2001

This is what good scifi is all about; imagination with enough true facts to keep it believable. The way in which first contact was achieved was certainly unique. I really thought HAL was a very interesting character, the perfect personification of the natural human fear of superdeveloped AI. The period transitions were very smooth and grounded to plot development. Clarke is very descriptive (something newbies may get bored with) but for those of us who read scifi for the "sci" Clarke has it in spades.