3001 : The Final Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke Book Review

 3001 : The Final Odyssey 

(Space Odyssey #4)

by Arthur C. Clarke 

Published Year: 1999

Page Count: 272 pages 

Medium Used: Lenovo ThinkBook

Genre: Space Opera, Science Fiction, Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, 2025-read.

Rating: 2.75/5

I somehow felt this narrative lacked imagination. Being an ardent fantasy reader who also loves science fiction, I thought this narrative to be limited and stifled. It was like drawing a picture with a pencil and leaving it uncolored. I have picked this book without first reading the third book in the series - the 2061 : Space Odyssey but I didn't feel like I have missed much. I read the book 1 in the series long back, the most popular 2001 and had to brush up/refresh the recollection centers of my brain through Wikipedia perusal. I liked the few insinuations that are made to the religious atrocities and fanaticisms of the 21st century and how they are eradicated in the current era. I was surprised that no note is made regarding the travel to and fro between Earth and Jupiter - how easy and fast it appeared to be! It almost happened in the blink of an eye.  

After wandering the space for a thousand years in suspended metabolism and suspended animation state, Frank Poole is found near the moons of giant planet Jupiter. As we already know from the previous novels in the series, superior alien species have planted mathematically dimensioned monoliths at several places in our universe. They have planted it on the Earth's Moon, on Jupiter(which blew up and became Lucifer, another sun in the galaxy), on Jupiter's moon Europa. These monoliths have been monitoring the events in the galaxy and have prompted the early man - in Africa few millenniums back in taking a leap instead of a small step towards our evolution. Frank Poole is a celebrated anachronism of this fourth millennium. He is kept on a African Tower, a star city, a tower like 36000 km high tower that is built 2000 km above the Earth's equator, in space. He is startled to find the artificial  contrivances/simulations that are introduced/ designed to make them experience a bygone, much popular Earth's attractions. He learns that Earth is in imminent danger like being wiped out by the monolith's interjection. He, along with the superior engineers and masters of Earth, contrive a device that not only removes this threat but also takes away the monoliths out of their existence. The main skeleton of the story is really thin and I am afraid Mr. Clarke didn't add anything to it to make it more sturdy and attractive. 

I will read the full series again if possible in the future. I will not skip the third book in the series next time. Cheers!!