2061: Odyssey Three (Space Odyssey Series)

2061: Odyssey Three picks up with a 160+ year old Heywood Floyd - still vigorous thanks to advances in medical technology and many decades of living at 1/6th gravity on a space station - ready to undertake another adventure, this time to land on Haley's Comet as a highly visible "celebrity" passenger. Finding out his estrange grandson is a crew member aboard a similar vessel doing research in the Jovian/Lucifer system when that ship is hijacked and forced to land on Europa, Floyd and the crew of the space ship he's traveling with must come up with an ingenious method to reach Europa in time to save the crew of the downed ship.

2061: Odyssey Three is a contrast to the earlier books in the 20xx universe. Where 2001 and 2010 were both fairly intense books, with a strong degree of antagonism (whether it be from a person or a hostile environment) and even a little bit of a fear factor, 2061 showcases Clarke as a master story teller - because it's only through his mastery of prose that Clarke can write a book that's almost entirely a fluff piece and still spin a tale that people want to read. To me, 2061 felt, very literally, like a group of youngsters sitting around a fireplace begging grandpa to "tell us about the time you went to Haley's comet" one more time. The fairly short novel (hardcover clocks in at 204 pages) really lacks any sort of antagonistic element, and is more a simple adventure story with a lot of flashbacks and other odds and ends.

While a good story, told by a sci-fi master, I kept wanting a little more from it. The "exciting" part of the book really doesn't start until we're over 100 pages in (keeping in mind that's nearly halfway through the book), when the star ship that Floyd's grandson is a crew member on, is hijacked and forced to crash land on Europa. Fans of 2010 will remember when the obelisk/star child tells humanity "all of these planets are yours, except Europa, attempt no landings there," but when one ship crash lands there and another is sent to rescue it, the response from Europa is a bit lackluster (I wont reveal what actually happens, don't want to spoil things) and I think Clarke missed an opportunity to expand on the cryptic, otherwordlyness of that particular plot element.

As others who gave the book 3 and 4 stars point out frequently, 2061 is by no means a bad book and is worth reading, but it doesn't do much to advance the 20xx universe outside of adding a little depth and detail.

Rendezvous With Rama was written in 1972, when he had some writing skills still. Skip this empty fluff and go with the 1st Rama book - it's 5 stars.

The big idea behind Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 series is so good that just about anything he wrote within it would be good reading. This isn't a great book -- it really has an amazing amount of catchup-style narrative, telling us what has gone on over long periods of time in order to set the context for dialog and action in the present tense. John Barth derisively referred to such narrative as "corning the goose."

The other thing that Clarke does in this book is explain. He explains what's going on on Europa. He explains (more or less) what's happened to Dave Bowman. One of the great things, I thought, about 2001 was how little he explained. The enigma of the blank, black monoliths was great -- a power beyond our ken. Fortunately in this book, Clarke doesn't explain who made the monoliths. Even Dave Bowman doesn't understand who they are.

But I don't really care about what are arguably faults in the book. I enjoyed it, I enjoyed finding out what was going on on Europa, and I even enjoyed knowing a little more about Dave Bowman's fate. And I especially enjoy the way that Clarke puts us in our place, contrasting us with an inconceivably different and sophisticated alien presence.

I loved 2001 and 2010, but this book and 3001 were horrible and loses the vision of the plot. This book felt unfinished. He should have stopped the series at 2010.

The third book in the Space Odyssey series continues Arthur Clarke's tradition of combining intriguing ideas with a rigorous adherence to real science. 2061 has the same feel as the first two book in the series with perhaps a bit less imagination in the story-line as it deals again mostly with Europa (aside form a short stop on Haley's Comet). While perhaps not up to the same standard as the original, Clarke does bring enough imagination to the story to make the it compelling. The book is also hampered a bit by Clarke's seemingly eagerness to fit 20th century references into the dialog which made many of the conversations awkward and even a bit far fetched. Yet overall, the skill Clarke exemplifies in painting a picture of the future of space travel easily overcompensated for these short comings making this book well worthwhile if you seek to continue the Space Odyssey expedition.

I resisted reading this book for a while based on the overwhelming negative reviews but it deffinately is a worthy sequel to the odyssey series. As usual Clarke uses lots of science fact to paint a possible fictional story as to the next step in how Europa fits into earth's future.

In the book, humans have stayed away from Europa as per the last message sent from Discovery by Bowman or the ETs who made him. But something has appeared on the "night side" of the planet and someone hijacks a ship forcing it to land on Europa.

Why would someone want to land on Europa after the warning? Will there be any consequences for landing? What do they find on Europa? What life? Does the hijacker find what they were looking for on the surface of Europa?

Read and find out!

This is not a great book. It's really more of an extended novella or perhaps part one of Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey finale, "3001". This story has none of the depth, nuance or scale of Clarke's classic original, "2001" nor its solid follow up "2010".

Clarke creates two focal points 60 years after modern man first comes across The Monolith buried deeply beneath the surface of the moon. One story thread follows Dr. Heywood Floyd, a centenarian whose medical condition forces him to live full time off-Earth. He's been asked to join a scientific mission to land on Halley's comet that's making its regularly scheduled swing near Earth. In parallel, Clarke explores the growth and evolution of the former Jovian moon, and nascent planet, Europa. Surrounding these dual tales is a weak mystery with weaker intrigue that ultimately brings the two threads together.

Clarke is at his best when speculating on a future culture enormously affected by the events in the first two books of the series. Equally as strong is Clarke's evolutionary ruminations on the biological progression of life on Europa - formerly an ice-harden snowball orbiting Jupiter, but instantly transformed when a billion billion monoliths exploded within Jupiter and transformed it into Lucifer, an intra solar system star (at the conclusion of "2010").

"2061" isn't a bad book, it's just bland. I've enjoyed the narrative development that began in the wonderfully broad and subtle "2001", and continued in "2010" which smartly built on the myth of The Monolith and its creators. "2061" provides a glimpse at the intervening years and sets expectations and builds anticipation of the finale. As a stand-alone, however, there's just not much 'there'.

Arthur Clarke revisita o futuro mais famoso já imaginado e por ele criado, dando ao leitor a chance de explorar e se maravilhar, neste livro em que duas expedições ao espaço se reúnem.
O Dr. Heywoood Floyd, sobrevivente de dois encontros prévios com os misteriosos monólitos, em 2001 e 2010, tem de confrontar novamente Dave Bowman, o super computador HAL, e uma raça alienígena que decidiu que os seres humanos tem de participar na evolução da galáxia, quer queira quer não.
50 anos após a mensagem proibindo os humanos de se aproximarem do satélite Europa do planeta Jupiter, uma expedição ao Cometa Halley tem de violar essa regra, em nome de sua própria sobrevivência.
Com a troca de forças da agora luciferina lua, a missão de resgate que deve ocorrer, a volta do espírito de Dave Bowman, e o segredo do misterioso monólito, o suspense é grande.
Mas, na verdade, 2061, não oferece nada de especial para a série, a não ser para sabermos o que tem acontecido em Europa - o leitor pode pular este livro e ir direto para 3001, sem perder nenhuma informação vital. Pode até confundir menos...
Não espere por respostas que você precise, a indagações sobre os livros anteriores.

I am giving this one two stars out of respect for one of my favourite authors. I have 3001 at home but can't bring myself to read it.

easy, entertaining read with fun science---answered my lingering questions after 2001 A Space Odyssey ( book and film)