2061: Odyssey Three - Arthur C. Clarke

Rolling onward with the series, we pick up about 50 years since the Monolith cause Jupiter to collapse in upon itself and formed a minisun to warm Europa's oceans, to see if perhaps the life there could advance. But even the minds behind a project of that scope didn't account for every possibility. Like a chunk of Jupiter's core being ejected into space and crashing into Europa's surface. Or that people would want that chunk of rock badly enough to risk trying to land.

The rescue ends up in the hands of a ship that was busy landing on Halley's Comet, and which counts Heywood Floyd (who was in each of the previous two books) as one of its passengers. Their ship makes a clever move to refuel more quickly and cut out a major detour in their voyage, cutting months off the trip. But when Jupiter was transformed, there was a message warning humanity to stay off Europa. Nothing had happened to the first ship, but there's no guarantee a second ship will be allowed to visit.

Something Clarke mentions in the foreword for these editions is that the books don't necessarily take place in the same timeline. They're more closely parallel universes, with certain differences. Which probably explains how either ship was able to reach Europa's surface, considering the end of 2010 stated any probe or ship humans sent towards Europa was destroyed by an unseen force. So the books are a bit like Leone's three films with Clint Eastwood: The characters may look very similar, but they're as different or unfamiliar with each other as the story demands. Not a criticism necessarily, just something I had to remind myself of every so often while reading.

There's one scene in the book that made me laugh hysterically. Fastidiousness taken to an absurd extreme. Clarke had established that particular character trait previously, and later had the character try to justify the action, but none of that mattered. I just found it silly, and maybe because of reasons separate from the book, I cracked up.

Three books in, though, I still feel I'm waiting for something. While Clarke can be quite thoughtful and descriptive in his writing, and apparently, funny, there's a lack of tension. Perhaps because he's taking a reasoned, measured approach to space travel. The shortcut the rescue ship takes isn't done half-cocked; the person who proposed it thought it over thoroughly ahead of time, and the course is mapped out, checked, double-checked, etc. There's a trip through the asteroid belt, but the story dismisses the possibility of a collision, because space is still mostly empty, and the odds are strongly against it.

There are moments when it feels like Clarke could inject some suspense, and he opts not to. If he's trying to convey some sense I should be concerned about the fate of the crew stuck on Europa, it doesn't reach its destination. One book left; we'll see if it happens there.

'"Personally," he had told the scientist, "I would regard it as a slightly unfriendly act to have a ton of armor-piercing hardware dropped on me at a thousand kilometers an hour. I'm quite surprised the World Council have you permission."

Dr. Anderson was also a little surprised, though he might have been had he known that the project was the last item on a long agenda of a Science Subcommittee late on a Friday afternoon. Of such trifles History is made.'