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2010: Odyssey Two is a best selling science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, which was released in January 1982. It is the sequel to the film of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The novel was turned into a 1984 film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
Plot summary Unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey, the novel and the screenplay were not written simultaneously, but the film is not an adaptation in the conventional sense, as there are significant differences between the two. This synopsis summarises the plot of the novel. For both the book and the movie, the story is set nine years after the failure of the Discovery mission to Jupiter. Note that the novel version of 2001 featured the journey to Saturn instead: Clarke acknowledges this retroactive continuity in his author's foreword. A joint Soviet-American crew, including Heywood Floyd from 2001, on the Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov (named after the famous cosmonaut) arrives to discover what went wrong with the earlier mission, to investigate the monolith in orbit around the planet, and to resolve the disappearance of David Bowman. They hypothesize that much of this information is locked away on the now-abandoned Discovery One craft. The Soviets have an advanced new "Sakharov" drive (a reference to the physicist Andrei Sakharov) which will propel them to Jupiter first, so Floyd is assigned to the Leonov crew as part of a joint mission. However, a Chinese "space station" rockets out of Earth orbit, revealing itself to be an interplanetary spacecraft named the Tsien, which is also aimed at Jupiter. The Leonov crew comment on the kamikaze-like method of the Chinese team, but Floyd eventually surmises that due to the large water content of Europa, they are destined to land there and use the water content to refuel their tanks. The Tsien The Leonov eventually rendezvous with the Discovery, and Hal's creator, Dr. Chandra, on the mission, reactivates the HAL 9000 computer to ascertain the cause of his earlier aberrant behavior. A sequence of scenes follows the explorations of David Bowman, who has been transformed into a non-corporeal, energy-based life-form, much like the aliens controlling the monoliths. In the novel, the aliens use Bowman to explore beneath the ice of Europa, where they find aquatic life forms, and under the clouds of Jupiter, where they discover gaseous life forms. Both are primitive, but the aliens deem the Europan creatures to have evolutionary potential. During his journey, the avatar of Bowman travels to the Earth, making contact with significant individuals from his human past: he visits his mother and brushes her hair (shortly before she dies), and he appears to his girlfriend on her television screen. An apparition of Bowman appears before Floyd (shaping itself from dust), warning him that they must leave Jupiter within fifteen days. Floyd has difficulty convincing the rest of the crew, at first, but then the monolith vanishes from orbit and a mysterious dark spot on Jupiter begins to form and starts growing. HAL's telescope observations reveal that the Great Black Spot is in fact a vast population of monoliths, increasing at a geometric rate, which appear to be eating the planet. The Leonov crew devises a plan to use the Discovery as a "booster rocket", enabling them to return to Earth ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, HAL and the Discovery will be trapped in Jupiter orbit, with insufficient fuel to escape. The crew are worried that the HAL will have the same neuroses on discovering that he will be abandoned yet again, and Chandra must convince HAL that the human crew is in danger. The Leonov crew make a hasty exit from Jupiter, observing as the swarm of Monoliths spread to engulf Jupiter. Through a mechanism the novel only partially explains, these monoliths increase Jupiter's density until the planet achieves nuclear fusion, becoming a small star. In the novel, this obliterates the primitive life-forms which had inhabited the Jovian atmosphere, which the Monoliths' controllers had deemed less worthy than the aquatic life of Europa. As Jupiter is about to nova, Bowman returns to Discovery to give HAL a last order to carry out. HAL begins repeatedly broadcasting the message "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." The creation of the new star, which Earth eventually names "Lucifer", destroys Discovery entirely. However, HAL is transformed into the same kind of lifeform as David Bowman, and becomes his companion. Epilogue: 20,001 The book ends with a brief epilogue, which takes place in 20,001 CE. By this time, the Europans have evolved into a species that has developed a primitive civilization. They are not described in detail, though they are said to have "tendril"-like limbs. They regard the star Lucifer (formerly the planet Jupiter) as their main Sun, referring to Sol as "The Cold Sun". Though their settlements are concentrated primarily in the hemisphere of Europa which is constantly bathed in Lucifer's rays, some Europans have begun in recent generations to explore the Farside, the hemisphere facing away from Lucifer, which is still covered in ice. There, they may witness the spectacle of night, unknown on the other side of Europa, when the Cold Sun sets. The Europans who explore the Farside have been carefully observing the night sky and have begun to develop a mythology based on their observations. They believe (correctly) that Lucifer was not always there. They believe that the Cold Sun was its brother and was condemned to march around the sky for a crime. The Europans also see three other major bodies in the sky. One seems to be constantly engulfed in fire, and the other two have lights on them which are gradually spreading. These three bodies are the moons Io, Callisto, and Ganymede, the latter two of which are presently being colonized by humans. Apparently, humans have been attempting to explore Europa ever since Lucifer was created in 2010. However, none of these attempts have been successful. Every spaceship or probe that has attempted to land on Europa has been destroyed in the atmosphere. The debris from every ship and probe falls to the surface of the planet, and the debris from some of the first ships to be destroyed is venerated by the Europans. Finally, there is a Monolith on the planet, which is more worshipped by the Europans than anything else. The Europans assume (correctly) that the Monolith is what keeps humans at bay. Dave Bowman and Hal lie dormant in this Monolith. The Monolith is the guardian of Europa, and will continue to prevent contact between Earth and Europa for as long as it sees fit. Discontinuities between 2001 and 2010 Trivia Release details | ||||||||
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