Article: Books: What we did instead... As 2001: A Space Odyssey is reissued, it's intriguing to see how wrong its author was about the real 2001. By John Clute; 2001: a space odyssey by Arthur C Clarke Orbit, pounds 12.99, 252pp

Here, on the doorstep into 2001, drops a reminder of what might have been. It is Arthur C Clarke's 1968 novelisation of Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which the men co-scripted in the mid 1960s. It comes into print again in time to suggest a few comparisons between what he thought we might be up to now, and what we did instead.

Peering again into Clarke's vision of homo sapiens in dire straits, it is hard to know whether to sigh at the loss of the salvation he offers us at the end, or to sigh with relief. The world we have in fact created, with all the terrors we face as the new century gathers force, remains far more liveable than the bleached- out plastic limbo Clarke ...

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