Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but not too entertaining
Review: 3001: The Final Odyssey is really a strange book. It has the general form of a novel, but it really doesn't have much of a plot. It mainly seems to be an excuse for Arthur C. Clarke to hypothesize about what life and the Earth will be like in another thousand years. Some of his ideas are very interesting, and they all seem to be firmly rooted in "science fact", but I was still kind of disappointed with this book. The characters were flat and there wasn't really a plot. I would recommend this book only for the novelty value of the futuristic settings and people. As far as novels go, it was pretty poor, and many people who read the first three books of the series will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Too simple
Review: This is the last part of the story and it could have been the most interesting one but we can recognize there ideas from other fiction sources. The first 2/3 of the book is boring. It's too descriptive. Clarck tries to describe a world at 3001 based in theoretical physics of today, we don't know if could be ever possible, and when action starts it's too simple, no suspense. And the final comfrontation to the monolith has been taken from a recent commercial movie of the 90's.
Rating: 
Summary: Some things are better left a mystery.
Review: Compared to the extraordinary events from the first two books, this fourth and final book in the Odyssey series is downright petty. The mysterious Monolith, so alien in 2001, so unbelieveably powerful in 2010, is in fact nothing more than antique automation, easily toppled by humans in the brief span of a few short chapters. The first half of this volumne is the most interesting, as Frank Poole's body is discovered, reanimated, then left to explore Earth 1000 years in the future. I was fascinated as I discovered new things along with Poole, but upon later reflection about Clarke's vision of the future, I didn't find much substance. Once we are given the tour of Mankind, 3001, Poole treks back to Juptier to confront his past, but with all the suspense of a Sunday picnic. The contact with Dave Bowman is little more than a "Hi", and the final confrontation with the monolith entity is so rushed I wonder if Clarke got fed up with the whole series and decided he couldn't be bothered with it anymore.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing end to a terrific series
Review: The Final Odyssey is a big disappointment. There are no original ideas, but the author treats the ideas like they are his creations. The characters are not developed at all, and are merely plot devices with names. Arthur Clarke promotes his underdeveloped religious and philosophical ideas in a way that has nothing to do with the plot. The ending is the most unrealistic and disappointing part; it leaves the reader wanting more and wondering how the author weaseled his way out of writing an ending. Read the earlier ones, but to NOT ruin your appreciation of the series by reading 3001.
Rating:
Summary: An Average Conclusion
Review: In 3001 the body of a lost voyager from the spacecraft in 2001 is found drifting in the outer solar stysem. Modern science is able to revive him making Frank an interesting visitor from the past. Along with having to adjust to the culture, Frank learns of the history behind the missions in 2001, 2010, and 2061. He finds many questions are left unanswered and he can help write another chapter in the oddysey to find the true meaning of the black monoliths.
Rating: 
Summary: Clarke is a genius
Review: I was very impressed with 3001. It was very different than most sci-fi type books. I really enjoyed it because of the science accuracy and the realistic perspective Clarke created. The ending in the book was amazing. It totally made sense and brought the other 3 books in the series to a close. I would suggest for anyone who enjoys a complicated and realisitc book read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Final? Odyssey
Review: I found the imagery in this book to be extremely awe inspiring. Clarke's vision of the future is a masterful one. And I like the quotes about how technology seems magical to those of the past. Reminds me of my parents. Overall however, i found the plot lacking. The explanation of Poole's return is vastly unbelievable. If you can get past that, the plot is very slow and cursory, and the ending leaves a lot to be desired. It kind of leaves you hanging out there, wondering if he's going to do another sequel, or did he just run out of ideas? If you're a fan, it's worth the read though for the imagery alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Direct to the trash can
Review: Well, what can I say about the worst book I've ever read that hasn't been already said? I'll start from the end. We have that virus ending, for which you probably know everything, but I'll say it anyway. Yes, they take some viruses made in our time, which probably won't do much damage to today's computers, and probably won't work under Unix/Linux or some other platform, but they destroy the monolith. And what does Clarke say afterwards? That he hasn't seen Independance day. Give me a break. I can give you a friendly advice to accept the ending of 2010 as the end of the series, because after that nothing new is revealed, and all the good ideas mentioned in the first two books are ruined for some reason known only to Clarke. For example, Bowman used to be a starchild, able to do anything, go anywhere, travel faster than the speed of light. Now, he is some simulation in the monolith, and he can't really do anything except what the monolith tells him. Remember in 2001 when the monolith opened the stargate, Bowman traveled through some galactic grand station, and reached great distances very fast, well, now that's all gone. It seems that now nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, not the monolith, not his creators. I read in some reviews that they like what Clarke thinks of the fourth millennium. What do they like? Nothing is explored outside of the solar systems, there are some small colonies here and there, but obviously nothing much has happened in the last 1000 years, except that the humans have become idiots, with some head implants and no hair. And that's only a small part of the stupid things that are written in this book. But, you know what's the funniest thing: Clarke is obviously following the pattern of the hollywood sci-fi movies made in the last decade. The movies which he inspired himself. And that's pathetic.
