The Last Theorem

Mar 19, 2009

Wayne rated it

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Shelves: sci-fi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I thought this was a good book. It was Clarke's last book (mainly authored by another sci-fi great, Fred Pohl, from 50 pages of Clarke's notes) and kind of stands as an homage to his work and ideas - it has a "skyhook" space elevator based on Sri Lanka (Fountains of Paradise), the Grand Galactics (aliens who resemble the Monolith aliens from 2001), his hope that mankind will outgrow religion (an unreasonable expectation given that mankind has always expressed religious thoughts and it...more I thought this was a good book. It was Clarke's last book (mainly authored by another sci-fi great, Fred Pohl, from 50 pages of Clarke's notes) and kind of stands as an homage to his work and ideas - it has a "skyhook" space elevator based on Sri Lanka (Fountains of Paradise), the Grand Galactics (aliens who resemble the Monolith aliens from 2001), his hope that mankind will outgrow religion (an unreasonable expectation given that mankind has always expressed religious thoughts and it answers questions for people that science cannot), and his love for his adopted country of Sri Lanka, etc.

It basically has two seperate stories - one of the Grand Galactic aliens who detect humans' use of nuclear weapons and determine to exterminate them in the name of peace and one of the protagonist, Ranjit, a Sri Lankan man. The storylines intersect near the end of the book.

I found the Ranjit story to be the most compelling...it is just basically the life story of a young man - nothing special (except that he finds a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem using the mathematics available to Fermat at the time). This story chronicles his life in Sri Lanka, intersecting some current political elements over time (piracy of cruise ships by Somalis, imprisonment and torture, the Iraq War, etc.), his dissatisfaction with his work, his subsequent marriage, and family life...pretty mundane stuff, but it was extremely well written and I could identify with it. The parallel Grand Galactic story was more of an added bonus. The Ranjit story could have stood on its own (with some obvious tweaking of the end).

I didn't care for the portrayl of America as the bad guy at the end of the story...I'm afraid that Clarke's opinion of recent past American foreign policy has become his vision of America in the (near) future.

The ending was also a little too pat for me...everything tied up nicely. Aliens befriended the Terrans instead of obliterating them, a non-religious version of the Golden Rule was applied by humanity, humans discovered eternal life by downloading their counciousness into computers, and humans took over after 13,000 years the role of the Grand Galactics in manipulating time, space, and the evolution of the universe. Interestingly, Clarke (and Pohl) deal with a lot of spritual and religious issues for professed atheists.

It also has a lot of history, Sri Lankan culture, math, and hard science fiction (technological) elements, which I thought was wonderful. I learned a new way to calculate the number of combinations of a binomial system using binary numbers and how to multiply large numbers together by halfing and doubling the multiplicants and adding them (Egyptian or Russian multiplication). Some of the hard sci-fi elements include using boron to produce hydrogen powered cars (glossing over some of the problematic chemistry involved) and electromagnetic pulse weapons. Pretty interesting stuff. (less)

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Jan 09, 2009

Elly rated it

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The book was, especially at the beginning, not at all what I expected. It was mostly a novel about a young man growing up, and not much mathematics, or science fiction in evidence. There is a second, smaller, storyline that is interwoven within this story which is very much sf. But in the end it was a very nice story, and I am happy to have read it.
One thing I missed: the actual 5 page proof of the theorem. It would have been so nice to read that... But given that the actual proof is 150 ...more

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Dec 28, 2008

Matt rated it

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Shelves: science-fiction

From what I have read Frederick Pohl actually wrote this book based on a few notes from a dying Arthur Clarke.

Pohl managed to turn this book into a tribute to Clarke's best known work including, but probably not limited to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, and Fountain's of Paradise.

There is an alien race in this novel called the One-Point-Fives which reminds me of the Daleks from Dr. Who. I'm not sure that Clarke was fan, but I do remember seeing a photo of him...more

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Mar 07, 2010

Raj rated it

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Shelves: sci-fi

I'm a big fan of Arthur C. Clarke, but 3001 The Final Odyssey and now this have tested my loyalty. Both were written in the latter years of Sir Arthur's life (The Last Theorem was the last book published before his death) and both had good ideas that were poorly executed.

