2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

ISBN-10: 0345303067

ISBN-13: 978-0345303066

Publisher: Del Rey

• The USA and USSR are in a race to yoink/scavenge Discovery’s corpse. 
• ️Dr. Floyd has a wife who’s twenty years younger than him, which might raise some red flags, except that I don’t know the age of either. He was still in the game to have kids, which is the only clue, but we know sickos are willing to bring kids into the world even despite ailing age. 
• Floyd has a smart watch. I wonder how much this influenced the development of real smart watches. 
• ️It’s strange that Dr. Chandra’s full surname is Chandrasegarampillai but he doesn’t make Hal address him as such, though it’d be a relatively easy task for AI.  
• ️Sal 9000 is referred to as a “she” and has developed an Indian accent. Is this Clarke’s deciding factor? Vocal range? While in the film, Hal has a computerized baritone, this is not the description Clarke gives us in the text.  
• ️Dr. Chandra tells Sal that nobody knows why we dream. That is no longer true. WIP 
• ️I’m still on the prowl for Floyd and his wife’s ages. They have a two-year-old son. Floyd notes that they will be closer in age after his journey due to hibernation and that this will extend their lifetimes together. This tells me that Floyd is the older one.  
• Despite their ambiguous ages, Floyd and Caroline have what appears to be healthy communication. There’s no apparent flexing of a power dynamic, which so long as grooming wasn’t involved, is a good sign. The biggest complaint I have is that it’s often an unhealthy male fantasy to be with a woman many years his junior (Twenty in this possible case). It potentially being the other way around is also unhealthy. 
• ️Leningrad still exists…well, we’re still dealing with the USSR here. 
• ️Instead of formally addressing the other by given name and patronymic, the Russian characters use only given name. Maxim is also addressed by a nickname that seems too Western. I expected Makyusha or something.  
• ️”It’s, how do you say–Engwish” 
• ️China! China! China! 
• ️There’s a hint that Tanya is, what, flirting with Floyd. But why though?  
• Somehow Clarke was aware that in 2010 people would still not shut the fuck up about WWII war crimes. 
• ️CHINA NOOOOO 
• There are, like, giant plankton or some shit on Jupiter. Where are the space crabs!!! 
• Max and Zenia have been flirting, I guess, but during an expected turbulent part of the trip, Zenia makes a point to cuddle with Floyd?? Certainly, she doesn’t owe loyalty at this point, especially when the details of her relationship with Max are vague, but I find Clarke’s excuse for her preference of comfort with Floyd shoddy–an opportunity to display that Floyd is attractive to young women, though he makes a point to describe Zenia as “not beautiful.” Seems like a sex fantasy based off previous evidence. Floyd is already married. Being in space doesn’t divorce you from morality. There’s room for conversation about this, but I have little hope for Clarke. 
• Zagadka, the second monolith is like a cat, it just don’t give a shit. They should try ignoring it and eating food to see if it does anything. Works with my cat. 
• ️HAL RETURNS, YESSIR, IT PLEADS THE FIFTH. 
• So HAL experienced psychosis because it wasn’t properly trained for security. Now that we really have AI (though cruder) this can be compared to AI being tricked into giving answers it’s supposed to keep secret. I’m also reminded of the number scenarios of bots trying to kill themselves LOL 
• ️??? Is Curnow supposed to be gay? On behalf of Zenia’s romantic feelings, Floyd chides him for being chummy with Max, but none of that friendliness suggested romance, and homosexuality is criminalized in the USSR with overwhelming support from the population? This needs more development.  
• ️David Bowman in 4th dimensional level 5 civilization sigma form visits an old flame and tells her that he wants to fuck. No body, though. How do secks?? 
• ️Clarke describes Betty as still beautiful after having miscarriages and I just want to know what he thinks a miscarriage is. Like, maybe he means the stress, which I can give to him?? Idk just seems like a disrespectful comment to make about someone who’s had a miscarriage.  
• ️Dave is investigating the fauna and flora on Europa, which tbh, is exactly what I’d do if I could shed my corporeal vessel LMFAO 
• ️So is Caroline divorcing Floyd? Good on her. Don’t become a hospice wife, girl. Even if Floyd won’t age for two years, an eighteen year gap is a lot. 
• ️Tell all the rich people that there’s a diamond inside of Jupiter so they fucking leave already, goddamn. 
• ️Of course the descriptions of life are fantasy, but I’ll have to compare Clarke’s description of Jupiter’s layers to 2025 knowledge.  
• Dave forms an apparition and tells Floyd they need to gtfo of dodge. I do appreciate Clarke’s science background here. No one is villainized for disbelieving Floyd’s account and only more concrete evidence is used to justify the change in mission plans. It’s not until Zagadka disappears that more credence is given to leaving Jupiter’s orbit.  
• Dr. Chandra is like, “you can’t just change plans, HAL is going to have a panic attack” like for fuck’s sake AI seems to be more of a nuisance than an assistance (which is true even today but for more obnoxious reasons). 
• ️Sometimes Clarke is amazing with description, and other times he waits too long to mention things. I was imagining the controls of Leonov as physical buttons until Clarke mentions in chapter 46 that most things are touchscreen. Paints a totally different picture of the ship’s inside. 
• HAL is apparently sad about being left in space. 
• Jupiter has black mold!!!1 Jk it’s just the monoliths enjoying it as a treat and multiplying. Goodbye, Jupiter! 
• ️Floyd sends a friendzone message to Caroline, and tbh, I’m glad he’s logical enough not to croon for her to remain his lover, and puts his son first. 
• ️Dr. Chandra states that his philosophy of nonviolence was crucial to HAL’s obedience.  As a Westerner, Floyd doesn’t get it and is even irked, but we know that there are indigenous people who follow the same mantra for raising children with fine results. We can compare HAL to a child because it is a machine unfamiliar with all of humanity’s nuances. We’re obsessed with violence as discipline, when what it really does is create generations of damage. 
• As I expected, Dr. Chandra was aware of the contingency device installed on HAL and quietly disarmed it. 
• Dave and HAL have fused or some shit. 
• ️The Zagadkas turned Jupiter into a star. Uhm…what’s going to happen to the planets’ orbital path now?? Also some mention is made of animals going extinct but humans surviving but I feel like we’re vastly underestimating Jupiter turning into another fucking sun. 
• ️So like, the Zagadkas want to encourage evolution on Europa. 
• The crew breaks into a sweat when they realize that the Zagadkas may have left them to die. Reminds me of nature documentaries where the crew can’t interfere with life or death. 
• ️LMFAOOOO They renamed Jupiter to Lucifer 
• ️I keep reading Europans as Europeans 
• ️People on Earth don’t listen. They’re still trying to land probes on Europa and they get decimated every time by a monolith