3001: The Final Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #4) by Arthur C. Clarke

Dec 27, 2012 Henry Avila rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The 4th and last of the 2001 series. Dr.Heywood Floyd is not in this novel.Even the eternal, good doctor, can't live 1,000 years.But Frank Poole, that's a horse of a different color.Frank's body is floating, floating,being pushed out into the limitless universe.Gently moving up and down,twisting, tumbling,passing planets,asteroids,rocks,even an occasional comet,unseen in the darkness ,in a calm peaceful sleep,leaving the troubled Solar System behind.What dreams he must have had.But this heaven e...more The 4th and last of the 2001 series. Dr.Heywood Floyd is not in this novel.Even the eternal, good doctor, can't live 1,000 years.But Frank Poole, that's a horse of a different color.Frank's body is floating, floating,being pushed out into the limitless universe.Gently moving up and down,twisting, tumbling,passing planets,asteroids,rocks,even an occasional comet,unseen in the darkness ,in a calm peaceful sleep,leaving the troubled Solar System behind.What dreams he must have had.But this heaven ends,when Captain Dimitri Chandler(what a name), of the space tug Goliath,finds and resuscitates Frank.The first thing they ask the undead Poole is, who was Batman and why did he wear a mask? I WISHED.In truth,Frank is still sleeping.Chandler beyond the orbit of Neptune,had been nudging ice found in abundance there, and sending them to crash on the surfaces of waterless Venus and Mercury.Someday forming seas and developing breathable atmospheres, for future colonist from Earth.Too bad Frank didn't reach the dwarf planet Pluto,dwarf ? With him having five kids,I mean moons.Does that sound like a dwarf? And more moons rumored to be around.The Romeo of the Cosmos little, big, Pluto... But I digress.After waking up, the astronaut discovers he's living in a space elevator,one of four on Earth and towering above it. 22,000 miles high,looking down at Africa,seeing an ocean in the middle of the Sahara Desert! Even Poole gets a little dizzy, an embarrassing situation for the ex crewman of the Discovery.Gardens,amusement parks,tall trees and even small rivers ,with a waterfall and lakes.Did I mention real Dinosaurs also.Disneyland in the sky.Sounds like a great elevator to live in ! He will not be permitted,or be able ,because of gravity to visit his home.Besides after so many years everything he knew is gone.Except Poole's high school which still survives! The future has many strange things,robot slaves for people to command for any trivial tasks,to do.Mind control helmets,and braincaps, planted inside everyone's shaved skulls, for instant communications.Where are the cell phones?.There is little crime here.Big Brother was a wimp compared to the 31st century but the people have freedom ,all are equal right? After a few months Frank gets a little stir crazy.He gladly accepts Captain Chandler's offer to take a trip with him.Dave Bowman has been spotted,Poole's old captain.Jupiter or what's left of it, here I come.....(less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Shai-Hulud rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-literature, sci-fi

Em 3001, A Odisséia Final, Arthur C. Clarke apresenta algumas respostas a todas as dúvidas geradas na cabeça daqueles que leram ou assistiram às adaptações cinematográficas de 2001, Uma Odisséia no Espaço, e 2010, Uma Odisséia no Espaço 2. Quem são os monolitos, quem os comanda e qual o seu propósito são algumas das perguntas já respondidas nas duas primeiras páginas da obra.

Já a história em si gira em torno do resgate, mil anos depois, do corpo do astronauta Frank Poole, abandonado, em 2001, pe...more

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Aug 19, 2008 Hope rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. They told me - don't bother reading 3001, it's not worth it. I knew they were right. But partially from a need to complete the series, and partially out of morbid curiosity, I read it anyway.

It's awful. It's only saving grace is being just 112 pages. There are a few beautiful passages - all lifted directly from the other novels in the series. He makes some interesting social commentary, but that's overwhelmed by his diatribes against religion.

Again, instead of ending it just frays away. What p...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Ben rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

Frank Poole is back! No, he didn’t die in 2001, somehow floating in space preserved him. And he just happened to float by someone who could rescue him too! Good thing space is both hospitable to life and small enough for chance encounters. Clarke did this because he needed a character that the reader could identify with to introduce all the changes a thousand years into the future. And Dave, Hal or Haywood would have been even bigger stretches and much harder to handle. And like 2061 this has al...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Jason Golomb rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, first-contact, science-fiction, science

The elements that make "2001: A Space Odyssey" a classic -- the pacing, dramatic tension, smartly efficient plot lines -- are mostly missing from Arthur C. Clarke's "Space Odyssey" finale, "3001". What it retains is Clarke's obvious exuberance for biological, technological and cultural evolution. Each book in the series represents an evolution in itself even, of Clarke's own perspective and thinking on the growth of humanity overtime, while providing a platform for his reflections on extraterres...more The elements that make "2001: A Space Odyssey" a classic -- the pacing, dramatic tension, smartly efficient plot lines -- are mostly missing from Arthur C. Clarke's "Space Odyssey" finale, "3001". What it retains is Clarke's obvious exuberance for biological, technological and cultural evolution. Each book in the series represents an evolution in itself even, of Clarke's own perspective and thinking on the growth of humanity overtime, while providing a platform for his reflections on extraterrestrial life and evolution.