The EM shockwave of Earth's nuclear tests spread into space and eventually reach a race of mega-beings, called the Grand Galactics who immediately dispatch one of their client races to eliminate this upstart race. Me...more

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Jan 11, 2012

Keith Stevenson rated it

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From the sublime to the not so. And it really pains me to say that. Arthur C Clarke died last year and it was a great loss indeed. It’s hard to imagine a more famous science fiction author and one who had such a prestigious career. So when ‘the final novel from SF grandmaster Arthur C Clarke’, as the shout line went across the cover of The Last Theorem, came through the letterbox, and I saw that Clarke had co-written it with Frederik Pohl, another significant talent, I though, ‘Wow, this is goin...moreFrom the sublime to the not so. And it really pains me to say that. Arthur C Clarke died last year and it was a great loss indeed. It’s hard to imagine a more famous science fiction author and one who had such a prestigious career. So when ‘the final novel from SF grandmaster Arthur C Clarke’, as the shout line went across the cover of The Last Theorem, came through the letterbox, and I saw that Clarke had co-written it with Frederik Pohl, another significant talent, I though, ‘Wow, this is going to be special.’

The fact is that — pretty much from page one — it wasn’t, and as I read further and my hopes of any improvement were dashed I became saddened and really rather annoyed. I was sad because I no longer saw the spark of brilliance, the unique ideas that characterised Clarke’s work. He was always a bit dodgy on characterisation, but it was the development and explanation of the science at the core of his work that drove you on through his novels. The Last Theorem is a rambling tale where not a great deal in the way of science fiction actually happens, and when it does, it certainly isn’t startling or new.

The story concerns Ranjit Subramanian a young student living in Sri Lanka who takes up mathematics at university and goes on to get married, have kids and solve Fermat’s last theorem which makes him rather famous. Meanwhile some aliens who don’t like Earth developing nuclear weapons, let alone using them, send a destruction fleet to do what destruction fleets do best. The whole story is told in what I think was meant to be a light-hearted jokey way which just comes over as a bit condescending and supercilious. It’s also ‘told’ rather than ‘shown’, despite the age old law of Creative Writing 101, which only serves to do what such an approach always does — distances the reader and robs us of the detail, the immersive experience, to really go with the narrative. There’s also a kind of fifties sensibility running through the book that I really didn’t like. Most women don’t rate a second name and the more ‘developed’ women characters are devoted to their men and know their place. At one point Ranjit’s friend turns up with flowers for his wife and a bottle of whisky for him and Ranjit to drink. I cringed in the background somewhere. As to the science fictional aspects, as you might guess from above, they are lacking in originality. Indeed Clarke basically rips off himself, recycling his skyhook idea from his earlier The Fountains of Paradise and using a mechanism for the aliens to communicate with mankind straight out of 2010: Odyssey Two. This is not a fitting capstone for a lifetime of achievement, and that is what saddens me.

What annoys me is that the publishers went ahead and published it. I am not party to any conversations around how that decision came about. The only reasons that come to mind are they didn’t know or realise that as a piece of writing it sucked or they didn’t care because it was going to sell a boatload anyway or they were asked/ compelled by Clarke’s estate or there was some other legal requirement. I hope there is some other, saner reason.

The other thing that annoys me is that this book is being pushed and pushed hard in the shops. That means that readers who may not have read in the genre before will pick it up as it is purportedly one of the best books by one of our best authors and they will get a totally wrong idea of what we are actually about. Let’s move on to a happier subject.(less)

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Dec 28, 2011

Lauren rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Review from 2/8/2010; very spoilery; first paragraph is my reflection on how fanfiction has shaped my reading expectation.

It is a story of two boys, Ranjit and Gamini, and their lives, essentially, with Pohl's love of number theory and Clarke's love of the Space Elevator idea thrown in as building blocks. I may have spoiled myself somewhat with all this fanfiction I read for the two months prior, because quite early on (first chapter) we discover that these two boys, best of friends,...moreReview from 2/8/2010; very spoilery; first paragraph is my reflection on how fanfiction has shaped my reading expectation.

