The Space Odyssey Series

First published:2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 2010: Odyssey Two (1982), and 2061: Odyssey Three (1988)

Type of work: Novels

Type of plot: Science fiction—evolutionary fantasy

Time of work: About 3,000,000 b.c.e. and c.e. 2001-3001

Locale: The solar system and remote space

The Plot

This series began in a unique collaboration between author Arthur C. Clarke and film director Stanley Kubrick. Between 1965 and 1968, they created a screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Simultaneously with the filming, Clarke wrote the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. The novel exhibits striking inter-dependence with the film, which is notably nonverbal— the first forty minutes and last thirty minutes have no dialogue.

As the novel opens, a point of light orbits the Earth, unnoticed by protohominids living on the brink of extinction. It leaves behind a device to study and tutor the creatures. Thus tutored, a protohominid named Moonwatcher turns a rock into a weapon, and Earth’s era of technology dawns.

A hundred thousand generations later, Dr. Heywood Floyd travels to the moon to investigate TMA-1, a three-million-year-old extraterrestrial artifact found because of its magnetic field. After its discovery, TMA-1 sends a single strong signal toward Saturn. TMA-1’s discovery is kept secret from the people of Earth.

The spaceship Discovery is sent to reconnoiter Saturn for evidence of whatever civilization produced TMA-1. Three astronauts who understand this mission travel in artificially induced hibernation. Two active astronauts, David Bowman and Frank Poole, know nothing of TMA-1 or the mission’s real goal. Virtually a sixth member of the crew is HAL, a supercomputer programmed to tell the truth unreservedly but also to complete the secret mission. Unable to reconcile the contradiction between secrecy and truthfulness, HAL suffers a nervous breakdown and kills Poole and the hibernating astronauts. Barely saving himself, Bowman disables HAL.

Bowman reaches Saturn on the now crippled Discovery. Floyd radios him and describes the mission’s true goal. On a moon of Saturn, Bowman discovers a huge, enigmatic monolithic replica of TMA-1. When he approaches in an extravehicular space pod, the monolith opens, and he is transported to realms unimaginable to those on Earth. Nurtured by extraterrestrial intelligences, Bowman is reborn as a disembodied star-creature, far superior to humans in intellect and ability to manipulate the environment.

In 2010: Odyssey Two, a joint Soviet/United States expedition attempts to reach the derelict spaceship Discovery before its decaying orbit ends in the atmosphere of Jupiter. (The novel uses background from the film version of 2001 where the film and the novel diverge.) The expedition hopes also to discover why HAL malfunctioned, the nature of the monolith that Bowman found, and perhaps how Bowman disappeared. Dr. Chandra, the creator of HAL, joins the crew, as does Floyd, despite the strains that the long expedition will put on his family.

The joint expedition is almost forestalled by a Chinese expedition that lands on Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, before approaching Discovery. On Europa, the Chinese ship is destroyed by an alien life-form coming from seas beneath the ice. In Floyd’s absence, his marriage fails. The Soviet/United States expedition reaches Discovery, resurrects the ship, raises its orbit, and reprograms HAL, but it fails to learn anything about the monolith.

One crew member, however, sees a flicker of stars through the monolith as it opens and closes to let the star-creature who had been David Bowman back into the solar system. Under the guidance of the intelligences that oversaw his transformation, Bowman revisits Earth and then observes varied alien life-forms in the seas of Europa and the atmosphere of Jupiter. Partially understanding the purposes of the intelligences guiding him, Bowman uses HAL to warn the joint expedition to leave Jupiter before a cataclysmic implosion transforms that gaseous planet into a new star orbiting the sun. Through HAL, Bowman also tells Earth that humankind is free to explore the entire solar system, save only Europa, which becomes a planet circling the new star. Discovery is destroyed in the Jovian catastrophe, but HAL’s personality joins Bowman in disembodied existence. On Europa, intelligent life evolves under the warmth of its new sun.

Before Jupiter’s transformation, its core had been a single huge diamond, which was fragmented and expelled in the implosion. In 2061: Odyssey Three, one huge fragment collides with Europa, becoming a mountain hidden from astronomers by near-perpetual cloud cover. A scientist fortuitously observes and recognizes it but is not discreet enough about his discovery. Consequently, Galaxy, a spaceship exploring the Jovian system, is hijacked to the forbidden planet by a person attempting to confirm the diamond mountain’s existence. When Galaxy makes a forced landing on the Europan sea, the hijacker commits suicide; all others on board are marooned in Europa’s extremely hostile environment.

Meanwhile, Universe, the first luxury spaceliner, makes its first voyage, an excursion to Halley’s Comet. A celebrity passenger is 103-year-old Floyd, whose longevity stems from his many years in low-gravity space environments. Universe leaves the comet to rescue Galaxy’s crew and passengers. On the voyage across the solar system, Floyd attempts to communicate with the entity that was David Bowman, to assure him of the good intentions of Galaxy and Universe.

Under Bowman’s aegis, the rescue succeeds without damaging encounters between humans and intelligent Europan life. Floyd is reconciled with his estranged grandson, an officer aboard Galaxy. When Floyd dies, his spirit is united with the entities who were Bowman and HAL. In the year 3001, as the Jovian star exhausts itself, TMA-1, now on the plaza of Manhattan’s United Nations building, reactivates.