Arthur C. Clarke: 2061 odyssey three

The third book in Clarke’s beloved Space Odyssey continues the story of Heywood Floyd, survivor of two previous encounters with the mysterious monoliths and the alien intelligences behind them. Floyd is chosen as one of a handful of celebrity guests to witness the first manned touchdown on the surface of Halley’s Comet on the privately-owned spaceship Universe.

But on Jupiter’s moon Europa, scientists have spotted the sudden appearance of a single diamond the size of a mountain—a fragment of Jupiter’s core. When the spaceship Galaxy is hijacked and forced to crash into Europa’s ocean, the Universe is diverted from its original mission to rescue the crew.

Now Heywood Floyd must once again survive an encounter with HAL, David Bowman, and the mysterious monolith-building race with its own inscrutable agenda to shape the destiny of the human race.