This story follows Frank Poole, murdered by the omnipresent HAL in "2001", found preserved and alive after floating in the cold vacuum of space for 1000 years. It's through Frank's eyes, mind and mouth that Clarke exposes his views on the future. Religion is no more; and technology is the new religion. And while technological advancement has skyrocketed beyond Poole's own age, one character comments that "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Poole doesn't understand it, but has faith enough to accept it.

In connecting this story to the previous three novels, Clarke writes in a couple 'guest appearances' by David Bowman and HAL - now a single entity called Halman. They appear, literally and figuratively, as mere shadows of their former selves. Poole's character, and the smattering of future humans he interacts with, are not nearly enough to carry the story itself, however.

In tying up loose ends, we learn more about the entities that sent the Monolith's to earth as well. Much of this is speculated in the previous novels so don't really count as 'spoilers':

"And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everhwere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed."

"For years they studied, collected, catalogued. When they had learned all that they could, they began to modify. They tinkered with the destiny of many species, on land and in the seeas. But which of their experiments would bear fruit, they could not know for a least a million years. They were patient."

The last two novels in the "Space Odyssey" series are weak; are really no more than long novellas (about 200 pages) and do little to build on the mythology started in "2001". Unless you feel compelled to 'complete' the Clarke's quadrility, you miss out on little by reading only "2001" and it's very strong sequel "2010".

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Nov 23, 2012 David Agranoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hard-sci-fi, science-fiction-masterpiece

I’m glad I finally got around to reading this one. It is an effective end to the story that began with 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is more of a direct sequel to that novel/film than 2061 which seemed more connected to the second book/film. They all work together of course but Clarke seemed to not consider them to be direct sequels. He wrote about it in a forward and seemed to think that the fact that 2001 happened without Pan Am moonliners and a Soviet Union that made 2061 and 3001 different stori...more I’m glad I finally got around to reading this one. It is an effective end to the story that began with 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is more of a direct sequel to that novel/film than 2061 which seemed more connected to the second book/film. They all work together of course but Clarke seemed to not consider them to be direct sequels. He wrote about it in a forward and seemed to think that the fact that 2001 happened without Pan Am moonliners and a Soviet Union that made 2061 and 3001 different stories.

Whatever, I was stoked to get an end to a story that started in the late 60’s with 2001. We got tidbits and answers here and there about what the monoliths. The mystery of 2001 and the unexplained awe is my favorite part of the film. The book offers more explanation, but three books in to this series I was ready for more answers. At the start of this book we still have no idea who sent the monoliths, this book sorta answers this, but the only clear answer comes in why it is there. It is stated outright in this novel, and that has not happened before.

3001 being a thousand years in our future and has a grander scope, but that helps because it is seen through the eyes of Frank Poole who is from our century. Yep, the same Frank Poole that HAL left floating in space. He is revived after spending a thousand years preserved in the vacuum of space. He learns of a populated solar system, featuring a new star, several colonies, orbit tall building the size of countries, and a human race interconnected digitally by implanted Braincap computers. My favorite element were the towers the size of countries that reached into orbit. Cool and scary concept at the same time.

While the ending was not as grand as the story that led up to it (and basically the same as popcorn sci-fi movie ID4) it was the message that I dug. It is worth reading and noting that Clarke that had written novels with syrupy happy cheery endings that celebrates the human race and how awesome it is. That is not exactly the point here. The monolith is watching us and over the many, many years, whatever the beings are that put it there, well they are not pleased about who we have become.
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Jan 24, 2012 Navi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: disappointing, classics, sci-fi

It's both amusing and sad when a book series falls flat on its face during its final leaps. The Odyssey series is, unfortunately, one of these. Except instead of attempting to get back up and trying to pretend its fall never happened, 3001 wallows in the failure, following the same idea as 2061; nothing happens. Well, nothing substantial, anyway.

Let me be the first to say that I don't mind that Frank comes back to life. It was a (sort of) logical way to show Dave's human side (sort of) while sti...more It's both amusing and sad when a book series falls flat on its face during its final leaps. The Odyssey series is, unfortunately, one of these. Except instead of attempting to get back up and trying to pretend its fall never happened, 3001 wallows in the failure, following the same idea as 2061; nothing happens. Well, nothing substantial, anyway.

Let me be the first to say that I don't mind that Frank comes back to life. It was a (sort of) logical way to show Dave's human side (sort of) while still having a (sort of) familiar character to 'relate' to (sort of).

