€œA daring romp through the solar system and a worthy successor to 2001.€Â€"Carl Sagan
Nine years after the disastrous Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition sets out to rendezvous with the derelict spacecraft€"to search the memory banks of the mutinous computer HAL 9000 for clues to what went wrong€¦and what became of Commander Dave Bowman.
Without warning, a Chinese expedition targets the same objective, turning the recovery mission into a frenzied race for the precious information Discovery may hold about the enigmatic monolith that orbits Jupiter.
Meanwhile, the being that was once Dave Bowman€"the only human to unlock the mystery of the monolith€"streaks toward Earth on a vital mission of its own . . .Â
€œClarke deftly blends discovery, philosophy, and a newly acquired sense of play.€Â€"Time
€œ2010 is easily Clarke€s best book in over a decade.€Â€"The San Diego Tribune