It is a story of two boys, Ranjit and Gamini, and their lives, essentially, with Pohl's love of number theory and Clarke's love of the Space Elevator idea thrown in as building blocks. I may have spoiled myself somewhat with all this fanfiction I read for the two months prior, because quite early on (first chapter) we discover that these two boys, best of friends, have experimented sexually together whilst teenagers. This is fine, but the story starts with a build up that would, in fanfiction, be a subtext base for a whole epic angst-fest of unrequited love between friends when one boy goes off to London and discovers girls and the other is left behind to mourn. Only in this story, it doesn't and Ranjit goes off to have his first heterosexual encounter when Gamini returns. They are clearly still very fond of each other, indeed, they love each other - like brothers. It starts a trend this book has, of starting an idea and lacking on the follow through: with this build up of subtext, we suddenly swerve to Ranjit going off and falling in love with this perfect woman and getting married, and in all the times thereafter that the two friends meet, there is no resolution of this early sexual tension and interaction, despite their unexpectedly abrupt parting, and I feel it should have been mentioned at least on Gamini's return.

That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although it could be better. Perhaps because it was started by Clarke before he got ill and forgot the rest, and then was passed to Pohl to continue from notes and consultation, but it does feel somewhat unpolished. There is an odd kind of feeling in it, where it is written now (well, 2008) while the majority of science fiction I read was written in the 1950s and '60s. There is a running commentary on how badly our world is falling apart, and it seems to be making a point without - in my mind - touching enough on it. We have Ranjit aware at every point of wars in Iraq, disturbance in the Middle East, problems in North Korea, wars across Africa, confrontation over the Nile River, the three main powers (Russia, USA, China)'s supremacy over the world etc., and yet while it's said often that this makes him unhappy, they don't really come to a head until much later on when aliens intervene to stop the emergance of humanity as a war-loving space-faring race. And yes, the aliens have been there all along, alerted to our presence by the electromagnetic pulses from our planet from our radar and atomic weapons detonated way before the story starts (actually, in a nice touch, released and discussed by our authors in their autobiographical preambles) and yes we see that the wars and conflict are all along going to be a point that the aliens come to us on, but it seems that Ranjit's consideration of these issues is only there so that we can continue to be reminded of them; he sees these issues all the time as background noise, TV shows to be lamented while they are on but ultimately put out of mind when more important things come up, and we as readers suffer a similar kind of apathy to them, until we are reminded by the next news bulletin. Or the next mention of the Boxing Day Tsunami.

However, the aliens I did enjoy. I loved the Grand Galactics, and the Nine-Limbed's sense of humour. They are mentioned all along, set up so that we know they are there and that something will happen, whilst the characters are oblivious: 'little did Ranjit know he was being photographed.' We learn a lot about the alien races before they even come into contact with the humans, and I think they are pretty interesting.

I guess at some point - actually, the point at which Ranjit gets married and lives his perfect married life with his perfect wife and perfect family - that it gets a bit well, perfect; he has solved the theorem and become world-famous at 22, has married the second woman he has ever had sex with, and then his perfect daughter grows up to become the first world-champion on the fly-bike race on the moon. It seems at this point that it's mostly about expanding our technological advances and waiting for the aliens to turn up. The Peace Committee have a super weapon for one, that can wipe out a country's electrical capabilities, leaving it open for the peacekeepers to come in and take over. It's all a bit too perfect, and yes - the characters do question this (perfect-wife likens the situation to that in Nineteen Eighty-Four and questions the Peace Committee's motives) and it's not entirely perfect really, but it still kinda is in the way that it miraculously solves the remaining conflicts in the world with rather less opposition than I would expect, and rather less resentment at the fear caused by the weapon than there should be. Some bits of future-tech are awesome though; we have the space elevator, and there is a solar-powered race, which is lifted straight from The Wind from the Sun - but unfortunately, because I loved that short story so much, its insertion here was very jarring, and I was expecting it to head the way the short story did.

Oh yes - and there was that very odd section where Ranjit gets kidnapped by pirates (yes, those same pirates from Somalia that were in the news in 2008) and then held under torture by inquisition services, which only seems to serve the purpose to a) show us that in our current world we do still have countries that are willing to torture for information on behalf of the other countries that have sworn not to use torture (see my point above about being reminded how bad our world is without really exploring it as much as is possible) and b) to allow Gamini time to become a Super Awesome Secret Agent Government Man without Ranjit, and therefore us, knowing.