The problem is that the entire plot is, as stated above, filled with 'sort of's. I honestly never found Frank engaging enough to care about, as he's pretty accepting about the fact that he's one thousand years ahead of his time and has very little difficulty adapting. I'll take the excuse that 'it's the future' for why he could miraculously be retrieved from space and brought back to life. There's been more implausible things in this series. However, what little personality he had in 2001 must have never been revived, because he is easily the most boring character in the series.

Not that the characters have ever been the high point of the Odyssey series, with the exception of maybe Hal and Dave. It's always been about the adventure, the journey to get to the plot. The characters were always basically two-dimensional, and that was fine because it wasn't a character driven story. 3001 attempts to change up the formula, happily turning in its space suit for a more boring 'life-in-the-future' story.

It's unfortunate that Odyssey ends on such a low point, when the first two were so good and the third passable. It won't go without recommendation - it's still a rather unique take on the future and one of the grandaddies of sci-fi. The good also far outweighs the bad in the series, with space descriptions that make you believe you were standing right there next to them.

So if you haven't yet, check out these books, watch the movies, something. Odyssey is something that everyone - young and old - should experience. (less)

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Oct 13, 2011 Todd rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

The late Arthur C. Clarke is one of my favorite science fiction writers and 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on an earlier short story of his, The Sentinel (1948), has always been something of a spiritual experience for me, even though I am not prone to spiritual experiences. But, given the prescient depiction of the moon and our galaxy in those pre-Apollo mission days, both film and book are breathtaking.
For this current generation reared on CGI animation and blockbuster special effects and IMAX,...more The late Arthur C. Clarke is one of my favorite science fiction writers and 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on an earlier short story of his, The Sentinel (1948), has always been something of a spiritual experience for me, even though I am not prone to spiritual experiences. But, given the prescient depiction of the moon and our galaxy in those pre-Apollo mission days, both film and book are breathtaking.
For this current generation reared on CGI animation and blockbuster special effects and IMAX, it’s hard to articulate the feeling of this Clarke/Kubrick classic as it moved across the big screen. There was a certain indescribable feeling – a breathless, “whoa” at the end of the film as the screen went dark and the theatre lights came on. No one in the auditorium moved to peel ourselves off the uncomfortable seats. It was a hot summer day and the air conditioning had died halfway through the movie…yet nothing mattered.
This was my experience in 1977, nine years after the film’s release, and I had already seen both Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which were special effects wonders in comparison. There was just this weird feeling that something happened. The 11 year old that I used to be had just had the second of only two real theophanies I would ever have…the first one occurred when I was six years old.
Unfortunately, the lingering eager naiveté that accompanied my pleasure over 2001 and even 2010 (I was a high school senior when both the novel and the movie were released) could help 3001 measure up to the first two. But, then at 44 I am a bit more jaded then when I was a geeky and easily awestruck teenage science fiction nerd. My expectations were perhaps unrealistic. Nostalgia can break your heart.
3001 is still compelling. The breadth of Clarke’s imagination has never failed to astound me as he takes current scientific knowledge and extrapolates the future world and fate of humanity. Just as in Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was broken into four components (the symbolism of 4 appeared throughout the film), Clarke has broken up his literary odyssey into four distinct novels that are not typically linear storytelling.
As the final story opens we are a thousand years into the future from where the failed Discovery mission ended with Frank Poole being ejected from the spacecraft by Hal and the transformation of Dave Bowman into the star child. Heywood Floyd, Dr. Chandra and the Russian crew of the Leonov are also long gone. The earth and our small galaxy are different places…almost unrecognizable. Jupiter has been transformed into Lucifer, a dimmer version of our own sun, and it shines down on the evolving Europa.
It is this future time that the 100 year old body of Frank Poole is found floating out in the outer reaches of the galaxy…frozen, but apparently not dead. He is miraculously revived and comes full circle in an odyssey of his own as he resumes his life in a world and time far removed from the early 21st century. As Frank adjusts to his life in this new world it would seem that the monolith is become active again. Soon Halman – the merged consciousness of Dave Bowman and the computer HAL – is being spotted again in various places. Soon he has an ominous message for his old friend Frank Poole.

Clarke manages to tell a great story and retain an element of mystery about the powers or intelligences behind the monoliths, although I think he does a much better job of this in his Rama series, which are both technically and artfully his more superior works. But, those of you who share my sense of wonder over the world of the monoliths, Dave Bowman and Hal will still find something worthwhile in 3001 The Final Odyssey.
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Apr 08, 2011 Andreas rated it 3 of 5 stars

This series started as a one-off book released in conjunction with the Stanley Kubrick movie of the same name. The series consists of:

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* 2010: Odyssey Two. (Also made into a film)
* 2061 Odyssey Three
* 3001: The Final Odyssey

The first and second books are enthralling. 2061 is more of the same, and thus decent but somewhat pointless as part of the arc. 3001 is an attempt at closing up all the loose threads, and does so in a satisfying way.

For a long time, these books frus...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Jennifer Willis rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a slender volume, though the story hooked me pretty quickly. It was good to be reading Arthur C. Clarke again -- although I had to be careful when I took breaks from it, as my boyfriend kept trying to steal the book from me so he could read it, too.

