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Title: 3001: the Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, Garrick Hagon ISBN: 0-7531-1084-9 Publisher: ISIS Publishing Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 Format: Audio CD

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Average Customer Rating: 2.56 (271 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Clarke told us too much... still not completely horrible
Comment: The most wonderful thing about 2001 was that there was so much we didn't know. It blew my mind. I enjoyed not knowing so much. In 2010, he didn't answer questions, he just continued the leagacy, also making it a great book (not quite as good as 2001 but still very good). In 2061, only few more questions were answered, making it okay but not great. But now... in 3001, Clarke has revealed the answers to these questions, almost ruining the classic 2001. Also, the fact that Frank Poole is still alive makes HAL seem less evil, which kind of defeats the point if you ask me. 2001 was great because we didn't know what the monoliths were, we didn't know who made them, and we didn't know about the future of David Bowman.
However, in 3001, all these questions are given answers. In my opinion... I ENJOYED NOT KNOWING!

Rating: 2
Summary: Engaging in places, but overall a major letdown
Comment: "The Lost Worlds of 2001", is filled with intriguing scenarios--the book is a collection of story elements that Clarke developed at the behest of Stanley kubrick, which were discarded or modified in the development of the film 2001. But "Lost Worlds", as well as the novelization of "2001", pale in comparison to Stanley Kubrick's film version. The film realizes all the potential of the sci fi genre. It is one of a mere handful of sci fi works that can also be certified as high art. Meanwhile, Clarke's books, though brilliant in parts, reveal many of the foibles and pratfalls into which the genre can lapse. The novelization of "2001" spells out, often comically, what is left unspoken or ambiguous in the film. "2010" is built around an intriguing premise, and indeed has turned out to be almost prophetic in many ways, particularly in Clarke's speculations about the moon Europa. But the book also further demystifies the monolith and the civilization behind it. Furthermore, the plot is held together by a string of frankly hard-to-swallow coincidences, e.g., the arrival of the U.S./Russian mission at Jupiter at the precise time when the TMA-aliens have decided to turn the planet into a "mini-sun"--let's remember, they've supposedly been in the solar system for 4 million years. I would have thought "2061" represented the final chapter in the deconstruction of the film's mythic enigma, but then along comes "3001", bringing the series to a new low. The book comes off as a conceptual grab-bag: petabytes, terabytes, atheism, clitorodectomy, space elevators. Clarke is entitled to his religious position, of course, but his atheist agenda often drags down his work. Like many an atheist, Clarke isn't committed to the position as a result of some profound spiritual struggle; rather, he wears his contempt for religion like a sort-of hipper-than-thou, haute-couture garment. Give it a rest already. The almost propagandistic injection of atheism into his work was already tiresome in 1986's "Songs of Distant Earth". Thankfully, Clarke writes short books, which can be read in a few sittings; so in spite of the fact that this book completely trashes the legacy of the original 2001, it may be of some interest to hardcore sci-fi fans who are in the mood for some literary "junk food". As is the case with many a mediocre sci-fi novel, there are certainly more than enough half-baked ideas here to at least paw at the mind.

Rating: 3
Summary: Critique
Comment: First, Clarke does not even know when a millennium begins. His would begin Jan. 1, 3001, but he thinks it begins a year earlier. A lot of his scientific thinking has been outdated by now (2003). It is interesting, but a bit scientifically sophomoric.

-F.M. Sturtevant, Ph.D.