2061: Odyssey Three
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| Author | Arthur C. Clarke |
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| Illustrator | Michael Whelan |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Space Odyssey series |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
| Released | 1987 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-345-35173-8 |
| Preceded by | 2010: Odyssey Two |
| Followed by | 3001: The Final Odyssey |
2061: Odyssey Three is a science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1987. It is the third book in the Space Odyssey series.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
Because the Odyssey series is closely concerned with Jupiter and its moons, Clarke had originally intended to delay writing a third book until the Galileo mission to the planet had returned its findings. However, the probe's launch was delayed in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster so that it would not arrive at Jupiter until 1995. Deciding not to wait, Clarke instead took his inspiration from the approach of Comet Halley in 1986 and focused his sequel on the comet's future return, in 2061.
[edit] Plot summary
In the previous novel, 2010: Odyssey Two, Jupiter was converted into a mini-sun which was dubbed "Lucifer" following the Soviet ship Leonov’s mission to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery. A message was sent to Earth by Dave Bowman, through HAL: "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE". (The movie version adds the words "USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE," as part of its heightened Cold War emphasis.) This is due to the discovery of alien life in Europa's ocean, which was frozen over at the surface until Lucifer melted the ice and caused an atmosphere to form.
[edit] 2010-2061
When the Leonov returned to Earth, Heywood Floyd (whose marriage had broken down while he was on the Leonov) suffered an accident and had to be shipped up to the orbital space hospital Pasteur for care. His recovery took longer than expected and he became a permanent resident of the space station after finding that his body could no longer handle Earth-level gravity. At the time the novel takes place, Floyd is one of only two remaining survivors of the Leonov mission. His son Chris, who also worked in aeronautics, died a number of years previous in the Copernicus disaster, leaving behind his own son, also named Chris. Now an adult, Chris Floyd II works aboard the spacecraft Galaxy, and has not seen his grandfather in years.
Between 2010 and 2061, there have been several advancements, both technological and political. The USA, USSR and China are now at peace with each other, all nuclear weapons are now under international control, and there is now a Planetary President (a former monarch, Edward VIII — his country of origin is not specified). The black population of South Africa rebelled in the 2030s and formed the United States of Southern Africa (USSA). The white population of South Africa had seen this coming and mostly fled to Europe, taking most of the country's wealth with them and leaving the black population to rebuild the economy, which they did in a matter of weeks by use of diamonds (it is worth noting that this book was written in 1987, at which time South Africa was still federated and apartheid was still in force). Space travel has undergone many startling advancements, with the largest such corporation being Tsung Spacelines run by Hong Kong billionaire Sir Lawrence Tsung (the manufacturers of the crafts Cosmos, Galaxy and—most recently—Universe).
Strangest of all, there has been a startling development on Europa: an enormous mountain has sprung up out of nowhere. No one is sure of the origin of "Mount Zeus"; being asymmetrical, it cannot be a volcano.
[edit] 2061
In 2061, at the age of 103, Floyd is chosen as one of several "celebrity guests" to come aboard the Universe for the first-ever human landing on the surface of Halley's Comet, which will shortly be making its periodic pass through the solar system. Other celebrities on the voyage include septuagenarian actress Yva Merlin (most famous for her roles as Josephine Bonaparte in Napoleon and as Scarlett O'Hara in a remake of Gone With the Wind), writer Margaret M'Bala (known for her book on Greek mythology The Passions of the Gods - sometimes derisively called "Olympic Lusts"), astronaut Clifford Greenburg (the first man to land on Mercury), symphony conductor and composer Dimitri Mihailovich, and celebrity "pop-scientist" Victor Willis. The captain of the Universe is Captain Smith.
Meanwhile, there is a team of scientists on Ganymede who are working on terraforming the former moon. Scientist Rolf van der Berg, a second-generation Afrikaner refugee, studies pictures of Mount Zeus and determines that it is in fact one enormous diamond. He communicates his discovery to his uncle Paul Kreuger, speaking in Afrikaans as a security measure because it is now an endangered language, and decide that van der Berg will get aboard the Galaxy on their flyby of Europa in order to try and see if he is correct. However, their exchange is discovered both by SHAKA (a secret militant organisation for the USSA, named for Shaka) and ASTROPOL (similar to Interpol). SHAKA sends an operative called Rose McCullen onto Galaxy undercover as a stewardess, and ASTROPOL approaches Chris Floyd II on Ganymede and tells him to "keep his ears open".
As Galaxy nears Europa, Rose McCullen hijacks the ship, sealing the cockpit and ordering the pilot at gunpoint to pilot Galaxy down to the moon's surface, where, after a failed landing attempt, it splashes down into Europa's ocean, the Sea of Galilee. Having accomplished her mission, McCullen then shoots herself.
Universe receives the news that Galaxy is marooned on Europa, and that they need to undertake a rescue mission. After fueling itself from a geyser on Halley's Comet, Universe heads for Europa.