I remember reading "2001" (the first "Odyssey" book) when I was in middle school, and I was utterly captivated by it. I soon got my hands on the second book, "2010," and devoured that as well. I wasn't as taken by "2061" and so wasn't quite su...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Jamie Lott rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I found the science fiction elements of 3001 to shift between the gimmicky tropes of the genre, and an interesting sense of novelty, I found that the dips in quality didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book. The world which Clarke establishes bears a degree of relevance to our own in that the cultures described haven't lost any of the definitive traits which makes us human. The inhabitants of 3001 crave an understanding of their existence, cling to self-improvement, and fear for their own de...more

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Sep 07, 2009 Todd rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All the pathetic earth people

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is one of my favorite books of all time because of its brutal and humbling honesty. I couldn't have chosen a better coda for the 2001 storyline, it left me absolutely breathless.

-- warning, serious spoilers --

After reading the ending of the Rendezvous with Rama series I was expecting Clarke to pretty much end things the same way, on a magnanimous upnote. With 2001 we learn that there is a vastly superior alien intelligence that has intervened in the natural evolution of apes to accelerate...more This is one of my favorite books of all time because of its brutal and humbling honesty. I couldn't have chosen a better coda for the 2001 storyline, it left me absolutely breathless.

-- warning, serious spoilers --

After reading the ending of the Rendezvous with Rama series I was expecting Clarke to pretty much end things the same way, on a magnanimous upnote. With 2001 we learn that there is a vastly superior alien intelligence that has intervened in the natural evolution of apes to accelerate a group of them toward sentience. They use the monolith as their all-purpose tool to carry out the upgrades, then they leave one under the dirt on the moon so that some day, millions of years later, the creatures they engineered will find it and give the makers a status update. In 2001 we find it, uncover it, and activate it, and it sends off its data. In 2010 we discover that the monolith, operating independently from its makers, has started the process anew for some creatures evolving on Europa.

The monolith gives humanity a warning about its warring ways, and then goes on to advance and protect this new life. All the while the monolith is just running its default program, gathering data, and sending it off somewhere at the speed of light to some headquarters 1000 light years away. That's the kicker that makes this story so compelling, in 3001 we learn the maker's response to the data on us they received a thousand years earlier.

And what is that response? Do we get a magnanimous pat on the back from our alien parents? Do we get a stern but loving chiding?

No

The monolith is instructed to block out the sun from Earth....

After millions of years of waiting... after all the effort it took to create and monitor humanity, the alien race decides we're a failed experiment. The prognosis is death. God I LOVE Arthur C Clarke! No magnanimity for the poor bastard reader, no tying off his masterpiece in lovely little bows for our amusement, no forgiveness, no mercy, just DIE you degenerate earth scum!!! :D

I've read alot of the other reviews about how the ending just seemed like a ripoff of independance day, the whole virus thing, but that was just a one shot silly 2 hour movie! This series is a science fiction legend! The apollo astronauts were even quoted as joking that they hope they find a monolith when they land! This story is a part of our 20th century cultural identity and it ends with DIE YOU DEGENERATE EARTH SCUM!!! :D

Brilliant, biting, painful, and wonderful.

The only thing I suppose I would change about this book would be to just completely remove all hope. In the end the monolith is destroyed with a virus, but sends off a last scream to the makers before it fizzles offline, so humanity knows it's got a thousand more years before the makers realize the first attempt to kill us failed, so there's some unspoken hope that maybe we can organize a defense in the interim, or bake them a planet-sized "please don't kill us" cake, or suck up to the europans so they'll give us a recommendation or something.