In conclusion: despite this review turning somewhat negative, and there being a lot of potential that the authors didn't carry through on, it was still an enjoyable read and a worthwhile use of my Saturday.(less)

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Mar 25, 2011

Jared rated it

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

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Jan 22, 2011

Kevin Hartley rated it

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Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, mathematics

Shortly after starting the novel, I realized that I had not picked up any science fiction anytime nearly as recently as I should have, let alone Clarke. It started off a little slowly (though not like 2001...that started off like molasses in winter...going uphill), however, after the first chapter or two, I was drawn into the story and really enjoyed reading it. The next thing I knew, I was approaching the end of the novel and trying to avoid crossing that line. By the time I finally did so (on ...more

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Jul 19, 2010

Ben rated it

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Jun 08, 2010

Nikola Tasev rated it

I have a strong suspicion that in the long lives of the authors they accumulated a great deal of ideas, that never made it in a book. Well, it would be such a pity if they went to waste, now, wouldn't it?
This is the resulting stew from dozens of such ideas. The plot holding them together just connects semi-random stuff that happens around. Some of the ideas are awesome, like the Grand Galactics, and to a lesser extend their pet civilizations. Others range from geek fun to geek-boring but ...more

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Nov 14, 2009

Mike rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone

The solving of "Fermat's Last Theorem" was for many the Holy Grail of mathematics. What could be crueler than a gifted mathematician writing in the margins of a book a short equation and a claim to a proof of it's correctness, then having the ungraciousness of dying without writing down the proof. The kicker was that the equation does not seem to have an easy proof. When a solution was finally found, it was neither brief nor simple, and relied on branches of mathematics that did not...more

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Jan 17, 2012

Joseph rated it

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I have to admit that I've never read an Arthur C. Clarke book before and that's probably why I liked "The Last Theorem." Apparently, according to long-time fans of the late Mr. Clarke, this author must stick to technologies that are currently hypothetically possible. He did that, but it seems with very little that he hadn't used before. It also seems some readers expect much more than plausible motivations for side characters. For me, I don't need fully analyzed characters in my sc...more

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Oct 25, 2010

N Davies rated it

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I've never read anything by Frederik Pohl before but I have read nearly all of Arthur C Clarke's work. This book has obvious ideas from Clarke in it (the setting of Sri Lanka, the space elevator, space yachts racing with the solar wind etc) but the writing does not read like him - it's far too simplistic and at times clumsy. Perhaps it was simply his age (it was the last book he finished before he died) or perhaps he had more to do with the ideas than he did the actual writing, but it's one of t...more

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Jul 28, 2011

John somers added it · review of another edition

Not Clarke's best work by any means but worth a read. The story is disjointed with too many plots irrelavent or unresolved, (why do the aliens care about Ranjits proof of Fermats last theorem?, what's the point of Robert having some sort of psychic power that has no effect on the story? and how is someone as obviously insane as Bledsoe still setting U.S policy? were some of the main questions that jumped out at me) but the ideas about future politial developments were interesting as was the spac...more

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Mar 11, 2010

Rob rated it

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Shelves: random-comments-review

...I guess The Last Theorem leaves me with mixed feelings too. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it in a way. Like we've come to expect of Clarke it contains a lot if fascinating scientific speculations as well as a number of humorous observations about society. On the other hand the book is quite unbalanced and the connections between the various elements of the story tenuous at some points. It does not excel at character development either, but then, Clarke's books never were about characters. He w...more

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May 19, 2010

Colin rated it

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Shelves: sci-fi

This book was a fun read for me although many of the concepts had been done previously (by the same authors) in better books. It's almost a summary of Arthur C. Clarke's other stories characterized by bits and pieces of his science fiction speculation. The book centres around a character who attempts to solve Fermat's Last Theorem although there's very little discussion of the math behind the actual theorem. At the same time, aliens have detected signals from Earth and are racing in to set the u...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Ron Arden added it · review of another edition

I am guessing this was the last book Clarke wrote before he died. It was also the first I remember where he discussed his adopted home of Sri Lanka (maybe a farewell gesture).

