[In the following excerpt, Jonas argues that 2061: Odyssey Three lacks the quality of earlier Odyssey works but is still pleasurable to read.]

Arthur C. Clarke's 2061: Odyssey Three is a pallid sequel to 2010: Odyssey Two, which was a pallid sequel to Mr. Clarke's splendid 2001. The new novel has no characters of interest, generates virtually no narrative tension and barely touches on the enigmatic monoliths that figured so prominently in the previous books; rather than resolving anything, the ending is a shameless come-on for “Odyssey Four.” Having said this, I must add that even second-rate Clarke has its pleasures.

The year 2061 marks the next return to our solar system of Halley’s comet, a celestial body composed largely of carbon-blackened snow and ice. A scientific expedition is dispatched to the comet, whose entire surface melts and refreezes as it swings around the sun. Meanwhile, other explorers land on the forbidden world of Europa to get a closer look at a mysterious mountain.

Mr. Clarke's heart is obviously not in the obligatory action scenes that advance the plot. But he remains a master at describing the wonders of the material universe in sentences that combine a respect for scientific accuracy with an often startling lyricism. Of the difficulty of identifying landmarks on Halley’s comet, he writes, “There could be no maps of a world where geography was as ephemeral as weather on Earth.” Describing conditions on Jupiter’s moon Europa, he notes, “This was still a low-energy world—there was none of the free oxygen that allowed the animals of Earth to live by a series of continuous explosions, from the moment they started to breathe at birth.”