2061: Odyssey Three
Cover of the first edition
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| Author | Arthur C. Clarke |
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| Illustrator | Michael Whelan |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Space Odyssey series |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
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Publication date
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December 1987 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pages |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 16756201 |
| 823/.914 19 | |
| LC Class | PR6005.L36 A617 1988 |
| Preceded by | 2010: Odyssey Two |
| Followed by | 3001: The Final Odyssey |
2061: Odyssey Three is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1987. It is the third book in Clarke's Space Odyssey series. It returns to one of the lead characters of the previous novels, Heywood Floyd, and depicts Floyd's adventures, which take him from the 2061 return of Halley's Comet to Jupiter's moon Europa.
Because the Odyssey series is closely concerned with Jupiter and its moons, Clarke had originally intended to delay writing a third book until the Galileo mission to the planet had returned its findings. However, the probe's launch was delayed in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster so that it would not arrive at Jupiter until 1995. Deciding not to wait, Clarke instead took his inspiration from the approach of Comet Halley in 1986 and focused his sequel on the comet's future return, in 2061.
2061 is set 51 years after the events of 2010: Odyssey Two. At the end of that novel, the enigmatic aliens who built the Monolith had transformed the planet Jupiter into a mini-sun in order to aid the evolution of life on Jupiter's moon Europa. A message was sent to Earth referring to Jupiter's moons:
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPT EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.
The opening chapters of 2061 gradually explain the events that have taken place in the interim years. The new sun, dubbed 'Lucifer', has transformed the moons of the former Jupiter: Io has become a volcanic hellhole, Europa an ocean world shrouded by clouds, and Ganymede a temperate world that the human race is colonizing. Large-scale interplanetary travel is now commercially viable with muon-catalyzed fusion-powered spacecraft. But humanity is wary of sending spacecraft close to Europa despite its fascinating mysteries, including the appearance of a large mountain, dubbed 'Mount Zeus', on its surface. On Earth, a period of relative peace has evolved between the U.S., USSR and China, although a violent revolution has taken place in South Africa (now the United States of Southern Africa or USSA): the white population fled to Europe, taking most of the country's wealth with them and leaving the black population to rebuild the economy, which they did in a matter of weeks thanks to the country's diamond mines.
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