History Literature / TheSpaceOdysseySeries

* SolarSystemNeighbors: Europa turns out to have a complex ecosystem, including a number of intelligent species. The Monoliths convert Jupiter into a mini-sun in order to boost their development (and prevent their eventual extinction as Europa recedes from Jupiter and freezes solid), as their creators, [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien the Firstborn]], believe their potential deserves to be explored. (Jupiter itself was also home to life, but all its organisms were simple creatures driven by instinct; the Firstborn decided it was worth sacrificing them for the Europans' sake.)

** 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 HALS's increasingly contradictory reports" '''doesn[='=]t''' equal death (and risking the mission) didn't help.]]

** 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 programed 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 ''too''. Not being clear on the idea that "being shut down to troubleshoot HALS's increasingly contradictory reports" '''doesn[='=]t''' equal death (and risking the mission) didn't help.]]

** HAL is one of the most famous examples. His erratic behavior in ''2001'' is explained in ''2010'' as the result of a programming conflict.

%%* BarbarianHero: Marak in issue 3 and 4 of the Marvel Comics' ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' series.

* ChekhovsGun: In ''2010'', as the ''Leonov'' is leaving Earth orbit, the Captain comments that they're passing the new Chinese space-station, and Floyd muses to himself that there's some international suspicion regarding its function, especially as the UN Space Committee's repeated requests for an inspection have been refused. As it later turns out, [[spoiler:it's not a space-station at all -- it's a ''spaceship'', the ''Tsien'', which they plan to use to get to ''Discovery'' first. Even their rivals are impressed by [[RefugeInAudacity the sheer audacity of this.]]]]

** The Monoliths in ''3001''. Earlier books state that the Monoliths were ordered to continue observing humanity, but the prime Monolith on Eurpoa in ''3001'' is stated by "Halman" to be on the verge of eradicating humanity. Halman also believes it may have been damaged and lost some of its original capabilities.

* AbsentAliens: Besides the unseen creators of the Monoliths and the Europans, mankind has not made contact with any aliens even by the year 3001. Maybe not even by 20,001 AD.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Averted. A Europan life form eats a human corpse and then vomits it back up, goes into death throes, and expires a short time later.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Averted. An Europan life form eats a human corpse and then vomits it back up, goes into death throes, and expires a short time later.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Averted. A Europan life form eats a human corpse and then vomits it back up, goes into death throes, and expires a short time later.

** HAL is one of the most famous examples. His erratic behavior in ''2001'' is explained as the result of a programming conflict in ''2010''.

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): Actually the byproduct of a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick. The ''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.\\

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): Actually the byproduct of a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick. ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' were produced simultaneously andboth rel eased 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 for the first time 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.

* MindControlDevice: In ''3001'' the "braincap" that everyone wears that gives them direct mental access to the future internet can also be used as a mind-control device. In fact there are no prisons in 3001 - criminals are simply mind-controlled through their braincap into menial laborers until they have served their sentence. Indra says it would be very difficult to staff those kinds of jobs if they didn't have a pool of criminals to mind-control into doing them. Poole worries a bit about whether the braincap will allow to control him when he first has it installed, but when Indra reveals to him that it certainly ''can'' function in this way he is surprisingly accepting of the whole idea. Perhaps he is being influenced through his braincap to accept this as normal and moral?

* AuthorTract: ''3001'', as utopian fiction, reflects a great deal of Clarke's views. In particular he confirms in the afterward that Dr. Khan's view of religion as a type of mental disorder reflects his own views.

* {{Novelization}}: Technically, ''2001'' is a novelization of the film, although being based on an early version of the screenplay it contains many changes (Discovery goes to a different planet, for example, and the book ends with [[spoiler: World War III breaking out on earth]].)
* OhMyGods: In place of "God", the people of ''3001'' say "Deus", example: "By Deus - It's full of stars!". Frank noticed how everyone cringe when he says "God".

