Ever wonder what the hell the movie was all about? There's a lot of explaining in this book, making it an essential companion to the film. There's some subtle differences between the two story-wise, but nothing too big apart from the ending.

I was surprised not only at how vanilla-bland Clarke's prose was, but also how none of the characters really stood out save for HAL. The book isn't bad by any means, but it also wasn't as 'deep' as I expected considering its film twin.