History Literature / TheSpaceOdysseySeries

* ''The Sentinel'' (1951): It was originally written for a Creator/{{BBC}} competition and it failed, it got published in the Ten Story Fantasy magazine as ''Sentinel Of Eternity''. It was used as a starting point for ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.

** Subverted with the attempt by the monoliths to eradicate humanity: rather than directly assaulting Earth and its Jovian colonies, giant screens are created that block the light of both the Sun and Lucifer. Justified, of course, since the Monoliths don't want to destroy the Europans, who would also have been wiped out if either the Sun or Lucifer were blown up.

** Subverted with the attempt by the monoliths to eradicate humanity: rather than directly assaulting Earth and its Jovian colonies, giant screens are created that block the light of both the Sun and Lucifer.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: In ''3001'', humans are able to clone velociraptors which are used as gardeners, and excellent babysitters. They tried using great apes (like gorillas), but as Frank learned, the apes "don't have the patience for it".
** An old joke in the 31st Century goes as follows:
--> '''Setup''' - Would you trust your children with a dinosaur?
--> '''Punchline''' - What? And risk injuring it?

* FasterThanLightTravel: In the first book, it's shown that [[spoiler: one of the monolith's functions is to work as a stargate. Bowman also learns how to travel faster than light on his own after being transformed by the monolith, despite knowing it's supposed to be impossible.]] Later books drop this.

* ShoutOut: ''2010: Odyssey Two'' has a number of characters named after Soviet dissidents. In 1984, the book was translated into Russian and began appearing in serial form in the youth popular science magazine ''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' ("Technology for the Youth"), but only the first two parts. After the second, an article on the ''International Herald Tribune'' pointing out the names came to the attention of the KGB. [[BannedInChina The serialisation was cancelled]] with a brief note summarising the rest of the plot in the next issue. The editor, Vasily Zakharchenko, was made the scapegoat who for the whole affair, losing his job and all the privileges he had. The rest of the serialisation would reappear during glasnost, being published in 1989-1990. In the acknowledgements of ''2061'', Clarke references the whole affair, of which more details can be found [[https://www.rbth.com/history/331258-arthur-clarke-ussr-soviet-scifi here]].

* AmicablyDivorced: Poole's marriage and eventual divorce from Indra is a form of this. They are said to have managed to stay friends afterwards.

* AmicablyDivorced: Poole's marriage and eventual divorce of Indra is a form of this. They are said to have managed to stay friends afterwards.

** HAL is probably the most famous example of all time. His erratic behavior in ''2001'' is explained in ''2010'' as the result of a programming conflict. [[spoiler: Essentially, HAL was programmed to 'be truthful', then told to hide the actual goal of the mission from the astronauts that were awake; something of a lie by omission. HAL eventually decided that since it could largely run the ship through automation, ‘’and’’ already knew everything anyway, getting rid of ''all'' of the astronauts meant no one to lie ''to''. Not being clear on the idea that "being shut down to troubleshoot HAL's increasingly contradictory reports" '''doesn[='=]t''' equal death (and risking the mission) didn't help.]]

** HAL is the famous example of all time. His erratic behavior in ''2001'' is explained in ''2010'' as the result of a programming conflict. [[spoiler: Essentially, HAL was programmed to 'be truthful', then told to hide the actual goal of the mission from the astronauts that were awake; something of a lie by omission. HAL eventually decided that since it could largely run the ship through automation, ‘’and’’ already knew everything anyway, getting rid of ''all'' of the astronauts meant no one to lie ''to''. Not being clear on the idea that "being shut down to troubleshoot HAL's increasingly contradictory reports" '''doesn[='=]t''' equal death (and risking the mission) didn't help.]]

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): Actually the byproduct of a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick. The film ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and the novel were produced simultaneously and both released in 1968, which makes the book the {{Novelization}} of the film (Clarke himself said the book should have been credited to "Clarke and Kubrick", just like the movie was credited to "Kubrick and Clarke"). The book and the film both use Clarke's earlier short story "The Sentinel", but, largely owing to the brevity of the story, only just.\\\

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): Actually the byproduct of a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick. The film ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and the novel were produced simultaneously and both released in 1968, which makes the book the {{Novelization}} of the film (Clarke himself said the book should have been credited to "Clarke and Kubrick", just like the movie was credited to "Kubrick and Clarke"). The book and the film both use Clarke's earlier short story “The Sentinel”, but, largely owing to the brevity of the story, only just.