If it was me sitting next to Arthur C Clarke in his den as he wrote this, bouncing up and down and chanting "you da man!!!", I would have tried to convince him to have the virus *fail* to stop the monolith. I would have had the monolith trip into some secondary killbot protocol where it just finished off the human race old school style, with a violent bloodbath, but that's just me ;)
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Aug 21, 2009 Cayleigh rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the 4th book in Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey collection. I found it a few weeks after I had read 2001: A Space Odyssey in my uncle's book collection. The funny thing was I had picked it up probably a hundred times when I lived there but never read it cause it was space related. After loving 2001 I eagerly started reading it. Even though it is the 4th and I have not read 2015 and 2065 I was not lost in the story as this takes place 1000 years after the first book. In a way it is like you ar...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Mutlu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yıl 3001. Sıradan bir kuyruklu yıldız avı görevindeki kaptan Chandler'in görevi aldığı bozuk radyo yayını tarafından kesilir. Bir uzay çöpünü araştırmak üzere görev alan Chandler, gemiye aldıkları çöpün 1000 yaşında bir astronot olduğunu görünce tüm insan ırkı gibi şaşkınlığa düşecektir. İlk Jüpiter görevinde yer alan ve şizofren yapay zekanın ölüme mahkum ettiği Frank Poole, yüzyıllarca uzayda dolanmış bir nevi dondurulmuş vaziyette kalmıştır. İleri teknoloji ve tıp teknikleri sayesinde uyandır...more Yıl 3001. Sıradan bir kuyruklu yıldız avı görevindeki kaptan Chandler'in görevi aldığı bozuk radyo yayını tarafından kesilir. Bir uzay çöpünü araştırmak üzere görev alan Chandler, gemiye aldıkları çöpün 1000 yaşında bir astronot olduğunu görünce tüm insan ırkı gibi şaşkınlığa düşecektir. İlk Jüpiter görevinde yer alan ve şizofren yapay zekanın ölüme mahkum ettiği Frank Poole, yüzyıllarca uzayda dolanmış bir nevi dondurulmuş vaziyette kalmıştır. İleri teknoloji ve tıp teknikleri sayesinde uyandırılan Poole, zamanı ve insanlarından ayrılmış bir mağara adamı gibi kalacaktır modern Dünya'da. Uzayda geçirdiği uzun süre kas sitemine ciddi zarar verdiği için bir daha ana gezegeni üzerinde yürüyemeyecektir, bu sürgün hissinin verdiği hüzün ve içinde bulunduğu boşluk onu bir amaç ve görev arayışına sürükler. Kapanmamış hesapları görmek için Jüpiter ( Lucifer )'e ve yasak gezegen Europa'ya gitmeye karar verir... Geçmişin hayaletleri ve mekanik tanrılara meydan okuması gerekecektir...

Geleceğin dünyasında şiddet yok, sefalet yok, savaş yok. Tanrı figürü çökmüş, toplum 2 kesime ayrılmış inanç açısından: Deizm Ve Teizm. yıldızlara uzanan merdivenler inşa edilmiş, Clarke'ın üzerinde çalışmayı en sevdiği proje olan uzay asansörleri artık gerçekler. Yazar 20. yy Amerikasına yerinde ve çok sert eleştirilerde bulunmuş. Sentetik besinler ve beyin başlıkları gibi fütürist temaları güçlü arkaplan ve tarihsel detayla aktaran yazar, çok sert Tanrı ve din sorgusuna girmiş: Freud ile aynı terimi kullanmış " yanılsama ". Sosyal kontrolü dijital tamponlar olan beyin başlıkları ile sağlamı olan yazar, bu öğeyi yüceltmiş. Göndermeleri arasında Lorenz, Freud, Darwin, Tolkien, Disney, Lewis Carroll gibi isimler barındıran eser tasvirleri ve hayalgücünün sınırlarında gezinen ama sağlam basan kurgusuyla hoş bir okuma sunuyor. Poole'un yeni dünyaya uyum çabaları ve sıkıntıları son derece güzel aktaran akıcı dili ve merak öğesinin başarılı kullanımı önemli artıları.
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Apr 25, 2012 Sue Donym rated it 2 of 5 stars

Hey guess what, guys? Frank Poole's not dead! Also, he's in the future now! And it's kind of weird and boring!

There, that's essentially the gist of this book. It spends most of its time having Frank led around like a dog being shown the future of the solar system in all its myriad facets.

The only thing I really remember finding interesting about this book was the idea of the "people who believe in at least one god versus people who believe in at most one god." That's it, really.

This was an excel...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Ronald Wise rated it 3 of 5 stars

Finally an answer to some questions that have lingered in my mind since seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey forty years ago - the significance of the monoliths and the final fate of astronaut Dave Bowman. And one I hadn't wondered about - what happened to Frank Poole after he floated off into space.

This is the first book of the Odyssey series I have read - my experiences of 2001 and 2010 were cinematic only. Clarke's self-discipline in attempting to be scientically realistic seems to have limited how f...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Jareed Reyes rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

It is noteworthy to consider how Arthur Clarke opened the third book, and what the ramifications to the entire series were. With wanting pragmatism, he wrote that:

"Just as 2010: Odyssey Two was not a direct sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, so this book is not a linear sequel to 2010. They must all be considered as variations on the same theme, involving many of the same characters and situations, but not necessarily happening in the same universe.
Developments since Stanley Kubrick suggested in...more

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Aug 13, 2009 Guillermo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After spending 1000 years asleep - though presumed dead by his former shipmate and those in charge of his odyssey - Frank Poole wakes up in a strange new world - errm, time. How much has the human race changed in the last 1000 years? Quite a bit, but they're still awestruck by the large monolith that inhabits the Jupiter/Lucifer moon, Europa. Not to mention the two - wait, there was two monoliths on earth?! - that they have on Earth. So begins the final odyssey in the pages of 3001.

