3001 the Final Odyssey

Quality of book received was great, the cover was the one I wanted, the older original paperback cover. The Odyssey story line is one of my favorites, and this one doesn't disappoint. also, there is nothing like the feel of an actual book. Great book.

I am not an avid reader by any means. But when I found out there was a final chapter to the infamous 2001 Space Odyssey, I couldn't wait to get the book. The book explains all that I didn't understand in the previous ones and keeps you on your toes from cover to cover. I plan to read it again and again. Excellent reading!

I really enjoyed this book, but I must agree with those who said the previous books more. I loved the premise of Poole being revived the distant future when humanity is facing a possible threat of the monolith. I loved the details about the world of the future. My only complaint is that I would have liked more. Clarke could have carried on for a thousand pages about future technology and political changes without boring me. He did a good job making me feel Poole's disorientation in discovering a new world. It was nice that the book acknowledges that language would have changed. The idea that English will become the universal language seems quite plausible to me, although one might have said the same thing about Japanese many years ago. Anglish is a fitting name for the fictional language of the future-- obviously owing to influence from French and other languages. I found the explanation of the monolith to be satisfying. The only thing that disappointed me was the plan they used to resist the monolith-it's seemed a bit facile for something as powerful as the monolith. Judging by the changes the world has seen in the last 1000 years and the rate of change since the industrial revolution, I believe the changes in the next 1000 years will go way beyond what is in this book. Despite Clarke's insight, he can only fall short of creating a convincing future. This book is a great story and a starting point for thinking about humanity's distant future.

I was able to pick this book up for a song. Still I would have payed more for it. For those of you who remember the movie or the book, you will remember when the supercomputer Hal killed the astronaut that was the crewman with Dave Bowman. This book starts out with a comet mining vessel being called to investigate a mysterious radar contact. They grumble about it: they have work to do. But they go any way and find something that at first they think is space debris, about two meters(six feet, roughly) long until they see it. It is the frozen body of Frank Poole and they(the doctors at the time) are able to repair and resurrect him with medical science.....Mr. Clarke proceeds to tell a realistic tale of how a man who saw the beginning of the Third Millenium would react if he were suddenly transported to witness it's end. The story is mostly consistent with the rest of the storyline (I have not encountered 2061: Third Odyssey yet)and all the fiction he uses has some basis in fact(not surprising: We are talking about Mr. Arthur C. Clarke)and the story moves quickly. How he looked at religions in this book was somewhat harsh, but that was the storyline and it fit very consistently. There were only two minor points that seemed to not fit: he mentioned a date were Poole was born that seemed to be 1996, which was inconsistent if I read it correctly, and I do not think that an American Astronaut lost in the year 2001 would have such an easy time thinking in metrics, and not think in miles or inches at all. Given the time frame from the first authoring of this story to the authoring of this one, such small inconsistencies are readily forgiveable.

Don't be decieved by this just being another installment in Clarke's Odyssey works. His final odyssey delivers with information that the reader could never have dreamed of. With vision and clarity your questions will be answered. By taking this final trip the reader will truly glimpse into mankind's future and the outcome of reading this great work is to understand that you have been touched by the greatness of the author.

The book 3001 was very interesting and discriptive. It is my favorite sci-fi novel. I recomend this book to anyone who enjoys Arthur C. Clarke.