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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2001 is of course a hugely influencial piece of classic science fiction, but how does it hold up when read in 2021? As "hard" sci-fi, the book is breathlessly concerned with the plausibility of its space-faring technology, and there are ideas here that have since seen countless uses across newer science fiction and even science fact. Where the predictive attempt falls apart is in the softer details - reading today, bizarre anachronisms such as "typewriters and girl secretaries" in a futuristic moonbase stick out like a sore thumb. On an even deeper level, the author's wide-eyed optimism about the starbound future of the human race seems, at best, charmingly naïve. All of this serves to make the earlier sections of the book more of a historical curio than an interesting story.
However, this changes when we are introduced to the crew of the Discovery, on its way to Saturn, and the real story begins. Everything prior to this reads like hard science setup which may have wowed in the sixties but seems quaint and tiresomely smug today. Once we get to the Discovery however, compelling character interactions quickly override any lingering struggles we may be having with the cultural and technological anachronisms. These chapters are by far the strongest of the book, and it's a shame that the whole thing feels rather disjointed, episodic in its plotting with only these middle episodes really hitting that page-turning thrill.
The final chapters, while making considerably more sense than the bizarre light show of the film, still feel like someone trying to describe a dream, with both the imagination and tedium that that analogy invokes, and the "unknowable mysteries of the universe" concept doesn't quite hold together.
Altogether it feels like a hodgepodge of ideas thrown enthusiastically into a book and just barely tied together. Some of these ideas are laughable. Some are dated and dull. Some have been copied by latter works so thoroughly that it's impossible to fully comprehend the impact that they may have had when the ideas were fresh.
And yet... some of the ideas are still wholly fascinating and captivating, meaning that despite some of my negative sentiments, I have still come away from the book with a sense of having enjoyed this madcap journey through space and time.
However, this changes when we are introduced to the crew of the Discovery, on its way to Saturn, and the real story begins. Everything prior to this reads like hard science setup which may have wowed in the sixties but seems quaint and tiresomely smug today. Once we get to the Discovery however, compelling character interactions quickly override any lingering struggles we may be having with the cultural and technological anachronisms. These chapters are by far the strongest of the book, and it's a shame that the whole thing feels rather disjointed, episodic in its plotting with only these middle episodes really hitting that page-turning thrill.
The final chapters, while making considerably more sense than the bizarre light show of the film, still feel like someone trying to describe a dream, with both the imagination and tedium that that analogy invokes, and the "unknowable mysteries of the universe" concept doesn't quite hold together.
Altogether it feels like a hodgepodge of ideas thrown enthusiastically into a book and just barely tied together. Some of these ideas are laughable. Some are dated and dull. Some have been copied by latter works so thoroughly that it's impossible to fully comprehend the impact that they may have had when the ideas were fresh.
And yet... some of the ideas are still wholly fascinating and captivating, meaning that despite some of my negative sentiments, I have still come away from the book with a sense of having enjoyed this madcap journey through space and time.
Aliens caused human intelligence millions of years ago and left something on Saturn. Ship goes after it. Ship kills all but 1 crew member. Crew member [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]. Almost worse then the movie, but both remain pretty bad.
My initial undertaking of this book was far too marred by the film's colossal influence, but on this second go-round I can see this is an honest to goodness sci-fi masterpiece in its own right. The mysteries of Kubrick's images are abandoned here for a much more direct exploration of humankind's loneliness within the universe; Bowman's isolation after the crew and HAL have left this life is expressed in both a beautiful and terrifying manner, painting in metaphor our own fears and curiosities of being the only known life in the vast expanses of spacetime. The humanist's sci-fi tale.
Es entretenido de leer a pesar de que en la primera mitad no suceda casi nada interesante
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-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
Maybe I'm biased because I saw the Kubrick half of this collaboration back in high school and didn't really understand any of it, but I thought this book was much, much better than the movie. Despite being written before the dawn of space travel as we know it, many of the systems described were pretty spot-on. A few details were somewhat preposterous and anachronistically 60's, like having stewardesses on space shuttles, but nothing really jumped out as being scientifically outdated. More importantly though, the book beautifully captured the awe of discovery, from the first inventions of humanoid animals to the various wonders of deep space. The book was fast paced and interesting to read, the action scenes were intense, the descriptions of natural phenomenon were intriguing, and (biggest advantage over the movie) the entire thing made sense.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated