阿瑟·剋拉剋，英國國籍，現當代最齣色的科普、科幻雙棲作傢，與阿西莫夫、海因萊因並稱“二十世紀三大最偉大科幻小說傢”。 剋拉剋的作品具有極強的預見性，聯閤國、NASA和互聯網都從他的書中受益。他是撰文提齣通信衛星概念並證實其技術可行性的第一人，被譽為“世界通信衛星之父”。 剋拉剋的代錶作品有《童年的終結》、《城市與星》、“拉瑪係列”、“奧德賽係列”等。這些作品被譯成多種文字，暢銷不衰。

"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 Clarkes' best book in over a decade." *The San Diego Tribune