Clarke chose to keep the motivation of the aliens under wraps in 2001 he makes a different choice in 2010, and I think it was the right choice. And that wasn’t even my favorite part of the book. Where the ending of 2001 raised so many questions, the ending of 2010 provides so many answers. I know that the Odyssey series has two books beyond 2010, but the ending of this book is so completely satisfactory that even if they’re good, they’re completely unnecessary. The ending is one of the best I’ve ever read. We never learn why David Bowman became the Star-Child, we never why they were assisting the human race to begin with, and we do not know why HAL 9000 killed the crew of Discovery.Ģ010 provides many of these answers. At the end of 2001, we knew that the Earth was going to be destroyed, but there was no “why.” We learn that there is an alien race that has assisted the evolution of human beings, but that’s pretty much all we know. I have never found it to be helpful to a story, if your story is a good one, it should be worth explaining in its entirety, don’t force the reader to make up an ending. However, often they are used as a comic foil against the over-serious Heywood, making 2010 a lighter book than 2001, but a much more enjoyable one as well. The Russians are passionate about their mission, and while they are not as fleshed out as their American counterparts, we do learn enough about their motivations and personality to find them enjoyable. Chandra is a man who has thrown his life into his work, his computers are his passion and bringing HAL back to life is his one goal. He has left his wife and young child behind, knowing that staying with them would have hurt him more than leaving ever could. While Frank Poole and David Bowman were both cold and mission-oriented characters, the characters of 2010 are richer and more personable. With the news that Discovery is slowly being pulled out of orbit, and is set to crash, Russia and America join forces, Leonev’s crew allows the three Americans to come aboard, and Leonev sets off for Jupiter. America has the valuable minds of Heywood Floyd, planner of Discovery’s initial flight, Walter Curnow, engineer, and Doctor Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai (aka Dr. Set nine years after astronaut David Bowman’s fateful flight to Jupiter, America and Russia are in a race to reach his craft, Discovery, and recover information from its databanks. While 2001 will always get more attention, don’t be too quick to ignore the sequel it deals with the same grand ideas as its predecessor, but it does so with a lot more style. 2001 lays some solid groundwork for a good story, but 2010 makes that story richer.
I found the characters more compelling, the story more interesting, and the writing keeps pace. 2010 will never have the historical importance of 2001, but there’s a lot to love. Clarke’s fantastic follow-up to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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