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wynter 's review for:
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
This one surprised me. Sci-fi and I are still in the early stages of getting to know each other. Some books in the genre leave me a little underwhelmed, and some just bore me. But then comes along 2001: A Space Odyssey and blows all my previous bad experiences to cosmic smithereens. I read somewhere that the novel has a lot of technical detail: movement in weightlessness, sensory reaction to hibernation, psychological impacts of being stuck in a tin can floating through the vast nothingness... I was fully prepared to be bored. Was I ever wrong! It was indeed full of such details, but because of them I was completely immersed into the action and had no problems picturing what was going on (a rarity in sci-fi).
If I learned something from 2001, it's that I adore science fiction that describes early years of space exploration. I'd rather read a novel about first settlements on Mars, or scientists' wild dreams of sending first manned ship to Jupiter, than trying to comprehend a universe where hyperspace travel is as common as taking a cab, and huge cargo space ships haul generations worth of inhabitants to the planets populated with alien lifeforms. I want the book to express the desire to know "what's out there?", same as we experience today, rather than giving the straight-up answers. I want the wonder of the unknown, not the fantastical theories. It's so hard to find fiction that would restrain itself from going completely fantastical.
This was a believable, scientifically plausible exploration of space and what might exist out there. And I absolutely adored it.
If I learned something from 2001, it's that I adore science fiction that describes early years of space exploration. I'd rather read a novel about first settlements on Mars, or scientists' wild dreams of sending first manned ship to Jupiter, than trying to comprehend a universe where hyperspace travel is as common as taking a cab, and huge cargo space ships haul generations worth of inhabitants to the planets populated with alien lifeforms. I want the book to express the desire to know "what's out there?", same as we experience today, rather than giving the straight-up answers. I want the wonder of the unknown, not the fantastical theories. It's so hard to find fiction that would restrain itself from going completely fantastical.
This was a believable, scientifically plausible exploration of space and what might exist out there. And I absolutely adored it.