2001: A Space Odyssey is Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi classic about the first exploration of Jupiter and Saturn.  Made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a part of most everyone’s cultural lexicon and has really made a lot of people distrustful of computers–especially one’s named HAL.  

The story starts a little strange featuring a tribe of primitive ape-like primates and is famous for its supposition that the evolution of man was helped along by advanced extraterrestrials. The story quickly progresses to a highly researched and very realistic portrayal of an imagined space program.  Written in 1968 the rocket science is still relevant today and reading the story today one cannot find anything really out-of-date or ridiculously “sci-fi”. The story comes to a surprising end, giving the reader something to think about.

Classic story, well-researched, interesting, thought-provoking, a definite sci-fi must read.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore:  The depiction of a primitive culture has instances of fighting that end in death, succumbing to the elements, and old age; a fight with a large animal; a person is killed in space when their space suit is ruptured; other astronauts are suffocated in a vacuum when exposed to space.

Sex/Nudity: None

Mature Subject Matter:

Death, evolution, primitive culture way of life.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None