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: By the year 3001, religion is abolished. That said, they aren't entirely disbelievers: they are generally either "Deists", believing in not more than one god, or "Theists", believing in not less than one god. What this God (or possibly gods) has to say about anything is eminently unclear, however.
* {{Precursors}}: The mysterious race only know as "The creators of the Monoliths". The prologue of ''3001'' gave them the name "Firstborn", but was never used in-story.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: ''2061'' mentions that Dr. Chandra died in hibernation on the trip back to Earth after ''2010''. It's implied that he [[DeathByDespair died of grief]] over HAL having been destroyed by the explosion of Jupiter, despite the ending of ''2010'' stating that he would create a new 9000 computer.

* {{Terraform}}: ''2061'' and ''3001'' depicts humankind as being capable of this.

--> "He had never known them very well; be would never know them now."
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: In-Universe, mixed with NonindicativeName. The monolith near Jupiter is designated TMA-2. This is in spite of the fact that TMA stands for Tycho Magnetic Anomaly, referring to the original monolith on the moon (which stopped being magnetic after it realized it had been dug up). The crew of the Leonov snarkily refuse to use the term. Happens later on when Moonwatcher's monolith is dug up and termed TMA-0.

* CircumcisionAngst: Inverted. A woman loses interest in Frank because his ''is'' circumcised, something that isn't done in 3001. Subverted by Frank, who is bemused to learn why his one-night stand ran out on him, but declines restorative surgery and goes on to date more favourably inclined women instead.

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: All of the series have already been invalidated this way, one way or another. For example, 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; then of course there's the invention of HAL. Creator/ArthurCClarke went on record to state that the 'sequels' were actually stories taking place in alternate universes when current events surpassed his stories.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: In ''3001'', the people observe a planet explode, which somehow triggered a supernova. They are left to wonder if there was intelligence on that planet and if they caused the supernova. Though everyone was so terrified of the phenomenon they [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain didn't want to speak of it again]].
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: In ''3001'', humans are able to clone raptors who are used for labor, and excellent babysitters. They tried using great apes (like gorillas), but as Frank learned, the apes "don't have the patience for it".
** A common joke in the 31st Century goes as follows:

* EndlessDaytime: Europa in ''2010'', thanks to Jupiter becoming a star.
* FailedFutureForecast: In addition to [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp incorrectly predicting that the USSR would still exist]] by the year 2061, the series also incorrectly predicted that the [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra South African Apartheid regime]] would end in a bloodless coup, with the white population fleeing and taking most of the country's wealth with them, leaving the black population to rebuild the economy, which they are fortunately able to do so in a matter of months by nationalizing the diamond industry.

* KillAllHumans: [[spoiler: In 3001, it turns out the monoliths have decided that humanity is no longer worthy of existence, due to how we behaved during the 20th century, and blocks out the Sun (and Lucifer) in an effort to kill us all.]]
* LivingGasbag: ''2010: The Year We Make Contact'' had the noncorporeal Bowman journeying down through the Jovian atmosphere, where he sees gigantic non-sentient living beings in various geometric shapes floating through the clouds and consuming similar smaller creatures. They are all killed when Jupiter is turned into a star.

* AbsentAliens: Besides the unseen creators of the Monoliths, the Europans and Jovians, mankind has not made any contact with other aliens even by the year 3001. Maybe not even by 20,001 AD.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Implied in ''3001''. The final page of the book states that the Monolith was ordered to continue observing humanity, but the Monolith (stated by Halman to have been damaged in the Jovian impact) chooses instead to eradicate humanity.

* AmicablyDivorced: Poole's relationship and eventual marriage with Indra is a form of this. They even managed to stay friends after the split up romantically 15 years later.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Nicely averted when a Europan life form eats a human, and then vomits it back up, pointing out that alien predators wouldn't necessarily find us tasty or nutritious, and that our biochemistry could even be poisonous. That is later confirmed when the same Europan is later seen in death throes and expiring a short time later.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: "The creators of the Monoliths", David Bowman, HAL 9000.

* BackFromTheDead: Frank Poole, whose body was found essentially by chance, gets resurrected about a thousand years in the future by the advanced medical techniques. While he's something of a curiosity and living relic, his life is uneventful enough that he goes on to once again become a civilian.

