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I picked up 2001 A Space Odyssey at Goodwill for $1.99. It is a classic science fiction book originally published in 1968 and authored by Arthur C. Clark. The novel is based on the screenplay written by Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick. The movie based on the screenplay was released in 1968 as well. I never watched the movie but I’ve seen a ton of clips and I only knew it as a story about a rogue AI named Hal but that is only a small part of the story.

The book starts with the discovery of a mysterious alien object found buried on the moon. Then we learn that a crew of astronauts are heading to Jupiter to make observations about the planets. We find out that the real mission is related to the alien object that previously sent out signals toward Jupiter and Earth is interested in finding out if the aliens are hostile or not. The trip to Jupiter is long and arduous as the crew is attacked by the AI system known as Hal. Dave Bowman survives the attack and makes it to Jupiter to discover that there is indeed an alien object similar to but much larger than the one on the Moon. What happens when Dave goes down to study the alien building is mind-boggling and fantastical.

I enjoyed this book and I like that it is not full of unbelievable fantasy elements. It is very grounded and realistic but it also has long-winded descriptions of mundane events. There are entire chapters that describe travel with a level of detail that I found boring and unnecessary. The times in between action are not very interesting to me but the exciting parts more than make up for it, making the whole thing worth reading. It just requires commitment. The writing is incredible and poetic. Arthur C. Clark is a great writer and he made a huge impact on the literary world and influenced the genre of science fiction inexorably.

I recommend this book if you like science fiction and it doesn’t take long to get through but be prepared to slog through some tedious chapters that could have been omitted without taking away from the story. It feels old-fashioned but I can see how it would be seen as monumentous in the world of science fiction when it came out. I need to watch the movie so that I can add to my cultural knowledge related to this book and I love science fiction so why not?