2001

I thought this audiobook was fine. The copy I have is from the National archive for the library from the blind. So it is all one very long MP3. Thankfully my listening didn't get interrupted otherwise that could have been a pain. returnreturnHaving been a Sci-Fi fan since I first saw Star Trek on reading Rainbow, and a member of the class of 2001 I had heard of this story for a long time, but never actually read it or watched the movie till now. (Though I did see the movie sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact because that's what our video store had). returnreturnThis story was certainly better than that one. returnreturnLike much "hard" science fiction it is too slow and has very little action, as the adventure isn't the point its the exploring of science. returnreturnIt starting with a time pre-garden of Eden is pretty hard to believe, claiming that God didn't make man, but rather we are the result of an experiment by a superior race that gave us the ability to make tools. returnreturnIn the introduction the author claims their goal here was to make believable science fiction that didn't suck. Set less than 40 years in their future what might space travel look like. Well they certainly are doing more of it than we are, so that's ahead of where humanity is 60 years after it was written, but it seems all other technology is significantly behind. returnreturnFor example the greatest consumer device ever invented seems to be basically an iPad that can only access news websites. Even as long ago as 2001 our BlackBerries where better than that. returnreturnIt seems the cold war still continues but rather than the USA vs. the Soviets of the 1960s it has changed into the USA AND the USSR together against the Chinese. returnreturnI really enjoyed Clarke's description of Saturn, even if he indicated in the intro that everything about Saturn is actually wrong, and that's a good reason that they went to Jupiter in the movie. returnreturn2001 is interesting in that neither did the book come first and then a movie was made based on it, nor was their a movie made that had a novelization after the fact, but the screenplay and the novel where developed simultaneously. It probably would have worked better if the book came out 6 months before the movie rather than 6 months after it. returnreturnThe computer HAL had less influence on the story line than I had expected from the often quoted lines of the movie such as "I can't let you do that Dave" All in all an important part of American Sci-Fi history and probably worth reading for that, but nothing to get too excited about storywise.