Poole is more...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Nicholas rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book reads more like a travelogue of the 3000s than a novel. The central narrative of the series is just barely there in the background and whatever closure you're expecting from the series fails to materialize altogether. The milemarkers that do exist in the story seem to serve the overriding purpose of providing a context for lengthy infodumps - which in the previous books in the series I lauded for their accuracy and inspiration. This time around the science becomes a little iffy, at lea...more This book reads more like a travelogue of the 3000s than a novel. The central narrative of the series is just barely there in the background and whatever closure you're expecting from the series fails to materialize altogether. The milemarkers that do exist in the story seem to serve the overriding purpose of providing a context for lengthy infodumps - which in the previous books in the series I lauded for their accuracy and inspiration. This time around the science becomes a little iffy, at least in the biology department.

3001 is the story of Frank Poole - that's right, that Frank Poole. Poole was "killed" by Hal a millenium before and has been adrift in space ever since. He is discovered by comet miner Dimitri Chandler out in the Kuiper belt on a mission to bring frozen water to the inner solar system as part of a terraforming program. Poole's frozen body is revived - miraculously avoiding brain damage due to oxygen deprivation or cell wall rupture due to the freezing of the water in his system. Anywho, the rest of the "novel" consists of episodic interludes of Frank's attempts to adjust to life in the 4th millenium accompanying scientific speculation - projection into the future based on scientific and engineering discoveries that were novel at the time of writing. Three-quarters of the way through, the monolith arc comes to an abrupt and disappointing close. No new information is added about the monolith's creators above and beyond what Clarke has already speculated in previous books. The fate of Heywood Floyd, so mysteriously left at the end of 2061 is never mentioned at all. Gone is all the suspense and slow ominousness of 2001. What remains is something akin to Michio Kaku's Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century and other speculative science.

This novel also heavily self-plagiarizes - a fact that Clarke gleefully admits to in the introduction. What was once a slight annoyance in the first sequel, steadily grows until almost anything of literary merit in this volume comes from a previous book in the series. Not just odd passages, but whole chapters are lifted verbatim from 2001, 2010 and 2061 as Clarke needlessly recaps prominent events in the series. Perhaps this wouldn't have been so annoying if I had spaced them out and not read the whole quadrology back-to-back. Still, the brevity of this work almost demands more original content and the volume of copied work would have pissed me off if I'd bought this hot off the presses in the late 90s.

Just about the only good thing from this whole mess is Clarke's usual crediting of scientific ideas in the afterword. For those who are scientifically-inclined and want to see where Clarke took his inspiration from, it's worth checking out. This scientific "grounding" adds to the believability of the universe he imagines and, in spite of the narrative failure of 3001 earns him brownie points in my book.

Stick to 2001: A Space Odyssey and maybe 2010: Odyssey Two, then abandon ship.(less)

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May 23, 2013 Jean Naylor rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ultimately a flawed book, written to end a series which has sadly become increasingly redundant. Sad? Yes, because Arthur C. Clarke was a damn good scientist with a lively imagination and the ability to craft very readable novels.

3001 is the 4th and final volume in Arthur C. Clarke's "Odyssey" series, starting with 2001. The other 2 books are "2010 - Odyssey 2" and "2061 - Odyssey 3". I have to admit to not having read the middle 2 books, but since Clarke himself regarded this group of novels as...more Ultimately a flawed book, written to end a series which has sadly become increasingly redundant. Sad? Yes, because Arthur C. Clarke was a damn good scientist with a lively imagination and the ability to craft very readable novels.

3001 is the 4th and final volume in Arthur C. Clarke's "Odyssey" series, starting with 2001. The other 2 books are "2010 - Odyssey 2" and "2061 - Odyssey 3". I have to admit to not having read the middle 2 books, but since Clarke himself regarded this group of novels as not a linear series, or even sequential in the traditional sense, this did not seem to matter. The author tells us we should view the book as having some of the same characters and situations, with "variations on the same theme…. but not necessarily happening in the same universe." Hmm.

The starting point for this series was a short story by Clarke, "The Sentinel" written for the BBC in 1948 (and, interestingly, rejected by them.) Later on of course, with encouragement by Stanley Kubrick, this was hugely expanded and developed into the screenplay for "2001 A Space Oyssey", a cult film of 1968 and still to my mind one of the most esoteric SF films ever made. Clarke points out that the whole project for this was still prior to the moon landings. We did not even know what the lunar landscape looked like at that point. (In the film "2001" the rocks on the moon's surface appear a bit more jagged, but other than that it's a good approximation to say it's all conjecture.)

Surely this one point illustrates the impossibility of the task Clarke ended up setting himself. Each novel became scientifically and politically redundant shortly after it was written. A classic dilemma of much SF, of course, particularly that which deals with Earth-bound concepts of the near future. The novel we are looking at now, "3001" was written in 1997 (and reviewed here in 2013). How can there be any consistency in the characters and situations when real-life events have overtaken them in so many ways? Clarke would never compromise on the scientific elements, and it is well documented that many of his ideas have actually come to pass. But obviously not all!