This book took awhile to get going, but eventually got interesting. Ranjit Subramanian is a math whiz in Sri Lanka who is obsessed with solving Fermat's last theorem. He is a bit antisocial and his main interest is solving the theorem. Through a series of wild circumstances, Ranjit finds himself among Somali pirates and...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Jeremiah Depta rated it

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This book covered everything from aliens to pirates to Bucky Balls. There were a few moments when I felt like the aliens were something out of a Douglas Adams story, which detracted from the feel of the narrative. I also didn’t care for the Olympics in space, or at least the idea that Ranjit’s daughter, of all people, was able to partake twice and win at least once before going on to play yet another major roll in world events. Only a certain number of things can happen to a single family and...more

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Jan 11, 2010

Donald rated it

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Clarke and Pohl didn't disappoint. Straight up thought provoking story, characters, settings, and ideas made this effort a worthwhile read. It was accomplished without being preachy and had adequate finesse so stultifying detailed explanations of everything were not necessary. The plot got a little bogged down about 2/3 of the way through but recovered nicely. The ending was upbeat but not without some pain suffered by our protagonist. This wasn't as brilliant as Rendezvous with Rama but a ...more

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Jan 05, 2010

Shelley rated it

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Shelves: fiction

I feel like this had so much potential, but it never really took off for me. I loved the main character, I loved the plot, but the story never really ended up anywhere. The portions that I assume were written by Pohl seemed like afterthoughts, and contained complex ideas about extra-terrestrial life that were too often explained away as too strange for human comprehension. I did enjoy the story about the eponymous theorem, and would have liked the book better if it had just been about that, I th...more

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Jan 01, 2010

Pete Guion rated it

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Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

I think this is somewhat typical of some of Clarke's other works, in that it's really about one man's journey through life, and the aliens, math, and the rest are just backdrops to help tell the story.

I wanted to give the book 2 stars, but decided to go with 3 because, while its not quite to my personal tastes in terms of science fiction, it is a well written story and worth checking out at some point.

The reader for the audiobook did a great job with the voicework. His accen...more

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Jul 25, 2011

Kam-Yung Soh rated it

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Shelves: sf-and-fantasy

A book with some interesting ideas but a bit of a let-down.

The book chronicles the life of Ranjit Subramanian, a Sri Lankan Tamil who, from childhood, is fascinated by Fremat's Last Theorem and dissatisfied with the solution produced by mathematician Andrew Wilies. He ultimately discovers a more elegant proof, earning him fame.

In a separate thread in the book, aliens known as the Grand Galactics detect the first nuclear bomb explosions from Earth and decide to exterminate hu...more

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Jul 14, 2011

Christen rated it

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I found this story very compelling. It is clearly a work of FICTION. Several times, I had to suspend my disbelief at various things, e.g., that a poor son of a monk would be set up to room with the son of a wealthy, high-powered lawyer/politician and that they would be friends for life and the various ways this helps the protagonist to escape from various scrapes. There were other, equally preposterous things in the book. The end of the book left many questions unanswered. But I really foun...more

