Rating: 
Summary: A huge disappointment
Review: I've lost count of the number of times I've read 2001 and seen the film. I saw the film when it was first released (I was 11 years old). Nothing short of brilliant. But 3001: I looked forward to this novel for many reasons but have to admit that it was, for me, an abysmal failure. Quite honestly I felt conned. For me the whole story line with the monolith veered off in the wrong direction; and to be brought down by a computer virus shows a sad lack of imagination and effort. I felt that this book had been written very quickly, churned out more for commercial reasons than as a piece of literature. I've been a great fan of Clarke for many years and read virtually all of his earlier work. But this one falls way short.
Rating: 
Summary: A critique from my book report for school.
Review: 3001: The Final Odyssey was a great book. Reading this book was nothing but a pleasure and I could not put it down once i started it. It kept me up until 3:00 in the morning ! This book drew me in so much that even when I was writing this report and searching for the characters, I found myself rereading the book. In my opinion,this book is an excellent glimpse into the future and what it might be like. A few good examples of this: a space station with towers to the ground at Geostationary Orbit (GEO), a braincap, and the colonization of Venus. This book had a very stable storyline that was not hard to follow. It was not easy to get sidetracked or lose out on the story line even if you happened to skip a chapter. This book was an exciting and interesting book that was not boring at all. It gave Arthur C. Clarke's perspective on what the world might be like at the dawning of the 4th Millennium 1002 years from now, as well as the events leading up to it. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a good idea on what the future might have in store for the inhabitants of planet Earth or just wants to relax and enjoy reading a really good Sci-fi novel.
Rating:
Summary: A bleak future missing the most important aspect of humanity
Review: Mr. Clarke gives us a new book that is satisfying in a couple of ways. It clears up several questions from his previous Odyssey books that have been nagging at us for quite some time, and it is judicious in many of its technical predictions. Thus, the author well-serves his readers regarding the scientific/technical aspect of humanity in his predictions. However, Mr. Clarke completely misses the most important aspect of human life which results in characters in the book that are dwarfs of their potential.Mr. Clarke seems perfectly free, almost excited, at the opportunity to attack religion -- it doesn't matter really which, they seem to be all the same to him. Near the end of the book, he gleefully refers to his numbers of religious acquaintances as "friends" right after he has spent much time in his book personally assaulting their core beliefs in a very offensive way. If he is so reckless with his friends as to so openly and aggressively deride their beliefs, I would not wish to be less for fear of a more open and deeper hostility from him. He populates his book with religious dunces, including Poole from our own time, and then sets up, time after time, situations in which the most elementary tools of pagans are used to demean religion: that of inquisitions, cultists, torturing, etc. in an attempt to give the impression that such actions are what defines the subject. He even implies that to believe in God is to be "insane." Poole could have used the opportunity to describe that such gruesome things did occur, but not because people were following the tenets of Christ, but rather because a handful of people in control sought to acquire further control and exercise power. Religion just happen to be the best tool at their disposal for gaining their own ends. But it is only one of many. Christianity is not about power of one over the other, but about love and service to God and his creation. Millions of people, including highly-educated scientists, technologists and other professionals, experience the truth of God on a daily basis within themselves. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is simply a sign of ignorance of the subject and a lack of true spiritual experience. In Mr. Clarke's future, all religion will be discredited, a situation hoped for by humanists throughout the ages. Instead, the truth will be that regardless of how long humanity will exist, God and the intimate spiritual experience he provides will always be dear to countless millions, and totally unexplainable to hard-core humanists who refuse the opportunity. "God is Love" says the apostle John. As we move toward God we move toward love. Our growth as Christians eventually takes us to a place of true love, and away from the place of ego, power, pride, and selfishness. Mr. Clarke's future world is without God and is full of bland people with little hope or incentive of real inward change. Ultimately then, this book is a failure. Because it did not include the most important aspect of human existence: its relationship and fellowship with God. If a modern-day astronaut was to awake in Mr. Clarke's 3001, it is a pity that it had to be Frank Poole instead of John Glenn.
Rating: 
Summary: Tied up with a ribbon
Review: Although there remain a few unanswered questions, 3001 tries to tidy up the whole Monolith storyline. Clarke offers quite a few insights into the next millenium, a rather presumptious effort. Although I found some of the concepts proposed by Clarke insightful, I think that he faired about as well as an intellectual in the 11th century would have done predicting our world....horribly! If mankind survives another thousand years, there will be advances which we cannot even begin to guess. I like Clarke's writing style, I found this book to be very readable. It was also a fast read. The concept is good, verified by four books on the subject, but something is missing. Maybe there needs to be one more. Maybe some questions can never be answered.
Rating:
Summary: Answers all the past mystries, but with an ID4 ending?
Review: A great surprise in the resurrection of Frank Poole. A great deal of answers to many of the puzzles in the past three books. Arthur C. Clarke is a genius in writing future sci-fi books, but I was very disappointed in the final solution the human race had for dealing with the monolith. Without giving it away, let's just say that Clarke did a little Independence Day copying. If the monolith can do all that it can do, it shouldn't have been this easy for the human race! Still a good story and well read by John Glover!