Having said that, this is worth a look, if only to see what the black monolith was all about. In this book, the astronaut Frank Poole did not die, but was in suspended animation for 1000 years. (Cue scope for a nice meaty tale of Earth and humankind's possible future.) Oh, and something very strange has happened to Jupiter. Other than that my lips are sealed.

(less)

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Sep 19, 2011 Dustin Gaughran rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have to admit straightaway, I was disappointed with the way the saga ends. For three novels, you get this amazingly well written, well thought out masterpiece of science fiction. And with '3001', it picks up right where the last one left off. It builds towards what could have been an ending for the ages, but then suddenly starts to fall off quickly. When you get to the last few chapters, it almost feels like Clarke had kind of quit on the story. Of course, it's just my opinion, but after readi...more

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Dec 04, 2009 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

3001: The Final Odyssey is a brilliant conclusion to the Odyssey series. We learn more about the aliens who started human evolution with the monoliths (but we don't learn enough!), who, before becoming non-corporeal denizens of frozen light and the architecture of space-time, travelled the universe searching for the rare wonder of evolved intelligence, giving hand (and a Monolith) here and there where necessary. Then we burst into action with the retrieval from the Kuiper Belt of Frank Poole, ki...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Ali Ünal rated it 2 of 5 stars

Dört kitapla ilgili detaylı bir şeyler yazana kadar TL;DR yorumu: Heyecanlı, ama fare doğuran bir dağ.

"Siyah bir diktörgenler prizması, birbirlerini döven insansılar ve müthiş bir orkestral müzik eşliğinde beynimize kazınan, bir önceki yüzyılın en iyi bilimkurgularından biri olan 2001: A Space Odyssey‘in aslında dört kitaba ve 30 yıla yayılan bir dizi olduğunu çok azımız biliyor. Stanley Kubrick’in sinema dehasıyla ve gelecek öngörüsüyle bezeyip yarattığı o güzel film, aslında Arthur C. Clarke’ı...more

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Jul 19, 2009 Michael rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 21, 2012 Sudhamshu Hebbar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The final book in the Odyssey series of Arthur Clarke. It takes a leap of a 1000 years and puts us in the place of another character from our time to show how difficult it is for someone from past to cope with the progress made by technology & mankind in a thousand years. There is the usual space travel, the fantastic idea of humans spreading out across the Solar System, getting involved in terra forming, flushing water into hot, gaseous planets to make them habitable by deflecting asteroids...more

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Jun 18, 2012 T rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

3001: The Final Odyssey brings Arthur C. Clarke's famed series to a merciful end, closing out what was perhaps a misguided effort from the beginning, or at least from 14 years after the first book, when a sequel was written.

Trouble began brewing in the Odyssey series with the release of 2010: Odyssey Two, in which Clarke decided to abandon all differences between the previous book and the movie version, and act as though only the movie events had occurred. As someone who greatly preferred the bo...more 3001: The Final Odyssey brings Arthur C. Clarke's famed series to a merciful end, closing out what was perhaps a misguided effort from the beginning, or at least from 14 years after the first book, when a sequel was written.

Trouble began brewing in the Odyssey series with the release of 2010: Odyssey Two, in which Clarke decided to abandon all differences between the previous book and the movie version, and act as though only the movie events had occurred. As someone who greatly preferred the book, this disturbed me, in much the same way that George Lucas' constant tinkering with the Star Wars universe irks those fans. The third book brought further unexplained changes, and 3001 continues this tradition; including its protagonist, Frank Poole, having been born in 1996--he went on the Jupiter mission at 5 years old?? Regardless, the story within the novel is the important thing, yes?

For this final outing, having exhausted the surviving cast of 2001, Clarke manages to bring back the dead one, Frank Poole, who had been drifting through the solar system for an entire millennium. He is found floating around and is revived...somehow, it's not explained very well. Now he is a man out of time and must adjust to the human experience of the future, as well as tying up loose ends with those pesky black monoliths. Apparently that experience involves technology and physics; lots of it!

Every chapter, and indeed the entire book, seems to end more quickly than it should, so that you never get a sense of what it's like to live in this world of the future, except that you'll probably be doing it in a giant space elevator tower, or maybe on a moon somewhere. Frank will occasionally have academic discussions about the past thousand years, including plenty about how everyone decided to abandon every religion and become agnostics, or...something, this is also not explained very well (Clarke seems to be particularly annoyed with the Catholic institution, harping on the Middle Ages repeatedly). Even with Frank as our eyes and ears into this world, you don't get much of a sense for what he actually does with himself, when he's not flying spaceships and investigating monoliths. Whole decades, near as I can figure, are skipped over with barely a sentence to explain the transition in plot. Indeed, the most interesting passages come from text which was lifted verbatim from the previous novels.

It does have some great scientific ideas being narrated, such as the four massive towers (it was six in Odyssey Three) built along the equator of Earth, leading up to the "sky city" ring in geostationary orbit. Or the palm-implanted data exchange system which tells everyone you meet about yourself (Palmbook?). There are many interesting little tidbits like that in the novel, and perhaps that is the reason for its existence: to inspire technological advances and furtherance of creative ideas in SF literature. Perhaps it succeeds in that manner.

