2061 Odyssey Three Author: Arthur C. Clarke Average Rating: Last Reviewed On: June 27, 2000 (by Scott) Scott's Review: on June 27, 2000 After reading the great books 2001, and 2010, and watching Kubrik's gem of a movie, 2001, I was expecting another great thought provoking book, exploring the alien intelligence that Clarke hinted at in the books. Instead, however, I knew I was in for trouble when in the prologue, Clarke suggests that there might be differences in the universe in this books from the other two. Uh oh, he can't even be bothered to make a coherent story line anymore. In the end, I think those differences are indeed minor, and probably not even worth mentioning, though the book overall is a big let down. Most of the book is either dealing with the day to day life of a cruise ship touring Halley's Comet, or the non-Europian planets of the Lucifer star. Very little of this book deals with the monolith, and the few parts that do, are too small to really spark my imagination. I just felt this book was a poor attempt to continue a story line that should have been left alone. Clarke said in 2010's introduction that he was hesitant to write a sequel, and 2061 makes his reasoning abundantly clear. Perhaps 3001 will be better, but I somehow doubt it. -- Scott and Michelle