Rating: 
Summary: A grate conclusion to the Odyssey series
Review: This has to be one of the best books I have read. I was grately dissapointed with the ending of 3001 it was an easy solution for the human race to get rid of the Monoliths whith a simple computer virus. One of the risons I gave this book 4 stars was not the plot but the way it shows our distance future. I was so glad that 3001 stayed away form Star Trek as much as possibel. I reccomend this book is you have read 2001 & 2010 but you will be a bit dissapointed with the plot of 3001 if you have read 2061 becouse 3001 plot dosent follow its predisesor 2061. You should also read 3001 if you havent read any of the previous Odyssey books becouse it's a goob stand alone book too.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks the real science---and the sound thinking---we expect
Review: Generally pretty lame, although the idea it takes off from is kind of fun--the recovery and resuscitation of astronaut Frank Poole, whose body had been flash-frozen one thousand years before. ----- For me the book was particularly marred by one of the silliest popular misconceptions current, namely that religion is responsible for most of the world's suffering. The two great causes of persecution in this century have been atheism (particularly under the former Soviet Union and its vassal states) and racism (under the Thousand Year Reich, during its decade or so under the sun). Also ripe for blame are political ideology and territorial ambition. Clearly, something else is happening--call it man's inhumanity to man. It doesn't seem reasonable to blame religion for a common human failing. ----- Arthur C. Clarke is a fine thinker when he sticks to his area of expertise. His book on the terraforming of Mars is wonderful. This one is a duck.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible- absolutely visionary
Review: This book shows a future I could only dream to live in. It shows a world where demoracy holds strong, technology meets practicality, and organized religion meets its end. While, admittedly, Clarke causes some confusion in the series by causing some plot holes, he creates a better and more scientific plot by doing so. Warning! This book will tick you off if you belong to any organized religion. However, Clarke take the most logical approach to religion's end. Myself, being agnostic, can relate and hope for the day when people will not live be self-appointed guides. But that is a subject for Dr. Clarke to touch on, not me. In summary, if you love Clarke's writing and do not belong to an organized religion, this book will be absolutely incredible. Otherwise, forget it, it will just make you angry.
Rating:
Summary: Nope, I don't buy it...
Review: Frank Poole has been asleep for a long time. Does the name sound familiar? It should. Poole was an astronaut from 2001. So he wakes up 1000 years later. Not only is he shocked by what society has become, but he has some unfinished business to attend to. What? They call this "the Final Odyssey," yet nothing is solved. here Clarke tries to create a convincing society of the future and while he is moderately successful, he gives in to the urge to hammer contemporary society. I wouldn't have much of a problem with this if it was done more subtlely, but often in novels such as this 20th century humans are savages. SF writers are often guilty of this (Robert Heinlein being an extreme example) with a few exceptions. So I guess this doesn't take off that many points. What gets me the most is the end. I won't give it away, but It's VERY ironic in light of what Clarke blasts us 20th century folks about. Also the way it's accomplised is not believable, like attacking a sherman tank with a longbow. Despite the fact that Clarke has a talent for inspiring a sense of wonder, it's curiously absent here. The planetary ring of Earth should be a stunning thing, but it just ends up being an oddity in the background. So read it if you must. I did just to finish the series. Although I hardly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Clarkian carload of gnostic nonsense!
Review: Each one of the 2000 series, in my opinon, has gotten progressively disappointing and unreadable. 2001 was fine.It posed questions. The sequels present answers that are not only not particularly imaginative but in a polemic that gets boring and transparent. Mr. Clarke is either a fan or a practicioner of aetheistic gnosticism which asserts the eventual apotheosis... translation to godhead... of elite men. This is not that apparent in 2001. By 3001, Clarke's hapless Hell...excuse me Halman is the best the "cosmic adepts" can do so they decide to wipe out humanity (in shame?)... In 2010 Clarke took the gloves off by naming his "second sun", Lucifer. Okey...so a new battle for the heavens is posited. Why does Clarke make it so tedious and ending it all with something H.G. Wells came up with 100 years ago? (Wells, by the way, may have been part of the same fan club as Clarke but he usually did not let his theology muck-up his fiction). To read a "satisfying" ending to this series try W. Stuart's Forbidden Planet. Also see the movie which, I believe, bests Kubrick's masterpiece for reasons that are apparent in the failure of Clarke's series. Let's face it. Morbius is one of these "cosmic adepts" and what is the "logos" he creates in "his image"...the HELLMAN...THE MONSTER FROM THE ID. Enough. Mary Shelley dealt with the theme in Frankenstein and Clarke's attempted mystical paean to the gnostics just doesn't make it. C.S. Lewis blew them out of the water in his Space Triology, particularly in "That Hidieous Strength". A writer as good as Clarke, should have known the philosophies he is espousing have displayed themselves as dangerous (Communism), unworthy (techno-fascist elitism) or silly (all forms of Political Correctness). If one wants to read serious excursions into theology and messianic mythology, check-out Frank Herbert's DUNE series. If you are enamoured of Clarke's attempt, try Ursula LeQuinn's engaging often lyrical," Lathe of Heaven."
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