They're In Space!

I didn't post about it, but last year I read Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series (2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey). I didn't love them (though they were interesting enough for me to read the whole series) so I didn't mention them. Plus, if I had said anything, it likely would have been weird quotations from the book, possibly with some irritated commentary added.

Space pods were not the most elegant means of transport devised by man, but they were absolutely essential for construction and maintenance work in vacuum. They were usually christened with feminine names, perhaps in recognition of the fact that their personalities were sometimes slightly unpredictable. Discovery's trio were Anna, Betty, and Clara.

Yeah, I could say a few things about that.

A post devoted to those books would have ending up being rather long. And, while I didn't hate the books, reading them just left me with a sense of lost potential and, well, irritation.

Just as 2010: Odyssey Two was not a direct sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, so this book is not a linear sequel to 2010. They must all be considered as variations on the same theme, involving many of the same characters and situations, but not necessarily happening in the same universe.

Yes, the books weren't "linear sequels". A nice way of saying that the books contradicted each other.

But as awesome as contradictions in cannon is, there were bits that were even better!

[The students] had been helped - or hindered - by a team of four kongs, who Del Marco considered more trouble than they were worth. However, the students adored the genetically-enhanced gorillas, whom they treated like retarded but much-loved children. It was rumoured that the relationships were not always completely Platonic.

I... I just don't know what to say. I'm just going to leave that one there and slowly back away.

Anyway, while I did not love the books (and would be hard-pressed to say I even liked them) I did want to watch the movie version. Some movies are just classics, you know? So that's what I did yesterday.

Oh, I didn't watch the movie alone. I had company.

Cocoa and I were equally unimpressed with the ten minute acid trip at the end of the film, but she really enjoyed the monkey-things at the beginning of the movie. I don't think either of us really needs to watch it again though.