Meanwhile, the reborn Star Child David Bowman returns in the form of spirit (or power, or…whatever your imagination tells you) to visit some of his most beloved people. Upon trying to land on one of its moons, Europa, the spaceship is destroyed by a strange creature and all of the crew is killed.

Unfortunately for the US-Soviet crew, a Chinese ship, Tsien, also aimed at Jupiter, manages to arrive there quicker. On board is again doctor Heywood Floyd, the scientist who assisted in the observations of the first strange monolith discovered on the Moon. The joined US-Soviet space ship Alexei Leonov (named after the great Russian astronaut) travels to the orbits of Jupiter not only to investigate the strange monolith, but also to bring back Discovery and to find out what has happened to David Bowman. In every part Clarke takes us to different parts of the galaxy, still not deviating from his main theme of the great, yet dangerous consequences of the increasing human presence outside the Earth. In fact, the change of scenery contributes to the immerse power of the tetralogy. There are also other minor difference but contrary to expectations they do not disappoint the reader. Thus, Clarke chose to focus on Jupiter, instead of Saturn, as in the first part. Observations and conclusions from viewing space objects, and especially Jupiter, added more to the human understanding about the universe. Between the publishing of the two novels, technology increased at amazing rates.

In this novel, however, the monolith is now floating around Jupiter. How great a statement and how perfectly it fits into the whole grand concept of Clarke’s masterpiece.Ģ010 Odyssey Two obviously takes place 9 years after the tragic destiny of Discovery, the space ship sent to examine Saturn, which found the same strange monolith structure, as the one on the Moon. They indeed feature common characters, but not necessarily in the same universe.

As the author himself points out, the four parts of Space Odyssey MUST be regarded as separate pieces of literature. When writing a science-fiction novel of the calibre of Arthur Clarke’s Space Odyssey it is totally understandable, if not absolutely expectable, that the sequel would not follow exactly the events that preceded it.

2010 by Arthur C. Clarke