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Title: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0-451-45063-9 Publisher: New Amer Library Pub. Date: 01 May, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (205 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The novel version of "2001" is a poor cousin of the film.
Comment: The movie "2001 A Space Odyssey" doesn't play out like any ordinary film. The unique ideas of the story are told almost completely visually. The birth of intelligence in the apes, the vast emptiness of space, Bowman's bizarre journey, and the connection between the monoliths are shown to us, never narrated. No one tells us what is going on, the dialogue is merely an extra in the story. How then, does Arthur C. Clarke wish to put this into words? He defeated the whole idea. The best thing about the movie was Stanley Kubrick's unusual style. Besides giving Kubrick "The Sentinel" (which, by the way, is a fantastic story) and helping with scientific facts, Clarke should have left Kubrick's work alone.I haven't even gotten into some of the absurd parts of the book where, on more than one occasion, Clarke gives too much of the mystery away. The novel is no better than a companion piece to the movie. Only read it if you've seen the film and understand and appreciate the story.
Rating: 5
Summary: Filled with strokes of genius and inspirational notions
Comment: Such an easy, yet thought provoking, read. The structure of the book is wonderfully original, and some of the concepts and plot devices simply inspirational. Clarke and Kubrick, who were trying to counter the image of the stereo-typical Marsian alien, knew that for the aliens to be truly alien they would have to be incomprehensible to humans. How to describe something that is beyond human comprehension? Substituting the actual presence of the alien being with the monolith was a solution borne out of genius. The exploration of such giant themes as man's relationship to technology (whether it be in the form of a bone or a satellite orbiting the earth, or a super intelligent computer), the evolutionary process, or the human impetus towards worshipping icons and the formation of religions, is conducted in a remarkably unpretentious manner. One must say that the book is in the unfortunate position of being compared as a work of art with the superior Stanley Kubrick movie. The sense of mystery that the film retains in its conclusion and the poetry of the photography and editing, raise it to a yet higher plain. Nevertheless, both book and film owe a great deal to one another, and to the imagination of Arthur C. Clarke.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not enough respect for mystery
Comment: Kubrick's 2001 was not the adaptation of a book written by A. Clarke; we can rather envision these two works as personal visions on ideas that were initially elaborated by both men. As such, the book clearly pales in comparison to the movie. Book form often enables an artist to add more depth to characters and situations, but Clarke's novel does precisely the opposite: less mysterious, it accumulates words, descriptions and hypotheses while the film lets its ineffable images breathe in silence - the experience Kubrick conveys is impossible to be put into words without being betrayed. As such, the book 'explains' nothing since there is nothing to be explained; everything is to be lived. The relation between the film and the book, for me, is thus analogous to the relation between mystical experience and its inferior, textual expression. The novel remains interesting and well worth reading as a companion to Kubrick's film, but it should not be considered an adequate 'replacement' of the movie.
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Title: 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0345303067 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: 2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0345358791 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0345423496 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title:2001 - A Space Odyssey ASIN: B00005ASUM Publisher: Warner Studios Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.97 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.38 |
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Title: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0553287893 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 December, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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