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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed the book more than the film but both have their entertainment value.
Fun story. LOVE the space stuff.
The misogyny is gargantuan. "girl assistants", barf.
Ending was mediocre. Maybe it was intentional but I got utterly lost after Bowman passed through the Star Gate. The descriptions were not great and the ending wasn't particularly satisfying.
The middle of the book however was excellent and I would read it a hundred times. I love spaceships I guess.
The misogyny is gargantuan. "girl assistants", barf.
Ending was mediocre. Maybe it was intentional but I got utterly lost after Bowman passed through the Star Gate. The descriptions were not great and the ending wasn't particularly satisfying.
The middle of the book however was excellent and I would read it a hundred times. I love spaceships I guess.
Absolutely breathtaking. Clarke's imagination is inspiring. We follow humankind from our ape ancestors all the way to astronauts exploring our solar system. Loved the idea of our evolution being helped along by beings invested in our progress in ways beyond our scope of understanding. There's something about the quiet dignity of a black space artifact, buried unencumbered in a place equivalent of the last few steps of our first lap in the relay race of discovery, waiting for us evolve into the right level of intelligence before we can find it.
Sometimes I am once again struck by how amazing it is for me and all of us to possess the ability to reflect on our own existence and intelligence, and be more humbled the more discoveries we make. Clarke's book is a great consolidation of all that packed into a touching, inspiring read.
He was moving through a new order of creation, of which few men had ever dreamed. Beyond the realms of sea and land and air and space lay the realms of fire, which he alone had been privileged to glimpse. It was too much to expect that he would also understand.”
Sometimes I am once again struck by how amazing it is for me and all of us to possess the ability to reflect on our own existence and intelligence, and be more humbled the more discoveries we make. Clarke's book is a great consolidation of all that packed into a touching, inspiring read.
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"Evergreen" is a word used to describe something that retains its popularity despite its old age. "Classic" describes something that is seen as one of the best of its kind. Both words describe this 53 year old book - an evergreen classic.
When I first picked it up the only thing I knew about it was that it was deemed one of the best sci-fi books of all time and that it was made into a movie (which I haven't watched). So I went in blind and I came out blinded still, not by ignorance, but by the sheer brilliance of this novel. Despite being written in the 60s, this book is still an incredible sci-fi story five decades on. I'm the kind of reader who appreciates when an author can handle world-building and scene-setting in the most vivid and descriptive way possible without making the book too boring to read, and this is an exemplary book which perfectly fits that description. The plot moves along slowly (despite spanning a time period of 3 million years) while the author focuses immensely on painting a picture for the reader - which is necessary when the setting of your book is an environment that 99% of your readership has never seen with their own eyes before - yet not once did I feel bored while reading the book. The vividness of the words and phrases used by the author to describe an environment in space was so good I was shaking my head in amazement every other chapter. The book ends on a rather confusing note I must say, and I had to re-read it a couple of times to try and grasp what was happening, after which I found out that not only does this book have a sequel, but that there are four books in the series altogether. Needless to say, I'll be continuing this series to the very end. Brilliant book, and worthy of the legendary status it has achieved.
When I first picked it up the only thing I knew about it was that it was deemed one of the best sci-fi books of all time and that it was made into a movie (which I haven't watched). So I went in blind and I came out blinded still, not by ignorance, but by the sheer brilliance of this novel. Despite being written in the 60s, this book is still an incredible sci-fi story five decades on. I'm the kind of reader who appreciates when an author can handle world-building and scene-setting in the most vivid and descriptive way possible without making the book too boring to read, and this is an exemplary book which perfectly fits that description. The plot moves along slowly (despite spanning a time period of 3 million years) while the author focuses immensely on painting a picture for the reader - which is necessary when the setting of your book is an environment that 99% of your readership has never seen with their own eyes before - yet not once did I feel bored while reading the book. The vividness of the words and phrases used by the author to describe an environment in space was so good I was shaking my head in amazement every other chapter. The book ends on a rather confusing note I must say, and I had to re-read it a couple of times to try and grasp what was happening, after which I found out that not only does this book have a sequel, but that there are four books in the series altogether. Needless to say, I'll be continuing this series to the very end. Brilliant book, and worthy of the legendary status it has achieved.
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes