I'm in a weird position where, years ago, I read the book by Arthur C. Clarke but have never seen the film. When I read the book I assumed the film was an adaptation of the book. This is incorrect. Kubrick and Clarke collaborated on the screenplay together and, as they did so, Clarke wrote the novel.

Now, I read this book in high school. My tastes have changed since then, so I don't exactly trust my loose memory of the book. But this was my takeaway.

The opening prologue was interesting. Then roughly 90% of the novel was tedious (though there's one poignant scene that I still think about from time to time). HAL 9000 was interesting, but not as interesting as I expected knowing about the movie. The final 10% of the novel is one of the most bizarre sequences I've ever read.