Scan barcode
A review by verkisto
2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke
3.0
It was informative to read this immediately following 2010, since three of the chapters here were remarkably similar to content from the previous book. This isn't anything one won't learn from the author's note, but considering it had been over ten years between reading these two books when I first read 2061, it was a weird kind of deja-vu to run across it again a mere week later....
Clarke is a great writer; he keeps you reading. It's weird, though, how he doesn't really focus on character, so much as telling you more and more about the science and the travel. He's more interested in sharing what he knows, so it's more akin to reading a scientific paper than an actual novel (which has been my biggest complaint about Rendezvous with Rama), but it doesn't make it any less readable. It's quite the achievement.
Probably my biggest complaint about 2061 is that this doesn't really feel like a Space Odyssey book. There's certainly a connection, but the point of the novel doesn't seem to be the advancement of life in the solar system like it does in the other two books. Most of the book is about travel through space, and the advancements that make that possible, and how it allows for space rescue. What connection there is to the monoliths only comes in at the end, like it's an afterthought. In retrospect, this story wouldn't be possibly without that connection, but the story feels less substantial for not being something as groundbreaking as the first two books in the series.
Clarke is a great writer; he keeps you reading. It's weird, though, how he doesn't really focus on character, so much as telling you more and more about the science and the travel. He's more interested in sharing what he knows, so it's more akin to reading a scientific paper than an actual novel (which has been my biggest complaint about Rendezvous with Rama), but it doesn't make it any less readable. It's quite the achievement.
Probably my biggest complaint about 2061 is that this doesn't really feel like a Space Odyssey book. There's certainly a connection, but the point of the novel doesn't seem to be the advancement of life in the solar system like it does in the other two books. Most of the book is about travel through space, and the advancements that make that possible, and how it allows for space rescue. What connection there is to the monoliths only comes in at the end, like it's an afterthought. In retrospect, this story wouldn't be possibly without that connection, but the story feels less substantial for not being something as groundbreaking as the first two books in the series.