Synopsis
This third installment in the Space Odyssey series takes us into Europa to see the changes that have happened since the previous book.
History
First publication: Del Rey/Ballantine, January 1988
Review
2001 took us on an incredible journey from the Dawn of Man to our final stage in the stars. 2010 took us back to earth and Jupiter, but made the story of 2001 more accessible to readers and developed the characters a lot more. This book continues from where 2010 left off. It is an enjoyable SF book. If it wasn’t preceded by 2001, it would have been excellent. But being part of that story and being published in 1987, this book feels like a nostalgia trip to the sort of books written by Clarke and others in the early 50s, which took us into the solar system and showed us the wonders of our neighborhood, through the eyes of scientists and space jockeys. Considering how science fiction had changed by 1987, this book seems like a throwback to an earlier time. Even Clarke himself, having written such books as 2001 and Rendezvous with Rama could be expected to move forward, not backward. Still, I love the SF of the past and these sort of innocent explorations of the solar systems wonders and the wide eyed planetary scientific explanations. I loved this book, but at the same time I am disappointed.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
2061: Odyssey Three, hardcover, Del Rey/SFBC, 1988-07-00
All of the stories in the Space Odyssey series:
Encounter in the Dawn
The Sentinel
1 2001: A Space Odyssey
1.5 The Lost Worlds of 2001
2 2010: Odyssey Two
3 2061: Odyssey Three
4 3001: The Final Odyssey
