Author:	Arthur C. Clarke
Copyright:	1982
Date Reviewed:	12/23/84
Rating:	7.0

Synopsis: Nine years after Discovery's crew is killed by the rampaging HAL 9000 computer, a combined Russian/American expedition is sent to Jupiter aboard the Leonov to find out why the computer malfunctioned and what is the secret of the giant monolith that orbits the planet. At the Jupiter system, they find life on Europa. Dr. Heywood Floyd, director of the Discovery expedition, is given a message by David Bowman, who disappeared into the monolith stargate at the end of the last mission to become a superbeing; a starchild. The message: leave the system in 15 days.

While the crew argues whether or not to leave (a good launch window won't open for another month) the monolith disappears. The sudden disappearance prompts them to leave immediately but the Leonov doesn't have enough fuel so they piggy pack it on top of the Discovery and use that as a first stage. While they are preparing to leave, a black spot is noticed on Jupiter. During the next revolution they see it has grown and consists of millions of large monoliths. Eventually the black spot/monolith digests Jupiter and turns it into a star.

Review: "2001", the book and the movie, was good but overrated. The expectations for "2010" were great but again the book/movie was not that great. The story lacked much of a plot. There's an expedition to Jupiter. They go, they see, they some back. Well it wasn't all that bad. The prose is good and there are many references that I got (I never get any of Harlan Ellison's references). The ending is particularly interesting, especially in the movie which I saw before reading the book. However the event at the end of the book would have occurred whether or not there was an expedition so why bother having one. As usual, the book explained what was going on a lot better than the movie.