Ben reviews Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2061: Odyssey Three
Book Review: 2061 Odyssey Three
July 3, 2013- Categories: Book Reviews,
- Books,
- Review,
- Sci-Fi,
- YouTube Videos
April 17, 2024
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Finally listened!
Great review, Ben.
I totally agree with your review too. 2061 is a worse book than 2010, but somehow more fun to read. I liken this one to a proto-Star Trek story. There’s a space ship in distress. There’s an somewhat interesting crew. There’s a potentially dangerous alien. And everything has to be finished in a hurry! Very Trek-like.
I think I prefer 3001 to 2061. Slightly.
What I love about these books is the out-there spiritual rambling combined with the hard sci-fi. That’s why the first book is far and away, my favorite. 2010 coupled those two themes well enough, following the pattern of showing the hard sci-fi and culminating in the spiritual. 2061 attempted the same, but I found the final encounter between HAL, Dave, and Floyd to be very mushy. It felt like he took the cake out of the oven too soon and nobody had the nerve to tell the grand old master that he messed up, so we all have to eat grainy, mushy cake. Anyway, that’s how I felt about the CONCLUSION of 2061. The rest of the book was fun.
3001 is a little more sophisticated in dealing with the spiritual-type stuff. It’s still disappointing, but it’s an improvement. Unfortunately, the sci-fi element is actually pretty weak (even dull at times). Ah well, more about that when you post your review of 3001. Enjoy!
And thanks for the video!