Rating: 
Summary: Decent
Review: Its a good plot with a good message, but, THERES FAR TOO MUCH DESCRIPTION.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough respect for mystery
Review: Kubrick's 2001 was not the adaptation of a book written by A. Clarke; we can rather envision these two works as personal visions on ideas that were initially elaborated by both men. As such, the book clearly pales in comparison to the movie. Book form often enables an artist to add more depth to characters and situations, but Clarke's novel does precisely the opposite: less mysterious, it accumulates words, descriptions and hypotheses while the film lets its ineffable images breathe in silence - the experience Kubrick conveys is impossible to be put into words without being betrayed. As such, the book 'explains' nothing since there is nothing to be explained; everything is to be lived. The relation between the film and the book, for me, is thus analogous to the relation between mystical experience and its inferior, textual expression. The novel remains interesting and well worth reading as a companion to Kubrick's film, but it should not be considered an adequate 'replacement' of the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Top drawer!
Review: The book that started many people reading science fiction in earnest and still probably Clarke's best known work. I have always thought it a good book, but certainly not one of Clarke's best. The beginning is still one of the best I have ever read as Clarke looks at primitive proto-humans and suggests that the monolith, representing an extra-terrestrial super-intelligence stimulates them into acquiring skills that appear basic but could mean the difference between survival and extinction at the hands of the less intelligent yet vastly more powerful beasts around them. The subsequent stages i.e. the discovery of the monolith on the moon, the voyage of the Discovery, the quirks of space travel, the showdown with the HAL computer and then the final denouement out by the moons of Saturn must have been awesome when the book was first written; today, many decades later, they are inevitably dulled. Yet having said that, the story itself is gripping: the struggle of humanity in the face of odds, with a kindly helping hand at the right time - almost in some ways an experiment in a vast laboratory. The story is humbling, suggesting as it does the sheer insignificance of earth in the universe (a Clarke specialty unlike Asimov who goes the opposite direction). As always, Clarke's writing style is top drawer - sparse to the point of terseness at times (this is a very short book for all its huge time horizon), yet filled with subtle humor and sly digs at ourselves.
Rating: 
Summary: Point Of View
Review: This book is subject to many interpretations, and that alone makes it a great story while it also tends to send people off arguing their own points. I'll try to stick to just one in this review, the one I believe is central to enjoying this book. 2001 (book) reveals more of the details of the story than the movie and that there are some differences (going to Saturn in the book, Jupiter in the film, as an example). This doesn't effect the overall read, but I thought it important to point out that the two (book/film) are different enough to be confusing. Many people have seen the film, or parts of it, and that can bring some to seek out the book and others to wonder why they would bother. The story is of Biblical proportions not only in the sense of the widest timeline in a movie (over 3 million years) but that it covers mankind's history without resorting to a long narrative, but by book ending history or in essence - their is no middle story. Man's destiny is outlined in rather 'dry' terms with little detail. Our ancestral relatives are mysteriously guided by the first monolith and we assume this leads us to our intellectual evolution as the 'bone weapon' becomes a space ship (that's from the movie). No time is wasted explaining the change, you just have to accept it. The second monolith, buried on the moon as a marker for us to discover, assuming we did evolve, sets off the two major parts of the story - Mankinds' curiousity vs. his need for secrecy, which is portrayed by the ignorance of the astronauts to their 'real' mission and the hidden knowledge of the on-board computer entity the HAL 9000. The characters are very flat, as is HAL, and that partly distracts the reader from realizing that technology itself is the central theme. This story is a warning about the inhuman direction that mankind is making with technology. Why wouldn't the actors be dull? We are diluting the individualism of mankind even now. I'll dare say that Kubrick intended to expand on the dryness of Clarke's stories (The Sentinel, for one) so as to remind us of mankinds' foolish dependence on the technology we surround ourselves with. I mention the movie here as it reveals how the collaberation with Clarke had influenced the book. Clarke wrote this novel in tandem with his input on the movie screenplay and besides, Clarke is well known for taking on big issues instead of filling out characters. Back to the story. The malfunctioning of HAL leads to the final shedding of any human element in the story by simply discarding all but one of them. From here on, you experience the story through David Bowman. Victorious over HAL, Bowman has no one to share his final life experience with. The huge monolith, orbiting Saturn, leaves Bowman with a final mission - before he dies, find out what he can. Curiousity wiining out over survival, which seems impossible. This leads to a trip through 'unknown space', a place so 'alien' that Bowman cannot interpret what is going around him. Being nearly driven mad, he is left to viewing some last remnants of his race before he is transformed. Here the book better explains, without revealing any reason or purpose. Bowman is left, in a form he can get his mind around - an infant in space - to contemplate mankind's future. A not so subtle reference is made to the elimination of nuclear weapons. So, the end of the book, which in itself can be interpreted many ways, shows that a superior presence may yet guide us to a better future. This is only one, of many, interpretations I have had of this book/movie since I first read/viewed it, back in '68. The title is, or course, very dated, but it still harks of a future yet untraveled. I found the trip through this book even more 'mind-expanding' than the visual ride through the Jupiter monolith in the movie. So, it is because this story has so open an interpretation that it excels and also tends to baffle some readers and disgust others. It is in the 'not answering' the questions that I give this book 5 Stars. If Clarke had succumbed to giving the reader his own interpretation it would have poisoned the very 'mystery' the book had built. After all, how can you describe something that could be God or a future human species, or anything else in between? Much less give a reason for their actions that would make sense to us mere humans. 2001 is a great read that will leave you thinking the ultimate thought - your very existence. The fun is in the trip, not the destination.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: When I saw the movie 2001, I was completely confused. I understood the basic plot line but didn't understand any of the nuances. I found the end especially baffling. Reading the book cleared up my confusion and answered my questions (and created a few more). The premise of the book is excellent. Instead of having a typical face-to-face run-in with aliens, the characters in the book come upon evidence of alien intelligence: a black monolith which pre-dates modern history. As they try to discover who left the monolith, questions are answered and many more questions arise. The storyline was unique, and although the characters were underdeveloped they were believable. The imagery in the book was wonderful: I could picture Jupiter, Saturn, and the moons of the planets as Clarke described them. I found it amazing how accurate his descriptions were considering what we know now about these heavenly bodies compared to what they knew at the time the book was written. I would recommend this book to science fiction fans who aren't interested in violence. This doesn't have any of the wars or combat that many SF books have. I would also recommend it to technical-oriented people who have an interest in learning more about astronomy.
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