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2001: A Space Odyssey

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This article is about the novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey. For the f
It said it all

2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke's first book in the series.

ilm of the same name, see 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)

2001: A Space Odyssey is a science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke. The novel was written at the same time as the film, directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Plot Edit

The story starts its focus on a tribe of ape-men in Africa , 3 million years B.C. One night, a mysterious alien race erects a large crystalline monolith. The monolith uses unseen forces to inspire the ape-men to construct crude tools from bones and rocks. The ape-men use the tools to kill prey and end their ongoing starvation, thus saving them from possible extinction. They also used their weapons to kill a leopard. The next day one of the ape-men, named Moon-Watcher, kills the leader of a rival tribe. Moon-Watcher soon realizes that he is now the master of the world. Over time the ape-men evolve into modern man.

The focus jumps 3 million years into the future, to the year 1999, where Dr. Heywood Floyd is preparing for his next trip into space. He arrives at Space Station One, where he runs into an old friend. Dr. Floyd then leaves Space Station One on an Ares IB moon shuttle. He lands at Clavius Base, on the moon, where he attends a briefing, about a recent discovery (a magnetic disturbance) in Tycho Crater; officially named Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One, or TMA-1. Excavation at the site reveals a giant black slab, with the proportions of 1:4:9, the squares of the first three integers (1,2,3). Aged at 3 million years, TMA-1 could not possibly be crafted by humans, thus making it the first evidence for extraterrestrial life. When the first sunlight hit it after 3 million years, the monolith sent out a piercing radio beam aimed directly at Saturn. The beam is later tracked to Iapetus, one of the moons of Saturn, where a mission is sent to investigate.

The focus jumps ahead once more to the year 2001, to the Discovery One mission to Saturn, crewed by David Bowman, Frank Poole, Victor Kaminski, Peter Whitehead, and Charles Hunter; the latter three were placed in cryogenic hibernation before the mission began. There is also an artificial intelligence on board, officially dubbed HAL 9000, often referred to as 'Hal', who is responsible for controlling the ship's functions.

After Poole receives a happy birthday call from his parents, Hal reports to Bowman that the AE-35 unit will fail within 72 hours. The AE-35 unit is the system that is responsible for keeping Discovery's antenna towards the Earth- without it, communications would be impossible. Poole goes out in an EVA pod to replace the malfunctioning AE-35 with a new one. When they bring in the old one for analysis, they can find nothing wrong with it. Hal then says that the new AE-35 unit will fail too. Both Poole and Bowman suspect that there is something wrong wit Hal. They radio down to Earth about the dilemma, and mission control agrees that Hal is malfunctioning. However, communications are cut when the AE-35 unit suddenly fails, just as Hal predicted. Poole goes out once more in an EVA pod to retrieve the malfunctioning unit. However, shortly after Poole exits the pod and begins unfastening the AE-35 unit, the pod rams him, knocking him away from Discovery, and tearing his spacesuit, exposing him to the vacuum of space. Dave is deeply distressed by the death of Poole, and decides to wake up the three astronauts in hibernation. As Bowman wakes the three astronauts, Hal opens the airlocks in the pod bay, venting all the air in Discovery. Dave eventually manages to find refuge in an emergency shelter, where he dons a spacesuit. He exits the shelter and disconnects Hal's higher functions. Dave restores order to Discovery and manually restores contact with Earth. He soon learns about the Tycho Monolith and that the actual purpose of the mission was to investigate Iapetus, in an effort to learn more about the alien race that put the monolith on the Moon.

Discovery is put into an orbit around Iapetus, which Dave has discovered to be oddly colored; one hemisphere is deep black, the other a vibrant white. At the very center of the white hemisphere, Bowman noticed a small black dot. Later on, he discovered the dot to be a second monolith, identical to the one found on the moon- though this one was nearly two kilometers tall. Dave decided to go out in one of the pods to get a closer look. He moved out above the monolith. It then reveals its true purpose as a stargate. It opens and pulls Bowman in. His last transmission was: "...the thing's goes on forever and... oh my God, it's full of stars!"

Bowman is transported through the stargate to fantastic sites such as a globular cluster, a binary star system, and a derelict space station. The pod's final resting place was a large hotel suite. After an examination of the suite, Dave climbed into bed and fell asleep. As he slept, Bowman's memory and thoughts were slowly drained from him. "As one Dave Bowman ceased to exist, another became immortal." Dave was made into an immortal entity, a Star Child, free from the bonds of matter, free to live and move about in the infinity of space and time. The Star Child then returned to Earth and destroys all of the nuclear weapons in orbit about the Earth. The Star Child, like Moon-Watcher, soon realized that he is the master of the world. He is unsure of what to do next, but he will think of something.

Differences from the film Edit

Though Kubrick and Clarke developed the novel and screenplay simultaneously, they bear several differences, the most notable is the change of the destination for Discovery; Saturn in the novel and Jupiter in the film. Kubrick chose to set the film here because the special effects supervisor, Douglas Trumbull, could not produce a convincing model of Saturn's rings. (He built on his experience with "2001" when he directed the later SF film, "Silent Running," which depicted a spaceship passing through Saturn's rings). Clarke also changed Saturn to Jupiter for his sequel novel, 2010: Odyssey Two.

The film shows Bowman going out in a pod to salvage Poole's body. While Dave is out, Hal shuts off the life support systems for the three astronauts in hibernation. When Dave returns, he is refused reentry into Discovery, forcing to enter through the emergency airlock, risking exposure to the vacuum of space. After this, Bowman proceeds to disconnect Hal. However, in the novel, Dave does not go out to rescue Frank. After Poole's death, Dave attempts to wake the three astronauts in hibernation. Hal then opens the airlock doors, venting the air inside Discovery, suffocating the hibernating crew and nearly killing Bowman. After which, he proceeds to disconnect Hal.

In the novel, the original monolith found by the man-apes in described as a translucent crystalline monolith. In the film, the monolith is seen as opaque.


Clarke also wrote three sequels to the novel:

  1. 2010: Odyssey Two
  2. 2061: Odyssey Three
  3. 3001: The Final Odyssey

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