Meanwhile, Galaxy’s Captain Laplace steps down for the acting captain Lee, who is a professional sailor. Lee pilots Galaxy through the water to come to the shore of a small—and rather dismal—island named Haven. Captain Laplace takes command again, and is suggested to that Rolf van der Berg and Chris Floyd II take the shuttle William Tsung or Bill Tee (named after Sir Lawence Tsung's son William) to study Mount Zeus, the wreck of the Chinese spacecraft Tsien and the enormous monolith lying on its side at the border between the dayside and nightside, dubbed the Great Wall. Captain Laplace authorizes it, and so van der Berg and Chris take the Bill Tee to Mount Zeus. Up close, van der Berg relays a message to his uncle Paul through Ganymede stating "LUCY IS HERE", verifying that Mount Zeus is indeed one large diamond. The code word "Lucy" was chosen both in reference to the mini-sun Lucifer and to an article in the journal Nature in 1981 hypothesising that the cores of Uranus and Neptune were in fact diamonds the size of Earth (caused by the compression of carbon), with the hypothesis making a logical extension to Jupiter. The article was subtitled "Diamonds in the Sky?" in reference to the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Mount Zeus is a fragment of Jupiter's core which survived the creation of Lucifer and later impacted on Europa.
On the Universe, the celebrity guests discuss the mystery surrounding Dave Bowman and the monoliths, and whether they would be allowed to land on Europa to rescue Galaxy’s crew. Floyd follows Yva Merlin's suggestion that he simply try to call Bowman on the radio, and that night has a strange dream in which he sees the monolith floating at the foot of his bed.
The Bill Tee flies by Tsien, which has been completely stripped of its metals, and on to the Great Wall. In the shadow of the Great Wall they find a deserted Europan village made up of igloo-like structures. An image of Heywood Floyd appears to Chris in the same way that Dave Bowman appeared to Floyd in 2010, telling him that the Universe was coming and that the Europans had left until "the wind blows the poison away". Van der Berg thinks that Chris is crazy until he realizes that the heat of the engine cracked the steam exhaust of the Bill Tee into hydrogen and oxygen, oxygen being poisonous to Europans. The shuttle's fuel is expended so they wait there until the Universe arrives.
Chris contacts Universe and finds that his grandfather is not dead at all, but alive and well. The crew are rescued and brought to Ganymede, where they watch via satellite as Mount Zeus, which has been steadily sinking, finally disappears beneath the Europan surface. Soon thereafter, Paul Kreuger writes a follow-up article for Nature (80 years after the original article's publication), stating that Mount Zeus was a mere fragment of Jupiter's core and it is almost certain that much more such large pieces of diamond are currently in orbit around Lucifer, and proposing that a program be initiated immediately to collect these enormous quantities of diamond and put them to use.
Floyd and Chris II become close again, and both become friends with van der Berg. They talk about how Floyd called Bowman on the radio, and Chris asks "Did you ever get a reply?" Floyd almost tells his grandson about the monolith in his cabin, but does not after rationalizing that it was probably a dream.
[edit] The conversation inside the Great Wall
As it turns out, it was not a dream. The monolith duplicated Floyd's consciousness: there are now two Heywood Floyds—one is a normal human who has just found a new lease on life, and the other is an immortal being who resides with Dave Bowman and HAL inside the Great Wall. The three immortal beings converse, and Floyd finds out that the impact of Mount Zeus set Europa's life back by years and caused the extinction of many promising species. HAL and Dave are also worried that the collision might have damaged the monolith; the impact knocked the monolith over. Dave tells him of how the Jovians had to be exterminated in the creation of Lucifer so that the Europans might survive, and tells Floyd that they have less than a millennium to work in.
In the epilogue, the star Lucifer extinguishes in 3001… and "the monolith awakes".
[edit] Film version?
Shortly after the novel was released, Tom Hanks expressed extreme interest in producing a film adaptation, with himself cast in the role of Floyd, and Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain reprising their roles as David Bowman and HAL 9000. These plans never went beyond the initial announcement.
| The Space Odyssey series | |
|---|---|
| Films | 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) |
| Novels | 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | 2010: Odyssey Two (1982) | 2061: Odyssey Three (1987) | 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997) |
| Comics | 2001: A Space Odyssey (1976) |
| Short stories | "The Sentinel" (written 1948, first published 1951 as "Sentinel of Eternity") |
| Characters | HAL 9000 | David Bowman | Dr. Chandra | Walter Curnow | Heywood Floyd | Frank Poole |
| Vehicles | Discovery One | EVA Pod | Leonov | Orion III | Aries Ib | Space Station V |
| Locations | Earth | Moon | Clavius Base | Tycho | Jupiter | Europa | Io | Ganymede | Saturn | Iapetus |
| Cast | Keir Dullea | John Lithgow | Gary Lockwood | Helen Mirren | Douglas Rain | Roy Scheider | William Sylvester | Leonard Rossiter | Margaret Tyzack |
| Crew/creators | Arthur C. Clarke | Peter Hyams | Jack Kirby | Stanley Kubrick |
| Interpretations | Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey |
| Music | Alex North's 2001: A Space Odyssey |
