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“Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do.��

Funny that this innocuous kiddies�� tune always reminds me of a homicidal supercomputer.



Arthur C. Clarke, in spite of being a sci-fi legend, is not known for his characterization, but HAL 9000 is one of the most memorable sci-fi characters ever, with his friend Dave Bowman not far behind.

With 2010: Odyssey Two, we are back to “the future�� which is now the past. Some people will be put off from reading this book because it is set six years ago and nothing like what transpires in the book occurred in the real 2010. Us long time sci-fi readers are very tolerant of the real future overtaking the fictional one. The important thing is the story, and the alien technology in this book has not been made to look silly by today’s Earthly tech. Better still, Clarke makes the super tech seems believable.

2010: Odyssey Two takes place nine years after the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (thank you, Captain Obvious!). At the end of the previous book the spaceship Discovery is abandoned in Jupiter’s orbit and the ship’s single survivor, David Bowman, went through a gigantic monolith that turns out to be a portal of some kind, and nobody has heard from him since. And what is all this “OMG! - it’s full of stars�� business? Has he sneaked off to Beverly Hills?

Spacecraft Discovery

This sequel is centered on the Russian spacecraft The Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, manned mostly by Russian crew with a couple of Americans to legitimize entry into The Discovery, which is US property. Their mission is to find out what happened to Discovery, HAL 9000 and Bowman, and also to investigate the giant “Big Brother/Zagadka�� monolith that Bowman went through. What they discover is a project of cosmic proportions.

The early part of 2010: Odyssey Two is less than riveting as Clarke goes into detail about the family life of the book’s protagonist, Heywood Floyd and their pet dolphins. Then there are several lengthy scientific expository passages leading up to the rendezvous with the Discovery which are too dry for my taste. I do like hard SF, the real world science enhances the verisimilitude of the futuristic plot. Unfortunately, long infodumps tend to be very dry read like extracts from a scientific journal article. This is a trap that hard sf authors often fall into, though, to his credit, Clarke’s expositions are more accessible than most. Science in tandem with storytelling, on the other hand, can be very effective and fascinating. The best parts of this book are where Clarke successfully integrate the science into the narrative.

The giant "Big Brother/Zagadka" monolith at Jupiter (click to embiggen)

For example, Clarke’s application of scientific minutiae during Floyd’s exploration of the Discovery derelict makes for a wonderfully atmospheric scene (love the surprising reference). The restoration and rebooting revival of HAL 9000 is my favorite part of the book, gotta love that HAL! As for David Bowman, he has become something posthuman, but still retains much of his humanity in his thoughts and actions.

Not the same old Dave

For most of the book 2010: Odyssey Two chugs along at a deliberate pace, though the first half of the book is not all that compelling but readable enough to stay out of the bin. The narrative becomes much more exciting as things become increasingly outlandish, and David Bowman goes on his almost metaphysical missions at the behest of his inscrutable alien masters. The (view spoiler)[redemption (hide spoiler)] of HAL 9000 is also rather moving. The climax of the book is a real humdinger and the epilogue is also great.

I enjoyed 2010: Odyssey Two, though it is not nearly as compelling as 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don’t think I will be reading 2061: Odyssey Three as the principle of diminishing returns continues to operate. I recommend this book with the above-mentioned reservations.

TL;DR: It’s pretty good.

The Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov by Joseph Soiza (the smaller spaceship is the Discovery)



Notes:
�� I can’t remember anything about the movie adaptation,

�� Love the stuff about the von Neumann machines “exponentiating��.

�� My review of 2001: A Space Odyssey



Quotes:
“How did one annoy a two-kilometre-long black rectangular slab? And just what form would its disapproval take?��

“The fact that Nikolai’s English was much the worst on the ship was totally unimportant, since most of the time both men spoke a computerese wholly unintelligible to anyone else.��

“It was not hard to form the words, and to impose them on the currents pulsing in the audio circuits. The real difficulty was to slow down his thoughts to the glacial tempo of the human brain. And then to have to wait an eternity for the answer��

“You mean, we’ve just seen an example of astronomical engineering?��

Catchphrase for this book:
“ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.��