"A daring romp through the solar system and a worthy successor to 2001. "--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 ... "Clarke deftly blends discovery, philosophy, and a newly acquired sense of play. "--Time "2010 is easily Clarke's best book in over a decade. "--The San Diego Tribune