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A review by midici
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke
3.0
It's been 9 years since David Bowman's trip to examine the artifact found hovering near Jupiter. The Monolith was found after and identical (yet smaller) monolith was excavated from the moon - an artifact that sent an undecipherable message to its twin. David and his crew were sent to examine Jupiter and its moon - and though David did not yet know it, the Monolith as well. This mission was almost derailed by the breakdown of the AI Hal who killed off everyone with the exception of Bowman. Bowman did manage to examine the Monolith - and discovered it served as a transport, a sort of warp in time and space that sent him flying though other, lost galaxies and civilizations before transforming him into an entity of pure energy.
This book follows on the heels of the last. A joint team of Russian and American astronauts are tasked with getting to the abandoned ship Discovery, finding out why Hal broke down, and more importantly finding out anything they can about Bowman's disappearance and the Monolith itself.
I was not much interested in the crew interactions, but the plot and descriptions of distant planets as they might be seen up close were great. The team on the ship Leonov plans to be the first there, but they are outstripped by a Chinese ship who made a rather daring decision to pack less fuel than necessary and refuel on Jupiter's moon Europa, a frozen water moon that can be harvested for fuel. Instead the light on the ship attracts life in the form of a large plant-like organism, whose efforts to reach the light end up destroying the ship and killing the crew.
The American/Russian team on Leonov mourn, but are unable to help. They continue on their mission. And this is when we reconnect with Bowman. Bowman has been reborn as a new entity and their presence near the monolith has him returning to Earth's solar system. He explores Earth at the behest of his creators, and takes the time to examine the life on Europa and the life on Jupiter - two of the more imaginative and interesting episodes in the book. The intelligence behind Bowman's transformation are highly evolved beings of energy, not matter, and they work to seed, encourage, and protect intelligent life. To this end they decide to transform Jupiter into a new sun, one that will encourage the life on Europa to grow and evolve.
In reality, turning Jupiter into a sun in a feat of geoengineering would probably put teh entire solar system into a tailspin - it's a large and important presence in our solar system. The book mentions its impact just in terms of light - nocturnal animals dying, permanent areas on Earth that no longer experience night, etc. It does not mention changing orbits of every planetary body due to changes in gravity and mass, but it is fiction.
Through Bowman the humans are sent a message that the new planets are there's to use as they wish - with the exception of Europa which they are not to travel to.
The reason for this is shown in the epilogue, set in the far future, showing the intelligent life in Europa slowly exploring their own world and wondering about what is happening on the planets near them - light and movement as signs of human occupation, and the occasional probe, always destroyed by a monolith, as an attempt to see when they will be allowed to make contact
This book follows on the heels of the last. A joint team of Russian and American astronauts are tasked with getting to the abandoned ship Discovery, finding out why Hal broke down, and more importantly finding out anything they can about Bowman's disappearance and the Monolith itself.
I was not much interested in the crew interactions, but the plot and descriptions of distant planets as they might be seen up close were great. The team on the ship Leonov plans to be the first there, but they are outstripped by a Chinese ship who made a rather daring decision to pack less fuel than necessary and refuel on Jupiter's moon Europa, a frozen water moon that can be harvested for fuel. Instead the light on the ship attracts life in the form of a large plant-like organism, whose efforts to reach the light end up destroying the ship and killing the crew.
The American/Russian team on Leonov mourn, but are unable to help. They continue on their mission. And this is when we reconnect with Bowman. Bowman has been reborn as a new entity and their presence near the monolith has him returning to Earth's solar system. He explores Earth at the behest of his creators, and takes the time to examine the life on Europa and the life on Jupiter - two of the more imaginative and interesting episodes in the book. The intelligence behind Bowman's transformation are highly evolved beings of energy, not matter, and they work to seed, encourage, and protect intelligent life. To this end they decide to transform Jupiter into a new sun, one that will encourage the life on Europa to grow and evolve.
In reality, turning Jupiter into a sun in a feat of geoengineering would probably put teh entire solar system into a tailspin - it's a large and important presence in our solar system. The book mentions its impact just in terms of light - nocturnal animals dying, permanent areas on Earth that no longer experience night, etc. It does not mention changing orbits of every planetary body due to changes in gravity and mass, but it is fiction.
Through Bowman the humans are sent a message that the new planets are there's to use as they wish - with the exception of Europa which they are not to travel to.
The reason for this is shown in the epilogue, set in the far future, showing the intelligent life in Europa slowly exploring their own world and wondering about what is happening on the planets near them - light and movement as signs of human occupation, and the occasional probe, always destroyed by a monolith, as an attempt to see when they will be allowed to make contact