shows us that is space, man is just a child, learning how to walk, eat and even relief himself! He shows that the very object we have relied so much upon throughout our evolution, tools are beyond our commands in space - and this is echoed from the paranoid and evil mind of Hal who sets out to destroy man, this shows that in the end man's tools begin to turn on him - and in the end try to destroy him. The most 'spiritual' part of the book is when Commander David Bowman enters the Star Gate and the revelations he finds beyond it are chilling. The very end reveals the 'Starchild' a reflection of Nietzsche's 'Superman'. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the greatest science fiction novel to be created so far and is an absolute must-read for all fans of powerful literature.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Clarke,
By Robert Holm (at home behind my keyboard) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Paperback)
There is not much that can be said about 2001 that hasn't been said already. It is, of course, a classic among classics, a story that begins three million years in the past and ends in what was, at the time Clarke and Kubrick developed the story, the near future. The background is well known: Stanley Kubrick wanted to make the first "good" sci-fi movie, and to achieve this, he and Clarke collaborated to develop a script based partly on some of Clarke's earlier short stories (The Sentinel, among others). Clarke then wrote the novel from the script.I have to admit that I've never really liked 2001 all that much, to be honest. The problem with the movie is that you cannot today avoid knowing that you're watching something that was made in the 1960s. Most of the movie is set in the future, but it feels like the past. This problem is, of course, mostly lacking in the book, but then in the book the problem for me is instead that Clarke's style of writing is too brief and abrupt, and the ending doesn't satisfy. I do like the beginning, however, with Moon-Watcher and the early hominids struggling for survival, and I also like the idea of mankind being essentially the creation of an unknown alien intelligence. But I can't escape the feeling that the story should have been more "fleshed out." And, like I said, the ending, when Bowman is transformed into Star-Child, is not satisfying and even a bit disturbing, even if the story in this way does come full-circle at the very end. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing idea (as you could expect from Clarke), but somehow it just doesn't "feel" right. As an explanation to why there doesn't seem to be any intelligent life on other worlds in the universe (why have we not been visited?), it's certainly a breath-taking concept. But the idea of transcendence is a little bit too much mystical and "religious" for my taste. But who's really to say, after all? Maybe our weak and frail physical bodies, that age and decay all too quickly, are only a momentary stage in the chain of evolution. And maybe humanity is the last remaining race in the universe that still have not achieved the next stage. This will forever remain the novel that Clarke will be best remembered for. And, no one can deny that as a movie, 2001 was the most influential sci-fi movie ever made. It helped to prepare the way for things to come, like Star Wars and the other great sci-fi movies of the late -70s and early -80s. And that's one more thing that we can, partly, thank the genius of Sir Arthur C. Clarke for.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fantasy
- Books > Science Fiction > Classics
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