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Aug 08, 2010

Douglas rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am a lifetime fan of Arthur C. Clarke. I think his Childhood's End was probably the first adult level book I read as a young boy. It blew me away and made me a hard science fiction fan. The Last Theorem was the last novel Clarke wrote before his death in 2008. Frederik Pohl, another elderly science fiction author co-wrote the book with Clarke.
The book takes place a few decades in the future and tells two stories which parallel each other and then coincide (they do not collide). The first...moreI am a lifetime fan of Arthur C. Clarke. I think his Childhood's End was probably the first adult level book I read as a young boy. It blew me away and made me a hard science fiction fan. The Last Theorem was the last novel Clarke wrote before his death in 2008. Frederik Pohl, another elderly science fiction author co-wrote the book with Clarke.
The book takes place a few decades in the future and tells two stories which parallel each other and then coincide (they do not collide). The first, Earth-bound, story follows Ranjit, a novice mathematician from Sir Lanka. As the book starts Ranjit is poor boy living in a poor country which exists in a dangerous world where regional conflicts daily threaten to ignite world in a cataclysm. One day Ranjit gets on the wrong ship at the wrong time and ends up a suspect of terrorism. He is held, and beaten, in secret prison. Between tortures, he contemplates Fermat's Theorem and comes up with a more elegant solution which is a fraction the length of the only solution known.
The second story takes place out in the Milky Way Galaxy where an association of older and smarter beings called the Grand Galactics decide – based on their detection of nuclear weapons being used against other humans (Nagasaki and Hiroshima) - that humanity, as a race, is too violent to allow to exist. To back up their verdict they send an armada of beings to wipe out humanity as casually as one might call for an exterminator after finding spiders in the garage.
Ranjit gets release from prison, publishes his theorem, becomes famous, marries an AI scientist, has kids, works for the CIA breaking codes, quits working for them, and ends up back on Sir Lanka teaching math puzzles seminars to college students. With each progression of his life the story fleetingly cuts back to the armada and its progress towards Earth or back to the Grand Galactics and whatever nebulous activities they are preforming.
Ranjit's island gets picked as the site for a massive human endeavor – the construction of a space elevator; a structure, mostly cables, reaching from the surface of the Earth to a station in a geostationary orbit. Earth becomes calmer after the UN uses a cruse missile to deliver an electromagnetic pulse super weapon against bellicose nations – sending them back to the stone age without killing anybody. (The weapon's name, "Silent Thunder" is laughable, conjuring up images of an over the top martial arts movie from the 70s.)
I expect several things from a Clarke novel: A good story that introduces new ideas which may effect the future of humanity, a mostly positive ending and stereotypical good guy and bad guy characters. While The Last Theorem delivered on the positive ending and prosaic characters I was disappointed with the story's disintegration at the end and the staleness of its ideas.
While Ranjit's life is the heart of the novel, he becomes merely a device to watch bigger events in the world play out. His singular contribution to human knowledge has no significance in unfolding story, or it's climax, other than to give him the notoriety and connections to allow him a better view of world shaking events. I was expecting the aliens to recognize the redeeming value of humanity in his theorem or to see it as an example how humanity strives to answer such questions, but his life and accomplishment played no real part in how the alien invasion is resolved. While there are two crossovers between the Ranjit's life and the alien mission, both are paper thin and unsatisfying - his daughter's is briefly abducted and her image is used thereafter by the aliens to communicate with the world) and during a confrontation between nations he suggests the golden rule to his nation's president which ultimately used to dispels the crisis and create global peace, but how his platitude is executed to that effect is never told. The end of the story is rushed, fragmentary and spins off into the distant future so fast it left me with the feeling I was pulled out of a movie before getting to see the end.
I am lead to believe Clarke approved the final text just a week before be died, however the ending has me wondering if it was actually not finished and Pohl hobbled together the last chapters after Clarke's death.
The novel's ideas are a mishmash of ones explored in Clarke's other novels and short stories. Sir Lanka as a site for a space elevator was explored with better imagination in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards. A space solar wind driven sailing race was introduced with better effect in his 1964 short story Wind from the Sun. The idea of using an EMP bomb to wipe out nations has been science since 1963 and used as a staple in science fiction since then (I throw out James Cameron's 2000-01 Fox TV series Dark Angel as an example which predates it's use here). I can't think of a single idea in this novel which was not explored more thoroughly and artfully in other works.
Being Clarks' swan song I wanted so much to like The Last Theorem, but I expected much more than it delivered. He either did not live long enough to finish this book properly or wrote one book too many.(less)

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Despite the unparalleled reputation of its authors, no critic was very impressed by The Last Theorem. All of its major ideas and themes, one reviewer pointed out, have been more ably explored by Clarke and Pohl in other novels (see Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous with Rama, and The Fountains of Paradise, for example). Add herky-jerky pacing, inexplicable changes in characters' behaviors, and a cartoonish American villain, and The Last Theorem seems to deserve its nearly universal crit

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Dec 21, 2008

Ben Babcock rated it

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Shelves: from-library, mathematics, science-fiction, 2008-read, indian-fiction, 2008-worst10

Overall, the word I'd use to describe this book is "shallow." Clarke and Pohl, two big names in SF, have managed to take two interesting concepts (Fermat's Last Theorem and alien sterilization of Earth) and turn them into a boring book. It's as if they said one day, "Well, we've succeeded at everything else in literature; now we have to succeed at writing a bad book!"

