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2001

A Space Odyssey

By Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke

(144)

| Paperback | 9780451452733

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Book Description

The bestselling classic-now in trade paperback with an introduction by the author and a dazzling new package.

The classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars-and ourselves.

4 Reviews

masterpiece. Clears many of the open points in the movie

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Casolino Marco said on Nov 6, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

Completely blown away. On a second thought tho, it's entirely bizarre, why a sci-fi written in words (no photos, no illustrations) could be that vivid and beautiful in depicting our Universe? What's more, I'm reading 2001 in the year 2010...

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fruit said on Sep 4, 2010 | Add your feedback

The science part was very interesting. The fiction part was too, but not mind-blowing, in my opinion, as its reputation would suggest.

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sid_rw said on Mar 22, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

It is probably no need to comment on this classic. But I am the first batch who saw the monumental Movie by Stanley Kubrick. I was only in secondary school. Form 4. And I was a fan of astronomy, astrophysics, and Space Navigation. It was shortly after the success of the Apollo 11 mission , first la ... (continue)

It is probably no need to comment on this classic. But I am the first batch who saw the monumental Movie by Stanley Kubrick. I was only in secondary school. Form 4. And I was a fan of astronomy, astrophysics, and Space Navigation. It was shortly after the success of the Apollo 11 mission , first landing of human on the moon. I had been following the projects from Sputnik, Mercury, Gemini to Saturn V and then Apollo. And I sat there at 4am, in my neighbour's home looking at life broadcast of Neil Armstrong , landing on the moon and uttered the sentence." This is a small step for a man, but it is a big step for Man" So, when this movie.........2001-the Space Odessy was shown, it was sweeping the world like anything[unlike Harry Potter which is only for youthful minds]. I still remember sitting there and stunned by the striking of the skull by the big femur bone,its rotation in the sky becoming the double ring rotating space station, accompanied by the Blue Denube. The theme opening music of the sun appearing with multiple moons. The walking with magnetic gripshoes and no up and down in space station. The first appearance of the monolith. the high pitched song. The sperm like explorer to Jupiter [it was the ionwind propeller concept, but most of my classmate or I should say newspaper movie critics did not know and imagine it to be sperm of human to the egg of space, bs] The HAL and why it mutinies, in a time when computer was known only to a few of my classmates and basically none of the movie critics and programming was literally unheard of , and of course programming concept is basically nonexistent. And of course the final part, the arrival to Jupiter and the room, the coming back trip and nearly 15minutes of special effect was the most often mentioned part.[probably only I know then it is going through all cosmology and star physics concepts then]as a funny thing [of course we now know it is based on the embryo] and of course, the rapid ageing and its relation to Relativity. All were hot talks then.I still remember seeing the movie in an afternoon in sunwah theatre, the current SinTec in Mongkok, and I walked along Nathan Road with my brain bursting, until I reached Tsimshatsui.It was such an astounding movie. One can imagine it made such a talk of the town and movie world for the decades to come So, basically all I saw in written form on this in chinese world are by arts people and never hit the jackpot. [one can see how big is the gap of knowledge between the english speaking and the chinese speaking world then]I made correct guess on the computer programming concept but can never understand the monolith. Until I get hold of this book , if I remember correctly , was written after the movie making.It is such a landmark movie. The book is a bit disillusioning, cutting down imagination to more factual thing. But the late comer 2010, and close encounter of the 3rd kind, and recently , the Contact,obviously is much affected by it. To the timid schoolboy then I made a guess
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I recently reread a book by HK SF writer Ngai Hong on Space and Time Travel' atomic space'[原子空間].Inside it there was a detailed section on the Planet of Eternity [he wrote Sing, which in chinese just means an astronomical object. Surely it should be a planet and not a real star as no star can harbor living beings] The place is pure crystals and the beings evolved from objects to thoughts embodied in machines and eventually into wondering brain waves.....the exact plot was nearly identical to the prelude in 2001.
I rechecked that the novel was written back in newspaper Mingpao daily when I read it in 1966, while AC Clarke wrote 2001 in 1968.
It is really something for Ngai Hong fans to cherish.

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Wutaichi2 said on Jul 21, 2007 | Add your feedback