Though not in the same league as its more popular predecessors... 2061 picks up towards the middle and develops on a different theme. The alien entity had created a new stellar system by igniting jupiter into a star... in the ending of 2010 and left the message for humans (the last words from HAL and Odyssey)- ’’All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there’’
This left the fans wanting for more and this story was the result... some will say that the author had planned to tell the story in 3 parts so as to derive maximum mileage and monetary gains from it... but I would disagree on that... and Clarke has himself refuted these speculations... he’s on record as having said that the stories are independent and stand by themselves the preceeding parts form the backdrop on which the subsequent parts build upon...
Back to the story... the new star system appearing in the near vicinity with the possibility of intelligent life on one of the planets led the human civilization to step up its efforts to colonize the solar system staking our claim as the first born of the system to most of the wealth... the Jovian worlds are also colonized... all except Europa... the last message from the monolith is taken very seriously and no landings are attempted... Till an accidental landing forces the colonizers to attempt a rescue mission... but not before they are assured that the monolith’s permission has been obtained. for the entity, once the benefactor of human beings is now protecting the Europans from humans...
The story is in clarke’s inimitable style. there are vivid descriptions of natural phenomenon and sceneries never witnessed by human eyes really fire up the imagination... It makes you want to go there... Would some future generation see this book as being used as a space tourism guide...:)