Alright here it is. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with this since I have barely read anything since middle school (maybe a book or two a year). My contributions will primarily be manga. If I need to add a genre or period let me know. This series will eventually be canonized into the sidebar as a definitive recommendation list of all things C/Lit.
Future threads:
Periods: Pre-1800, 1800s, 1900-50, 1951-99, 2000-20, 2021
Genres: Children's, Comedy, Coming of age, Folklore, Historical, LGBT, BIPOC Related, Philosophy, Pop Culture, Religious, Thriller, Western, Young Adult, Action, Adventure, Survival, Crime, Mystery, Fantasy, Romance, Horror, Graphic Novel, Biography, Travel, Historical, Propaganda, Philosophy, Political Theory, Poetry, Plays, Manga, Speculative Fiction, Sports, and Miscellaneous
The 2001 Space Odyssey series is pretty good (and the only sci-fi I've read that I can remember off the top of my head).
2001 was based off of a book?
To be annoying, it's not based off the book. Kubrick and Clarke worked together on the project and wrote the film and book at the same time. It was all based on a short store by Clarke called The Sentinel. Clarke ended up annoyed by Kubrick and hated the movie
Yeah. It's actually the first book in a 4 books series (2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001), but they only made 2001 and 2010 into movies lol.
Well, I might check that out then.
You definitely should. The 2001 movie is pretty accurate to the book though obviously not as dense. The ending to the movie 2001 is probably one of the most memorable moments in cinema history, but that same part in the book is on a whole other level, especially in terms of worldbuilding. It's also way less confusing as to what's happening which is nice, while still having a lot of that same surreal cosmic horror-ish feel to it.
The 2010 movie is also fairly accurate to the book, but the Chinese expedition is only briefly mentioned in the movie iirc, while it takes a much more important role in the book. 2061 and 3001 are both pretty good, 3001 especially since it's set 1000 years after the 1st book. It's a shame that neither of them got made into movies, 'cause Arthur C. Clarke created one of the coolest and most mystical visions for the future that I've ever had the pleasure of reading about.
Edit: Slightly related, but there's a found footage sci-fi film called "Europa Report" that's free to watch on YouTube, and it's basically if the Chinese mission subplot from 2010 was made into its own movie. An interesting film, though obviously watching it before reading the book would somewhat spoil the general idea of what happen in that subplot.