The biggest revelation here is that the book is actually based on the screenplay for the film. Clarke and Kubrick collaborated on this from the start.
And just like the movie, the book almost gets too big for itself. Clarke's other works seem to expand in scope until they reach a point where the mind can't comprehend what is being imagined. I guess that's the point really. To illustrate how really small we are in the vast possibilities of the universe.
Naturally, being married fro the start, the book and the film follow quite closely. I understand the thoughts behind the monolith at the dawn of man. I understand it's prompting of the man-apes to evolve and use the brain.
Then skip the next three million years.
The monolith found on the moon sets in motion the voyage whereon the monolith reaps the bounty of the progress of human intelligence.
Hal is actually not really integral to the overall plot. It is entirely a side story. A good one, but Poole was already going to rendezvous with the monolith, even if Hal didn't wig out.
P xvii
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet earth.
Now that is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in out local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in the Universe there shines a star.
P107
Sometimes, during lonely hours on the control deck, Bowman would listen to this radiation. He would turn up the gain until the room filled with a crackling, hissing roar; out of this background, at irregular intervals, emerged brief whistles and peeps like the cries of demented birds. It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with man; it was as lonely and as meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
#90 The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock 2 of 8
Now THIS is high fantasy. I haven read a book quite like these. It is fast moving, grand, and epic in every aspect. It only take a few pages for you to understand Elric and his surroundings. He is the emperor of a nation that ruled with ultimate and fierce authority over all of the world for time out of mind. But he is the lesser son of a not as great father of a line that is failing of a society that has gotten complacent. He is a warrior with magic armor and sword. He is a wizard with powerful potions and control of the elements.
He is everything that the meager "little guy" heroes of all the other fantasy books are not. And that's nice for a change.
The story sweeps right along as he vies with his would be usurper cousin who is after his throne. He sails his fleet of gigantic golden ships out to destroy raiders. He speaks with elementals. He comes back from the dead. All in 180 pages!
In the second book he cavorts with more elementals, sails to wondrous new planes of existence, merges with other powerful warriors to destroy a pair of minor gods, resurrects the soul of a colossus that his ancestors once fled from before they became rulers of the rest of the world.. in a mere 160.
Some books you are barely getting to get acquainted by page 340. I lipke it!
P19 - book 1 Elric of Melinbone
"He will not be happy until you are destroyed, Elric."
"Or is destroyed himself, Cymoril... Your brother is inclined to absolutes, is he not? How the weak hate weakness."
P45 book 2 The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The sword flung back, its blade slicing through tens of thousands of dimensions and drawing their power to it. Then it began to swing back. It swung and black light bellowed from its blade. It swung and Agack became aware of it. His body began to alter. Down toward the sorcerer's great eye, down towards Agack's intelligence pool swept the great black blade.
He is everything that the meager "little guy" heroes of all the other fantasy books are not. And that's nice for a change.
The story sweeps right along as he vies with his would be usurper cousin who is after his throne. He sails his fleet of gigantic golden ships out to destroy raiders. He speaks with elementals. He comes back from the dead. All in 180 pages!
In the second book he cavorts with more elementals, sails to wondrous new planes of existence, merges with other powerful warriors to destroy a pair of minor gods, resurrects the soul of a colossus that his ancestors once fled from before they became rulers of the rest of the world.. in a mere 160.
Some books you are barely getting to get acquainted by page 340. I lipke it!
P19 - book 1 Elric of Melinbone
"He will not be happy until you are destroyed, Elric."
"Or is destroyed himself, Cymoril... Your brother is inclined to absolutes, is he not? How the weak hate weakness."
P45 book 2 The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The sword flung back, its blade slicing through tens of thousands of dimensions and drawing their power to it. Then it began to swing back. It swung and black light bellowed from its blade. It swung and Agack became aware of it. His body began to alter. Down toward the sorcerer's great eye, down towards Agack's intelligence pool swept the great black blade.
#51 Hyperion by Dan Simmons
It was OK. Good but not great.