Rating:
Summary: Dissappointing, sad, pointless. A sequel too far.
Review: I'm very sad to think that this is the last Arthur C. Clarke novel I will probably ever read. The man who wrote Childhood's End, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc., has fallen so far. This is the kind of novel that a friend or relative of a deceased author publishes as a "tribute," "based on a story" once casually related by the said author over lunch. And it's as awful as that sort of thing usually is. Frank Poole is revived after floating in space ("killed" by HAL in 2001) for nearly one thousand years, watches some old news footage, bums around the solar system for a while, and finally has to take about a five-page detour to destroy the big Monolith at Jupiter. You'd think, perhaps, that there's a fantastic novel trying to get out of this idea. And perhaps there is, but Clarke was at a loss to find it. The destruction of the monolith is accomplished with a silly deus ex machina "computer virus," a logical puzzle that destroys any computing machine that is exposed to it! This is not only absurd--it is so tired and worn out that it has been used already by Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the movie Independence Day. I guess we're fortunate that the actual "plot" of the novel occupies such a little corner of the book...but, then again, that leaves all the more room to wander around Clarke's staid, uninteristing vision of the year 3001, a society in which--get this!--human beings actually interface their brains directly with computers! That's the big "visionary" thing in this book, so help me! Why, I couldn't name a single novel of the future published since 1990 which _didn't_ feature "jacking in" to the computer in some fashion or another...but Clarke acts like he invented the idea. It's a centerpiece of the novel. And yet he does less with the idea than many authors who use "cyberspace" as a mere background detail of their worlds. At least it's mercifully short...and this tiny book is effectively made even shorter in that it lifts whole chapters from its progenitors 2001 and 2010. You might skip over these excerpts, but of course then you'd be skipping over the best passages in this book, and perhaps the only ones really worth reading. It is not only that this is a poor, dull, silly novel. It is a kind of literary vandalism--grafitti spray-painted on the side of the original black monolith from 2001. Reading it, I was reminded of the wisdom of Ray Bradbury, writing on the times he was tempted to revise and "update" Fahrenheit 451: "But I object to tampering with the work of a young aritst, even when that artist is me." If only Clarke would have felt the same way. This is a tragic way to conclude a great career.
Rating:
Summary: A sad and bitter end to Clarke's visionary career
Review: Having grown up reading Arthur C. Clarke books, I was expecting to be challenged and intrigued anew by the genious behind 2001, Rendezvous with Rama and Songs of Distant Earth. 3001: The Final Odyssey is proof of the horrible decline in his faculties. He seems more concerned with pontificating on the wisdom of his past positions (like the Millennium falling on 2001) than on developing any new ideas. This book managed to ruin my appreciation for the earlier books in the series. I cling to the hope that Clarke is actually too infirm to write and 3001 was ghost-authored by some well-meaning but untalented assistant. As the saying goes, I am less enlightened for having read it.
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