livinlargemike 's review for:

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

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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.