* ''2010: Odyssey Two'' (1982): While not initially thought up by Clarke as a movie idea, the book was, in 1984, adapted, with his and Kubrick's blessing, into the film ''Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact''.

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: Each book in the series has been invalidated by current events. The first three books all feature a still-existing USSR; the backstory of ''2061'' involves a revolution in South Africa in the 2030s which overthrows the apartheid regime; and of course there are moonbases and the invention of HAL in the late 1990s. Creator/ArthurCClarke went on record to state that the 'sequels' were actually stories taking place in alternate universes when current events surpassed his stories.

* FailedFutureForecast: In addition to being too optimistic about human space exploration in ''2001'' and [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp incorrectly predicting that the USSR would still exist]] by the year 2061 (let alone 2001), the series also incorrectly predicted that the [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra South African Apartheid regime]] would end in a bloodless coup in the 2030s, with the white population fleeing and taking most of the country's wealth with them. The black population is able to rebuild the economy in a matter of months by nationalizing the diamond industry.

[[AC:The novels are in chronological order:]]

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): Actually the byproduct of a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick. The film ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and the novel were produced simultaneously and both released in 1968, which makes the book the {{Novelization}} of the film (Clarke himself said the book should have been credited to "Clarke and Kubrick", just like the movie was credited to "Kubrick and Clarke"). The book and the film both use Clarke's earlier short story ''The Sentinel'', as their launch point, and they largely follow the same plot, but with some notable differences.\\
\\
A strange black rectangular [[TheMonolith Monolith]] is discovered on the moon, apparently having been buried there thousands of years ago by a race of extra-terrestrials. As it is being examined by Dr. Heywood Floyd the lunar dawn occurs and sunlight hits it for the first time since it was buried. It reacts to the sunlight by sending out a radio signal directed at Saturn (Jupiter in the film). About two years later, in 2001, a crew of five astronauts aboard the space ship ''Discovery'' are on their way to Saturn. The scientific team are all in hibernation to preserve resources while the ship's two-man crew, David Bowman and Frank Poole, are left awake to help the sixth crew member, a self-aware supercomputer by the name of HAL 9000, with monitoring the ship's day-to-day functions. The mission is boring routine, until HAL starts predicting faults in the ship that the human astronauts can't verify, not only jeopardizing the mission, but also the life of the crew.
* ''2010: Odyssey Two'' (1982): While not initially thought up by Clarke as a movie idea, the book was, in 1984, adapted, with his and Kubrick's blessing, into the film ''Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact''.\\
\\

** HAL is one of the most famous examples. His erratic behavior in ''2001'' is explained in ''2010'' as the result of a programming conflict. [[spoiler: Essentially, HAL was programmed to 'be truthful', then told to hide the actual goal of the mission from the astronauts that were awake; something of a 'lie by omission'. HAL eventually decided that since it could largely run the ship through automation, AND already knew everything anyway, getting rid of ''all'' of the astronauts meant no one to lie ''to''. Not being clear on the idea that "being shut down to troubleshoot HAL's increasingly contradictory reports" '''doesn[='=]t''' equal death (and risking the mission) didn't help.]]

* ShoutOut: ''2010: Odyssey Two'' has a number of characters named after Soviet dissidents. In 1984, the book was translated into Russian and began appearing in serial form in the youth popular science magazine ''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' ("Technology for the Youth"), but only the first two parts. After the second, an article on the ''International Herald Tribune'' pointing out the names came to the attention of the KGB. [[BannedInChina The serialisation was cancelled]] with a brief note summarising the rest of the plot in the next issue. The editor, Vasily Zakharchenko, was made the scapegoat who for the whole affair, losing his job and all the privileges he had. The rest of the serialisation would reappear during glasnost, being published in 1989-1990. In the acknowledgements of ''2061'', Clarke references the whole affair, of which more details can be found [[https://www.rbth.com/history/331258-arthur-clarke-ussr-soviet-scifi]] here.

* ShoutOut: ''2010: Odyssey Two'' has a number of characters named after Soviet dissidents. In 1984, the book was translated into Russian and began appearing in serial form in the youth popular science magazine ''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' ("Technology for the Youth"), but only the first two parts. After the second, an article on the ''International Herald Tribune'' pointing out the names came to the attention of the KGB. The serialisation was cancelled with a brief note summarising the rest of the plot in the next issue. The editor, Vasily Zakharchenko, was made the scapegoat who for the whole affair, losing his job and all the privileges he had. The rest of the serialisation would reappear during glasnost, being published in 1989-1990.