On the whole, though, this seems like more of an exercise in narrating interesting scientific papers, than in providing a compelling story. Even the ultimate conclusion of matters with the big questions of the series are fairly disappointing, and seem like they're quite different from what they may have been if Clarke had written this sooner than three decades after the original novel. The plot is very dry and sterile, with little emotion or the sense of wonder and discovery that the first two books managed to imbue. It is a conclusion that is running on the fumes of past glory. Mercifully short, it is worth a library rental, if you've read this far into the saga, but I'd stop short of a purchase.(less)

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Sep 05, 2010 David rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, fucked-up-shite

Finally I've reached the end of the journey ... AND WHAT A WASTE OF TIME!!!! -_- Never again will I pick up anything written by Clarke. Honestly I can't understand how even got published. No identifiable Lead character in most of the books, no clear objective for what lead there was, the books meander around for the most part with dated and ludicrous speculation and no confrontation until the end, and what there was of a knockout closing seemed to appear out of nowhere. Internal conflict in the...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Nuno Magalhães rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, ficção-científica

Este é o último livro da série iniciada com "2001: Uma Odisseia no Espaço" e continuada com "2010: Segunda Odisseia" e "2061: Terceira Odisseia", no qual Arthur C. Clarke proporciona uma conclusão magistralmente bem concebida à história dos monólitos e respectivo significado para a evolução da espécie humana. Aqui, o autor dá finalmente a explicação completa sobre a natureza dos monólitos e respectivo objectivo, bem como sobre as características da raça extraterrestre que concebeu os monólitos e...more Este é o último livro da série iniciada com "2001: Uma Odisseia no Espaço" e continuada com "2010: Segunda Odisseia" e "2061: Terceira Odisseia", no qual Arthur C. Clarke proporciona uma conclusão magistralmente bem concebida à história dos monólitos e respectivo significado para a evolução da espécie humana. Aqui, o autor dá finalmente a explicação completa sobre a natureza dos monólitos e respectivo objectivo, bem como sobre as características da raça extraterrestre que concebeu os monólitos e respectivos planos para as espécies inteligentes que viessem a surgir no sistema solar. Não sendo novamente uma continuação directa dos livros anteriores, continua a ser uma narrativa da história dos protagonistas dos livros anteriores, neste caso do astronauta Frank Poole que tinha sido" assassinado" pelo computador HAL em 2010, deixado a vaguear no espaço dentro do seu fato espacial e que é recuperado por uma nave terrestre nos limites do sistema solar no início deste livro e trazido de volta à vida por intermédio das avançadas tecnologias que a espécie humana desenvolveu ao longo de um milénio e domina em 3001. Neste livro extraordinário Arthur C. Clarke dá-nos a oportunidade de imaginar o esplendor tecnológico da civilização humana no início do terceiro milénio, incluindo na história artefactos tecnológicos e construções de nível planetário que foram já previstos na literatura científica do ponto de vista teórico, mas cuja implementação exige materiais e avanços tecnológicos ainda fora do alcance do nível actual de desenvolvimento da ciência e da engenharia. Para além deste manancial tecnológico, o autor dá-nos ainda a oportunidade de perceber qual o importante papel que todos os protagonistas da série, incluindo a inteligência artificial de HAL, e os astronautas Dave Bowman, Heywood Floyd e Frank Poole, em paralelo com o génio humano, desempenham no futuro da humanidade que enfrenta a extinção por acção dos omnipresentes monólitos que foram deixados no sistema solar (um em Olduvai - 2001; outro na lua - 2010 e o terceiro em Europa - 2061). Em suma, é espectacular este terceiro livro da série das 4 odisseias de Arthur C. Clarke! Isto é a genuína FC no seu máximo, com um excelente final apoteótico! Esta conclusão da série é absolutamente imperdível para todos os aficionados de Ficção Científica!(less)

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Sep 21, 2011 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

'Killer-god' meets 'god-killer.'

Clarke did a great job with this last book in his Space Odyssey series. I appreciate the denouement of resurrecting a familiar character from the 2001 installment to resolve the monolithic threat that faced the human race.

Clarke's forecast of societal/technology evolutions 1000 years from now seem plausible -- probably owing to his current knowledge of space and science-fact. Tho, 21st century reality leaves some of his 'current era' predictions feeling inaccura...more

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Nov 03, 2010 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was possibly my favorite book of the series, although 2010 was pretty good too. I can't give it the full 5 stars because (a) there were several parts that did not jive with the previous books, (b) there were about 4 different chapters that were copied word-for-word from 2010 and 2061, and (c) Clarke added an anti-religion tilt to the story. When all is said and done, this was a good, entertaining way to wrap up the series. I thought that this was a consistently solid sci-fi series, but it n...more

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3001: The Final Odyssey (Space Odyssey #4)

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