Your stereotypical semi-retired space captain has to come out of retirement to accompany a group of grudging pilgrims as they head to the dangerous world of Hyperion. There is a god on Hyperion - the Shrike - who is entwined in the stories of all seven of the group of which The Council is one. The council has a name too somewhere, but nobody ever calls him by it. He goes solely by the odd title of council. Maybe he's not so much of a "captain" but more of a public servant of some sort... I didn't really get his backstory and it didn't seem to matter. It was probably there, but I don't honestly feel like I missed much. Apparently it wasn't all that gripping..
On the voyage to the planet and the march thru the dangerous wasteland haunted by the Shrike they take turns telling their stories as to why they need take this perilous journey in the first place. The priest's story is the best, but It's not even HIS story. He id following in the footsteps of another priest who came as a missionary previously. Why THIS guy needs to come himself.. I don't really know.
The Corporal's story is interesting too. I think he is haunted by the ghost of an ex lover or something. Again, I think I missed something there.
The poet's story makes more sense. He used to live on Hyperion and his writing has some connection with the Shrike slaughtering people. I don't know why he in on the journey, but at least I see the connection.
The private detective; I cant remember why she is involved either. She fell in love with a computer reincarnation of WB Yeats. Neat concept. Pertinent how?
The ship captain just seemed to be along for the ride.
The best story - and the one that firs best for plot - is the professor and his daughter. His baby used to be a scientist investigating mysteries on Hyperion when she was exposed to something that makes her age backwards and forget everything of the days she has lost. It's actually a really cool part of the story. She is an infant now and soon she will progress back to before she was born and ..die?
All in all I think I missed a lot, but I don't feel inspired to go back and figure it out.
Eh.. oh well.
P155
He thought briefly that such an anticlimax would be the universe's fitting verdict on his martial pretensions: the brave warrior floating off in to near-planet orbit.. He would end his life as useless and harmless as a child's runaway balloon.
P192
"Words are the only bullets in the truth's bandoleer. And Poets are the snipers."
P249
Another friend, a child psychologist from the college, once commented that Rachel at age five showed the most reliable indications of true giftedness in a young person: structured curiosity, empathy for others, compassion, and a fierce sense of fair play.
Your stereotypical semi-retired space captain has to come out of retirement to accompany a group of grudging pilgrims as they head to the dangerous world of Hyperion. There is a god on Hyperion - the Shrike - who is entwined in the stories of all seven of the group of which The Council is one. The council has a name too somewhere, but nobody ever calls him by it. He goes solely by the odd title of council. Maybe he's not so much of a "captain" but more of a public servant of some sort... I didn't really get his backstory and it didn't seem to matter. It was probably there, but I don't honestly feel like I missed much. Apparently it wasn't all that gripping..
On the voyage to the planet and the march thru the dangerous wasteland haunted by the Shrike they take turns telling their stories as to why they need take this perilous journey in the first place. The priest's story is the best, but It's not even HIS story. He id following in the footsteps of another priest who came as a missionary previously. Why THIS guy needs to come himself.. I don't really know.
The Corporal's story is interesting too. I think he is haunted by the ghost of an ex lover or something. Again, I think I missed something there.
The poet's story makes more sense. He used to live on Hyperion and his writing has some connection with the Shrike slaughtering people. I don't know why he in on the journey, but at least I see the connection.
The private detective; I cant remember why she is involved either. She fell in love with a computer reincarnation of WB Yeats. Neat concept. Pertinent how?
The ship captain just seemed to be along for the ride.
The best story - and the one that firs best for plot - is the professor and his daughter. His baby used to be a scientist investigating mysteries on Hyperion when she was exposed to something that makes her age backwards and forget everything of the days she has lost. It's actually a really cool part of the story. She is an infant now and soon she will progress back to before she was born and ..die?
All in all I think I missed a lot, but I don't feel inspired to go back and figure it out.
Eh.. oh well.
P155
He thought briefly that such an anticlimax would be the universe's fitting verdict on his martial pretensions: the brave warrior floating off in to near-planet orbit.. He would end his life as useless and harmless as a child's runaway balloon.
P192
"Words are the only bullets in the truth's bandoleer. And Poets are the snipers."
P249
Another friend, a child psychologist from the college, once commented that Rachel at age five showed the most reliable indications of true giftedness in a young person: structured curiosity, empathy for others, compassion, and a fierce sense of fair play.
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