2001 A Space Odyssey

2001 A Space Odyssey
Author: Arthur C Clarke 1968 236 pp
My rating: 2.5*
Started April 14 2008, Finished April 16 2008

Billed as a novel, but an “explication of some of the less comprehensible elements of the (far, far superior) movie” is a more fitting characterization; what stars I do award this book result from the insight it does add to the movie. Character development is non-existent; this was non a strong suit of the film, but Dave and, particularly, HAL were far more fleshed out and believable there.

There is some fun to be had in assessing the book’s predictions for a future which was 30+ years ahead of its writing and most of a decade behind us now. Clarke gets computers partially right – they are ubiquitous, but typewriters and paper documents are far too prevalent, especially at the moon base. He comically underestimates inflation, most notably when he states the cost of “training, transport and housing for moon base employees” at $100K which he intends to be a vast sum; my wild guess as to a more accurate figure would be 1000 times that, based on a rough idea of what it currently takes to finance a single three day space shuttle mission.

The book is at its best when theorizing on pure SF issues, such as the provocative chapter on the logistics of alien life and travel. However, in addition to its grievous shortcomings in character development, it suffers from some just plain sloppy thinking and writing:
At one point, Clarke describes an EVA tether as a “cord a little thicker than cotton”; I have no idea the standard thickness of cotton is – is he referring to a bail or boll of cotton or perhaps cotton fabric.

Most irksome, he describes the monolith left by aliens on the moon as exactly “11 feet high, and 11/4 by 5 feet” to denote a ration of 9:4:1”. Why would the aliens use even imperial units? The 9:4:1 is good, provoking the sort of awed reaction in the reader that good SF can, but one has to believe the super-advanced aliens would have had their own measuring system 3 million years ago when the monolith was left on the moon and that its size would not evenly conform to human units of measurements.

Returning to the positive, the first section, "The Dawn of Man", while prosaic compared to the movie, was still thought provoking -- Moon Watcher was the man.