My major problem with the book is the lack of any consequences, or really, any conflict at all. ...moreOverall, the word I'd use to describe this book is "shallow." Clarke and Pohl, two big names in SF, have managed to take two interesting concepts (Fermat's Last Theorem and alien sterilization of Earth) and turn them into a boring book. It's as if they said one day, "Well, we've succeeded at everything else in literature; now we have to succeed at writing a bad book!"

My major problem with the book is the lack of any consequences, or really, any conflict at all. At points the story threatens to inject a conflict--such as when Ranjit becomes an unwitting accomplice to pirates and subsequently spends two years being tortured in prison. For a moment, I thought that might produce some genuine unhappiness that could mar this otherwise oppressively upbeat book. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Even toward the end, tragedy loomed on at least three separate occasions, yet somehow everything turned out all right. It's not that I have a problem with happy endings; I loves me a good happy ending. But happiness without struggle against adversity is hollow. I've read much better science fiction than this--this book feels like it was written for a fourteen-year-old as a "My first science fiction novel"--it's patronizing.

Our "protagonist", if indeed we can call him that, Ranjit, stumbles through his life without ever having to make any important decisions. Everything just sort of falls serendipitously into place. Oh, and along the way he discovers a miraculously short proof to Fermat's Last Theorem. Meanwhile, alien overlords have sent alien minions to sterilize Earth of dangerous humanity. But it's OK, because the overlords change their minds and then the minions befriend humanity.

As with the possibilities of tragedy I mentioned above, the book tempts us with the prospect of a meaningful theme when it touches upon the dangerous nature of an EMP-like weapon controlled by "the Big Three"--Russia, China, and the United States. Will this lead to an Orwellian future in which these Big Three control the only military forces on the planet? And will first contact with an alien species ironically lead to all-out planetary war even as the countries of humanity approach global peace?

Nah. It's much easier to just tell us in an epilogue that everything worked out fine, and thirteen thousand years everything was still going fine.

I'd have to say that even The Da Vinci Code better integrated an esoteric academic subject than this book. I understand that not everyone loves math as much as me, so I tolerate the explanations of Fermat's Last Theorem. But it wasn't even interesting. It had no relevance to the plot, because there was no plot. And since this book had Arthur C. Clarke's name on the cover, this has been the cause of severe disappointment for me!(less)

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Oct 03, 2008

Raja99 rated it

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Shelves: hardcover-c, ebooks-fictionwise-er, ebooks-lib, easton

Why I read this book: I don't have "favorite authors", but if I did, Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl would certainly be on my shortlist. Both have books in my Top 6, and Clarke's Against the Fall of Night is pretty much the book that made me a lifetime reader of Science Fiction. Both have also done incredible short stories that I would rank among the very best in SF.

I also really like both of their writing styles, though in very different ways. I was concerned about the ...more

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Jun 29, 2009

Don rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Cool book so far - just picked it up at the library. Didn't realize how current it was - it works a lot of geo-politics into the story, takes a swipe at the torture scandal, and paints a mostly bleak picture of our current world, with just a few rays of hope. Overall I'd say pretty realistic!!

Now that I've finished it - Great book! Clarke and Pohl have some very interesting ideas on what it will take to get humanity out of the mess we're in. They don't expound much on the detai...more

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Aug 09, 2011

Tim rated it

· review of another edition

Very disappointing. The book tries to build up the menace of aliens watching the Earth and being unimpressed with our nuclear weapons, and then the tension comes to nothing. Most of the book is set in Arthur C. Clarke's adopted home of Sri Lanka, which is interesting, but then there are the sci-fi elements of aliens bolted on and slotted in.

The last theorem refers to Fermat's Theorem, which is all about the sums of squares, cubes, etc. I was expecting we'd be saved from alien annihi...more

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Jun 08, 2010

Susan Henn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

6/10 A fun collaboration by two old SF authors. Ideas from Clarke were pulled together by Pohl. The book has some humorous spots where the older ideas peek through (description of a world wide web and the use of a search engine!). The story itself had some good suspense and interesting elements. Unfortunately the ending was a bit weak. Although some of the content would prohibit its use with kids, the math tricks and discussion of number theory was delightful.

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title link	preview: The Last Theorem
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