2001: A Space Odyssey was written by Arthur C. Clarke and based on the movie of the same name. It opens back in the stone age with some unusual rocks randomly appearing all over Earth and training or teaching early humans tools and tricks to help them progress. Eventually the mysterious rocks disappear as fast as they appeared. The story then jumps to more modern times where we follow a scientist who is rushing to catch a transport to the colony on the moon. While he refuses to discuss the reason behind his surprise trip with random other passersby it is revealed upon his arrival that they have found an anomaly buried in the moon. The anomaly is a random rock that sends off a mysterious signal upon being unburied and seeing the light of the sun. After a second smaller time jump we are on a ship traveling to the far reaches of the galaxy as the ship and its passengers, two awake scientists, an AI named Hal 9000, and three cryosleep scientists, work on reaching Saturn.
I have to admit I think this is probably one of the only books I have ever read that was based on a movie instead of the other way around. It just so happens to be a movie that I am unfamiliar with and have never seen. That being said, the story was good and fairly intriguing in terms of plot. There were several layers to it that were all interwoven and not revealed right away which made some things seem less important than they actually were. Mind you this did lead me to wonder what the book was actually supposed to be about. I was surprised by the way the story was developed and how it started out with the early section in the stone age, especially considering this was science fiction and you don’t typically see that time period in that genre. It wasn’t bad but it was unusual. However, it fit the story and way everything eventually played out even if it didn’t feel like that at first. You can tell the story was written a while ago by the depiction of the moon colony and the accord between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. That was an interesting if unusual way for that to develop which I was not expecting. Again not a bad thing but something that was slightly unusual. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story was the use of AI to run the spaceship. Not very many stories use AI for that purpose and maybe this story is part of the reason for that. The one thing that was not present though is the lack of character development through much of the book. This story is not character driven in any way unless you count humanity in general as a character. While the characters it contains are not superficial they are also not necessarily well rounded or fleshed out beyond the bare minimum necessary for the story. Normally I would prefer a bit more depth to the characters as personal preference but it seemed to suit this story so I can accept that I guess. Overall, a good but not necessarily great story. I am giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
This book is a science-fiction novel so if you happen to enjoy that genre than I suggest you consider trying it out. More specifically if you enjoy books about space travel or the use of AI than you might just enjoy this book. If you don’t like any of those things than I am not sure this would hold a lot of appeal for you though you are welcome to try it anyway. This book is predominantly aimed at adult readers and for the most part I would agree with that. There is some content that might make it difficult for younger readers as there is some minor potentially disturbing content in the latter half of the book. At the same time it is not bad enough that older teens or young adults can’t read it so it should be fine for readers older than about fifteen or sixteen if they want to try it out. As always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you do decide to try it.