Rating: 
Summary: NOT AS BAD AS THE OTHER REVIEWERS SAID
Review: As stated above, this is not the POS that most of the reviewers below have labeled it. Now, I have read all the Odyssey books, and consider myself an expert on the series. And yes, 2001 is the best book in the series, and yes, the series did go continually downhill, and yes, there are some corny things in this book, and yes the ending is questionable, and yes, and yes, it does ignore things said in the previous novels, and yes, there isn't much character development (it's a SF novel for crying out loud!), but you know what? It's still a darn good book! Like the rest of the series, there is some very interesting social commentary in this book, as well as a good number of "scientific jokes", unfortunately for some, you have to "have a brain" to "get" them. Unlike apparently most people who reviewed this book, I didn't think the series hit at a good ending point with 2061, this is something of a better ending, though it could've been bettered also. We couldn't penetrate the monolith with any substance humans possessed and we can destroy it with a computer virus? Strange... but yet, it was a better ending than the previous book would've been. Personally, I think the best ending would've have been for Poole to join the rest inside the monolith, I never imagined it would be destroyed (hope I didn't just spoil the book for ya!). However, as I said it's still a good read, and something that any ACC or SF fan should get without a doubt.
Rating: 
Summary: 3001: The Final Waste of Time
Review: Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey is the not so thrilling conclusion to the space odyssey series. 3001 brings back Heywood Floyd, one of the main characters from the original book (2001: A Space Odyssey), reviving him into a different world where he saves all of humanity. While the book does not compare well to the original masterpiece, it is indeed better than the two before it, which just seemed to bad copies of the original. 3001 brings back many of the things that worked for the original, such as Floyd, but does not emulate the plot of a space journey gone awry. The book also contains more than its fair share of faults. While Arthur C. Clarke does not copy the previous plot, he copies a whole chapter from the previous book (2061: Odyssey Three), and while reading the chapter one can not stop from thinking that Clarke has run out of material. 3001's greatest fault of all is its conclusion; what seems should be the most thrilling part turns out to be the worst. After careful consideration of the pros and cons, it seems that the faults outnumber the strengths. I also start to wonder why I read it at all. Huge science fiction fans should not give up on the book, but overall one should just read 2001 and be content not to read the rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Ending
Review: Their were enough revelations, technologies and other discovery's to save this ending. I especially liked the return of Poole, a character who hasn't been heard from since 2001, and in that he had a small part. But by the fourth book, the story was getting a little dull.
Rating: 
Summary: Clarke has only one ability...
Review: ...to ruin a good book. I'll take two examples: "2001" and "Rendezvous with Rama" - two great books destroyed with mediocre sequels.I won't comment much about 3001, because everything is said by those 200 reviewers. I just want to say that not seeing Independace Day is not really an excuse for Clarke. Take a look at "Invasion","The Puppet Master","War of the worlds", and many other alien invasion movies, and you'll see that almost every time the aliens are destroyed by a virus(biological or computer, it doesn't matter, it's still a virus). Everyone who has read the previous books would expext the similar kind of enigmatic conclusion, where not everything is revealed, and the reader could be left wondering about some higher intellegence out there, and we could get some idea from the book. Here everything is revealed in the most terrible way the author could have thought of, so he ruined everything that he built in the previous books, even in 2061...
Rating:
Summary: 3001 is an unexpected ending to the Space Odyssey series
Review: Frank Poole, a Discovery member thought to be dead in 2001, is found floating in the outer solar system, and is sent back to Earth to be revived. Poole finds himself 1000 years in the future full of different customs and beliefs. It is interesting to read what Arthur C. Clarke thinks will happen in the next millenium, and how a time travled astronaut would adapt. Poole learns more about the enigmas of the monoliths, and the world is surprised that with the coming of Poole to Europa, a monolith lets out another secret. The civilization which built the monolith has decided to pass judgement on humanity, but is humanity ready?
Rating:
Summary: Tripe
Review: This is perhaps the biggest letdown I have ever read. The Odyssey series is one of the greatest sci-fi series of all time. But Clarke seems to have ignored all the questions of the other books to write this. The first 3/4 of the book is boring drama about how Poole adjusts to 31st century life, then the last bit rips off the ending to Independance Day (which incidentaly is completely ludicrous). Overall a big let down considering this ends the series.
Rating:
Summary: There is no Final Odysey
Review: Many will read this book and decide that it was an appauling conclusion to the series - resolving nothing after all that time. They would be wrong. 2001 showed the begining of the Aliens experiments, 2010 showed the continuation of those experiments, 2061 showed the failure of a particular experiment, and 3001 shows the conclusion of their experiment. There is a tremendous amount of technological extrapolation and so many philosophical musings that one cannot walk away from the book without thinking about the concepts and issues presented. All of Arthur C. Clarke's novel have a kind of open-ended conclusion to them and this one is no different. In reality, the story never ends. Arthur sticks around long enough to make the point and then leaves one to imagined the possible future that awaits us. Note that those of a profoundly religous nature may feel offended by some of the issues raised (that the word 'God' is a taboo in the future), but this amazing work certainly provides food for thought.
Rating:
Summary: Painfully Bad
Review: This is probably the worst book I have read. The book lacks imagination and the characters have no substance. For such a brilliant start of a series 2001 the ending was so bad it is indescribably bad and predicable.
Rating:
Summary: Atrocious
Review: This would have to be one of the worst books I have ever read. It lacks imagination, which is the backbone of all good science fiction books. The book starts slow and is predictable all the way through. The only exception to this is to believe that dinosaurs are recreated, via cloning, to be domesticated servants. This book lacked intrigue, suspense and the dramatic finish that the initial concept of 2001 offered. The characters lack substance and the dialogue between characters was at the level of young children. Here is a typical passage: Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? Thanks to our computers, we can run political experiments in cyberspace before trying them out in practice. Lenin was unlucky: he was born a hundred years too soon. Russian communism might have worked - at least for a while- if it had microchips. Revetting stuff isn't it? This would have to be the low point in the series and I doubt whether there is a lower point for it to go.
Rating:
Summary: So bad it has to be a joke!
Review: This would have to rate as one of the worst books I have ever read. Such a great author reduced to such a low level. The book concentrates on techno stuff of the 4th Millennium and that is about it. The characters (if you could call them that) are shallow and offer nothing to this book (if you could call it a book). As Science Fiction it lacks imagination. Which is the fundamental requirement of such an area. Only a small amount of the book is devoted to why it all occurred (the answer). The way this book is written leads me to feel that a 7 year old could understand it. Words with more that two syllables are rarely used and it fails to spark the imagination or the feeling that you are involved in something marvellous. I expected some earth shattering revelation but got crap. I feel this book has now spoiled the earlier experience I had from the other books. As I said I have not read a book as bad as this for many years.
|
