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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
An excellent sci-fi that was ahead of its time in many ways. The story starts off pretty slowly and builds up a sense of claustrophobia and anticipation, towards a pretty weird ending. It's nice to read a book where the alien intelligence isn't malevolent. The book explores themes of humanity, what life and consciousness are, and potential dangers of AI.
quite an enjoyable read. the sheer influence on this genre by clarke (space exploration! space conquest! human evolution through technology! alien interference on earth!!) seems to have a very lasting impact even today, both in culture and literature.
we start off with a snippet of alien encounter to a group of primates that become humans, then fast forwarding a few million years to where the bulk of the story lies: a strange block of something was found on the moon, and it is somehow connected to our main character, david bowman, on the spaceship discovery bound towards saturn.
i'd rate this book 4 stars if not for
we start off with a snippet of alien encounter to a group of primates that become humans, then fast forwarding a few million years to where the bulk of the story lies: a strange block of something was found on the moon, and it is somehow connected to our main character, david bowman, on the spaceship discovery bound towards saturn.
i'd rate this book 4 stars if not for
Spoiler
hal9001 dying... you did your best and i cant believe u were sacrificed for the progression of the story
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Something else I read as a child but decided to revisit as an adult.
And you know.... it's not very good anymore. It's been very surpassed by other much better works of science fiction.
Also it's weirdly amusingly quaint as well. Discovery has a printer onboard, for printing out paper messages, because mankind always wants to have paper in their hands to read.
And you know.... it's not very good anymore. It's been very surpassed by other much better works of science fiction.
Also it's weirdly amusingly quaint as well. Discovery has a printer onboard, for printing out paper messages, because mankind always wants to have paper in their hands to read.
3.5
This had its ups and downs, but I generally liked it! I haven’t watched the movie, but I was familiar with two of the iconic scenes and therefore kind of knew where it was going. I think what I liked the most was the otherwordly and surrealistic atmosphere it obtained in the later stages. Otherwise I’d say that the book was mostly interesting due to its age, as I don’t think it would’ve gotten the same sensational status if it was released now instead of in 1968.
The main drawback is that it felt pretty «hollow»; there were some reflections and interesting concepts touched upon, but in general it was written in a simplistic and flat way that made me think that it would be better suited for the movie screen. This made it a super quick read, but took away some of the substantiality. Knowing that the book and movie were made simultaneously, I started questioning whether there was actually any point in having the story as a book at all. Still, certain scenes convinced me that a book format was probably an interesting contrast to a movie which displays everything and leaves no room for imagination. I also read in some reviews that Clarke and Kubrick wrote different endings, which makes me extra curious to compare the two.
Time to go watch the movie!
This had its ups and downs, but I generally liked it! I haven’t watched the movie, but I was familiar with two of the iconic scenes and therefore kind of knew where it was going. I think what I liked the most was the otherwordly and surrealistic atmosphere it obtained in the later stages. Otherwise I’d say that the book was mostly interesting due to its age, as I don’t think it would’ve gotten the same sensational status if it was released now instead of in 1968.
The main drawback is that it felt pretty «hollow»; there were some reflections and interesting concepts touched upon, but in general it was written in a simplistic and flat way that made me think that it would be better suited for the movie screen. This made it a super quick read, but took away some of the substantiality. Knowing that the book and movie were made simultaneously, I started questioning whether there was actually any point in having the story as a book at all. Still, certain scenes convinced me that a book format was probably an interesting contrast to a movie which displays everything and leaves no room for imagination. I also read in some reviews that Clarke and Kubrick wrote different endings, which makes me extra curious to compare the two.
Time to go watch the movie!
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No