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): Actually the byproduct of a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick. Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey and the novel came out in the same year, which makes the book the {{Novelization}} (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 differences.\\

A strange [[TheMonolith Monolith]] is discovered on the moon, apparently having been buried there thousands of years ago by a race of extra-terrestrial lifeforms. As it is being studied by human scientists sunlight hits it for the first time since it was buried, and it sends out a radio signal directed at Saturn (Jupiter in the film). About a year later, in 2001, a crew of five astronauts aboard the space ship ''Discovery'' are on their way to Saturn. The scientific crew are all in hibernation to preserve resources while the ship crew, David Bowman and Frank Poole, are left awake to help the sixth crew member, a 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 equipment that the living astronauts can't verify, not only jeopardizing the mission, but also the life of the crew.

Nine years after the ''Discovery's'' mission to Jupiter (changed from Saturn to match the film), a joint Soviet-American crew is heading for the mighty gas-planet to [[SendInTheSearchTeam find out what happened]] to the ''Discovery'' and its crew. Meanwhile David Bowman, now reborn as an EnergyBeing, is helping the race that created the Monoliths with scouting Jupiter and its moons for primitive lifeforms, hopefully finding one that has the potential to develop sentience.

* ''3001: The Final Odyssey'' (1997): ''Discovery'' crew member Frank Poole, having been left adrift in space for a thousand years, is brought [[BackFromTheDead back to life]] through the wonders of future medical science, and begins to explore the Earth of 3001. Meanwhile, the creators of the Monoliths are making their final determination, based on the state of the human race at the end of the 20th century, of whether humankind is a failed experiment.

* ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968): A interesting case since the novel is actually the byproduct to a collaboration between Clarke and Creator/StanleyKubrick, which resulted in [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey the film of the same name]] that came out the same year, which makes the book the {{Novelization}} (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 are both based on some of Clarke's earlier short stories, most prominently ''The Sentinel'', and they largely follow the same plot, but with some small differences.\\

A strange [[TheMonolith Monolith]] is discovered on the moon, apparently having been left there by a race of extra-terrestrial lifeforms. As it is being studied by human scientists, it sends some kind of transmission into outer space. About a year later a crew of five astronauts leaves for a scientific exploration travel to Saturn on the space-ship Discovery. Only two of them, David "Dave" Bowman and Francis "Frank" Poole, are left awake to help the sixth crew member, a supercomputer by the name of HAL 9000, with monitoring the ship's day-to-day function. This is just boring routine, until HAL starts acting weird and unpredictable, not only jeopardizing the mission, but also the life of the crew.

Nine years after the Discovery's travel to Jupiter (changed from Saturn to match the film), a joint Soviet-American crew is heading for the mighty gas-planet to [[SendInTheSearchTeam find out what happened]] to the Discovery and its crew. Meanwhile David Bowman, now reborn as a EnergyBeing, is helping the race that created the Monoliths with scouting Jupiter and its moons for primitive lifeforms, hopefully finding one that has potential to turn sentient.
* ''2061: Odyssey Three'' (1987): Heywood Floyd, one of the main characters from the previous novels, has been invited as a celebrity guest for the spaceliner Universe's landing on Halley's Comet. Meanwhile a militant anti-Afrikaner takes control of the shuttle Galaxy, which she crashes into Jupiter's moon, Europa, leaving Universe as the crew of the Galaxy's only hope of rescue.
* ''3001: The Final Odyssey'' (1997): The Discovery crew member, Frank Poole, having been killed by HAL 9000 and left adrift in space for a thousand years, is brought [[BackFromTheDead back to life]] through the wonders of future science, and begins to explore the earth of 3001. Meanwhile, the creators of the Monoliths are making their final speculation about whether or not to sacrifice human kind for the greater good.

''The Space Odyssey Series'' is a series of novels written by Creator/ArthurCClarke, which takes a philosophical look at many SpeculativeFictionTropes, such as {{Precursors}}, [[AIIsACrapshoot Intelligent Computers]], space travel and the humankind's place in the universe.

* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: The Firstborn, who created the Monoliths and later went on to transfer their consciousness to all of space-time. While they normally [[AllPowerfulBystander stay out of the affairs of lesser races]], they will occasionally personally interject their help if they deem the one asking for it worthy. [[spoiler:This is displayed at the end of ''2010'' when Dave asks them to save HAL from being killed by the newly-born Lucifer's creation. They transfer HAL's consciousness to be with Dave in his ascended form from then on.]]