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sardonic's Reviews > Expedition to Earth
Expedition to Earth
by
by
Read this on a long plane ride and even longer layover.
As I'm sure is advertised on your copy of this too, this is the inspiration for the Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you thought you were going to read a story called "2001: A Space Odyssey", you would be mistaken. Expedition to Earth is a collection of stories released in 1953, about 15 years before the release of the film and it's novelization. All the typical themes you would expect to find are featured; evolution, nuclear weapons, psychic powers, bad military decisions, the ethics of alien encounters, and Walt Disney.
Overall I think there were more misses than hits for me, but there were a few that stood out.
In the "The Sentinel" an astronaut languidly climbs a mountain on the moon to retrieve an artifact of alien technology left behind to wait for the day human technology reaches a certain point. This is the short story which is credited as the inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I really enjoyed this, especially after having read space archaeologist Alice Gorman's description of the surface of the moon in Dr. Space Junk vs the Universe.
Another standout is a cheeky whodunnit where a cargo ship on a journey from Earth to Venus is damaged by a once in a million space anomaly while carrying two astronauts, leaving her with only enough oxygen for one of them to reach their destination alive. "Breaking Strain" is comic relief, bookended by hard sci-fi that deals with existential, ethical dilemmas, but I think it asks poignant questions about morality, vices, masculinity, and labor. I really enjoyed the discussion of the economics of their journey and the goods they were transporting. A story for a modern age of self driving vehicles and Amazon truck drivers pissing in plastic bottles to meet their delivery goals.
Some of the other stories I enjoyed featured a philosopher banished to the far future to await the death of a star, Earth-Mars political relations, and a spy in a space suit being hunted by an enemy space ship on one of Jupiter's moons.
Overall, I do recommend it, even if I thought some of the stories were a bit dull.
As I'm sure is advertised on your copy of this too, this is the inspiration for the Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you thought you were going to read a story called "2001: A Space Odyssey", you would be mistaken. Expedition to Earth is a collection of stories released in 1953, about 15 years before the release of the film and it's novelization. All the typical themes you would expect to find are featured; evolution, nuclear weapons, psychic powers, bad military decisions, the ethics of alien encounters, and Walt Disney.
Overall I think there were more misses than hits for me, but there were a few that stood out.
In the "The Sentinel" an astronaut languidly climbs a mountain on the moon to retrieve an artifact of alien technology left behind to wait for the day human technology reaches a certain point. This is the short story which is credited as the inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I really enjoyed this, especially after having read space archaeologist Alice Gorman's description of the surface of the moon in Dr. Space Junk vs the Universe.
Another standout is a cheeky whodunnit where a cargo ship on a journey from Earth to Venus is damaged by a once in a million space anomaly while carrying two astronauts, leaving her with only enough oxygen for one of them to reach their destination alive. "Breaking Strain" is comic relief, bookended by hard sci-fi that deals with existential, ethical dilemmas, but I think it asks poignant questions about morality, vices, masculinity, and labor. I really enjoyed the discussion of the economics of their journey and the goods they were transporting. A story for a modern age of self driving vehicles and Amazon truck drivers pissing in plastic bottles to meet their delivery goals.
Some of the other stories I enjoyed featured a philosopher banished to the far future to await the death of a star, Earth-Mars political relations, and a spy in a space suit being hunted by an enemy space ship on one of Jupiter's moons.
Overall, I do recommend it, even if I thought some of the stories were a bit dull.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June, 2024
–
Finished Reading
November 11, 2024
– Shelved
