A review by astrolegal
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

5.0

An instant favorite.

Where the movie was abstract, incomprehensible, and unapproachable, this book is its total inversion: technical, detailed, and suprisingly easy to read.

An exceptional work of hard science fiction, with a spaceship (more scientifically accurate than the movie's) that has set the standard for nearly all interplanetary spaceships since.

The ending is still very weird, but at least you know what's going on. It's just as much a work of art as the movie, but not nearly as abstract.