Rating: 
Summary: Horrible, horrible...
Review: I can't say that this novel is even part of the 2001 universe.There is about a dozen glaring logical inconsistencies with the otherstories. Clarke apologizes for these in his foreword, but if he knows they are there, why not fix them? Who is in charge here, anyway? So far as I can tell, Clarke didn't spend one sentence on developing Frank Poole, or any of the other characters, for that matter. Albeit, he is not known for character development, but in this case there is neither a fascinating storyline nor descriptions (predictions?) of future/alien technology to take up the slack. At least with the Rama books you had that (this could be due to Gentry Lee's influence, of course). He does spend a little time describing the technological wonders of the thirty-first century, but they have all been done before. I was under the illusion Clarke was a Christian; this has been dispelled by _3001_. He doesn't even bother to set up any of the arguments of the atheist/humanist faith; he simply swats religion away as something which is a mere personal annoyance. Intellectual laziness or intellectual arrogance? The endings of most of his novels are poor, but this sets a new record for unsatisfying endings. If, like me, you enjoyed _2001_, _2010_, and even _2061_, avoid _3001_ at all costs. I must say my opinion of Clarke as a writer and a man has diminished greatly.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting view of the distant future
Review: Arthur C. Clarke is undeniably a genius in every sense of the word. The fate of a long forgotten character is explored 1000 years in the future.
I liked the mention of Mendlebrot and chaos theory, entropy and such. An intelligent piece.
the ending could have been better.
Rating:
Summary: Biggest disappointment of 1997!
Review: One expects to suspend logic while enjoying ascience fiction novel, but Clark has carriedthings much too far. Enjoyment was marred by the constant thought: "Gimme a break!"
Rating:
Summary: Explanations that Strive to Diminish
Review: Continuity is important to me, even in a series of bookswritten over a span of thirty years. Clarke's short story "TheSentinel" radiates the sense of wonder, drawing Kubrick together Clarke to create 2001 in movie and book forms. 3001 provides concrete answers for some of the mysteries posed in the previous books. In so doing 3001 removes some of that vital sense of wonder without replacing it with either a sense of satisfaction, achievement, pride or a sense of wonder from other newer sources. Clarke does succeed in moving the story along, and he does bring it to a conclusion, using pedestrian mechanisms that make it difficult to invest deeply into the proposed reality. While the fates of the main characters are perfectly reasonable, their frailties are not because it is starkly inconsistent with what I already know from the earlier works. The extrapolations Clarke uses to explain what some of the main characters are do not go much beyond mundane '90's tech and, boy, does it ever need to!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm a bit disturbed...
Review: I thought 3001 was two things: a mediocre (and somewhatsummary) stand-alone story, and a lousy ending to the Odyssey saga.Quite frankly, the best-written part of the book was the Epilogue, which consisted of three or four lines.
The thing that really made me mad, though, was Clarke's arrogant dismissal of religion as an "un-sane" (sic) psychopathology. Oh, really? Well, I'm sure that millions of readers who do go to church (or a synagogue, or a mosque, or whatever) will be extremely pleased to hear THAT! The bottom line: wait for the paperback. ACC
Rating:
Summary: 3001 : A different focus on 2001
Review: 3001 changes focus from the rest of the Odyssey series. TheFinal Odyssey focuses on the future much more than the Space Odysseyplot. That's to bad, because 3001's future isn't realistic. Plausible, but it sounds false and stale. Where 3001 bombs, however, is the plot. Not that 3001's plot is bad, but it's a square peg going into the round hole. It's ignoring and re-writing some of the better parts of the earlier three Odysseys. C'mon, bringing Frank Poole back to life? Independant from 2001, 2010, and 2061 this book actually does well, but fans like me are being deprived of a fittinig end to the Space Odyssey. Andrew Harris, harris@worthington.mn.frontiercomm.net
Rating:
Summary: Different than the other Odysseies
Review: Grumble, Grumble...I was intrigued by the statement on the backthat the book answered all the questions left unanswered by the firstthree books. While it did answer a couple of the nagging questions, this book was more like a three hundred page description of the future through the eyes of Arthur C. Clarke, without a lot of plot to carry it. I found 2061 much more satisfying as to be the "end of the story"; that book clarified what happened to Dave Bowman, Hal, and Heywood Floyd. If you're looking for a great vision of the future, buy this up. If you're looking for the end of the story, ask a friend who's read the book.
Rating:
Summary: read it? PROBABLY wouldn't want to
Review: All in all,I'm not surprised at the generally disappointingreviews of this book.There hasn't been spectacular sci-fi since the'60's and a great sequel from whom has apparently become another old fart running on fumes.I have not read the book and wish one of the "greats" would write something genuinely sterling to give people like me more reason to romanticize about the future. I gave it a 5 score because there is no unrated listing and I agree with another reviewer.
Rating:
Summary: SO MANY THINGS LOST...
Review: Despite being myself a fan of Arthur C. Clark, no doubt thisbook suffered a lack of continuity so great that even the apollogiesfrom Clark's own are not enough to justify this book... I am specially sad about the involution wich Clark aprouched the aliens, the creators of the Monoliths, and the completelly unsatisfying end to Hall and Dave Bowman. I read the first book delighted until the end, and one of the most delightfull parts is for sure when Dave Bowman pass through the Gate ( wich is Big Brother, something clear in the first book and its sequel...), seeing the mammoth space ports and gateways, some of them even being at use while he was passing by... That alone tells that the Monoliths creators mastered FTL travell, and this is completelly denied in this last book !!!How can he write that a message from the Monolith delays 450 years to reach it's Central, if Dave Bowman made the first trip almost instantly, and returned a few years later ??!! And we all know that his transformation to his new form happened in the Gates Central, in the surface of a Sun ( another beautifull part of the original book )and not inside the Big One orbiting Jupiter, something so repeated on this 3001... Of course this was one of the basis for the story, but so this must not be a sequel to 2001. Let alone the fact that the end of the star child is completelly out of the lines guided on the first books. Of course Dave Bowman became more than a computer image, from a stupid yet powerfull machine. Fact is, this so called sequell just levelled the Monoliths and its creators to a levell far under the preview books, and I prefer to stuck on the first ones, hopping that someday Clark or his collaborator, Gentry Lee (a great writer himself) maybe take notice of the terrible mistakes done in this story and fix it, giving a really sactisfatory end to this magnificent tale, something that we fans of this series are actually lacking right now. For me this book never happened, and let our voices get to mr. Clark, in order to make him notice our sadness about this matter... Claudio Marcos Maciel Leme,
from S\343o Paulo - Brasil
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Clarke apparently didn't read his other books...
Review: I'm sorry, but I was very disappointed with this effort.
It was interesting to resurrect Frank Pool and explore his point of view...but it just didn't develop. While Mr. Clarke did plagerize himself somewhat, he seemed to have missed the path(s) he took in the previous books.
What happened to Heywood Floyd?? I had such hopes after 2061, that we'd get to learn what was really going on. I can't believe in the future as foretold in 3001. Humans are far to self-important and conceited to not go after the bad guys...
Stop reading now, if you're going to read the book.
The ending is every bit as plausible as the Independence Day movie. You know, where the computer geek can log his PowerMac onto the Alien's computer and then upload a virus that crashes their system. Yeah. Right.
I'm sorry Mr. Clarke, it just doesn't work this time.
Thank you!
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