The Last Theorem

by Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl

The Last Theorem

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Novels

299 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2008

About the author

Stories, works of noted British writer, scientist, and underwater explorer Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, include 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.

Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.

He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.

Reviews

[Megan Baxter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Frederik Pohl, or, at least, I like Gateway, the one book of his I've read, a whole lot. I have enjoyed most Arthur C. Clarke I have read. Reading a book by the two of them together sounded intriguing, at the very least. Unfortunately, it wasn't particularly gripping, and frankly, is a bit of a mess. The characters stay resolutely far away from the plot, and large sections of it are badly paced and just boring.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Tatjana Rosandić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zapanjujuća knjiga! Fascinirala me je količina ideja fino utkanih u radnju romana, lepo doziranih i uklopljenih, tako da imate celovitu viziju, a ne nabacane koncepte. Doduše, ima problema u tempu romana, pretpostavljam da je zbog toga došlo do velikog broja nezadovoljnih čitalaca. Takođe, lično, problem mi je bio sa nepoznavanjem i nedostatkom interesovanja za brojne matematičke probleme (ali tu je već problem do mene, a ne do romana).
Sve u svemu, potpuno sam zapanjena količinom kvalitetnog materijala koji je ušao u ovaj roman! Bukvalno bih mogla sada ponovo da ga pročitam, sa pažnjom usmerenom na sitnije elemente, koje sam neminovno preletela usled dinamike glavne radnje.

[Stratos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μια ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία για το απώτερο μέλλον του ανθρώπινου γένους

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways, it's appropriate that this was Arthur C. Clarke's final work. It's sort of a love letter to him and his career, magpieing ideas from his best works, from the all-seeing alien beings to his love of Sri Lanka. There's countless little nods to Clarke's work and its great fun to spot.

The trouble is, this isn't really a very good book. It is essentially the life story of a Sri Lankan boy who is a remarkable mathematician and manages to once and for all conclusively solve Fermat's Theorem. Apart from the remarkable achievement he doesn't really live that remarkable a life. All the way through there's a sense of doom that aliens are heading to Earth and right near the end they do and it's pretty much all fine.

There are some great ideas in here. The various aliens are well-described and well-talked about and I liked their slightly dystopian vision of the future Earth, which seems a decent prediction so far. The trouble is there are so many ideas shoved in here there wasn't really much time for an actual story. There's not really a plot, it's just a selected best bits of one man's life with a few good sci-fi ideas squeezed amongst them.

Despite the general feeling that this wasn't a good book, I found it fairly enjoyable to read. This may not make sense, but it does in my head. The book is well written and the characterisation here is really rather good, especially that of Ranjit, it's just that you get to the end of the book and think "is that it" and wonder what on Earth the point of the whole thing was.

I think the phrase that best describes my failing is thus: an enjoyable failure.

[Raj · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Arthur C. Clarke, but 3001 The Final Odyssey and now this have tested my loyalty. Both were written in the latter years of Sir Arthur's life (The Last Theorem was the last book published before his death) and both had good ideas that were poorly executed.

The EM shockwave of Earth's nuclear tests spread into space and eventually reach a race of mega-beings, called the Grand Galactics who immediately dispatch one of their client races to eliminate this upstart race. Meanwhile, young mathematician Ranjit Subramanian discovers a short, elegant proof to Fermat's Last Theorem and becomes embroiled in a secret organisation.

I really wanted to like this book, there were many good ideas but the writing was very poor, the pacing was very uneven and the characterisation was thin. The galactic invasion plot and the Earth-based plots never really meshed properly and the end was a complete mess, with no tension having been built up, and the conclusion just happens out of nowhere, leaving me wondering if a chapter or two had been missed out.

A disappointing end to a long and fruitful career.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book. It was Clarke's last book (mainly authored by another sci-fi great, Fred Pohl, from 50 pages of Clarke's notes) and kind of stands as an homage to his work and ideas - it has a "skyhook" space elevator based on Sri Lanka (Fountains of Paradise), the Grand Galactics (aliens who resemble the Monolith aliens from 2001), his hope that mankind will outgrow religion (an unreasonable expectation given that mankind has always expressed religious thoughts and it answers questions for people that science cannot), and his love for his adopted country of Sri Lanka, etc.

It basically has two seperate stories - one of the Grand Galactic aliens who detect humans' use of nuclear weapons and determine to exterminate them in the name of peace and one of the protagonist, Ranjit, a Sri Lankan man. The storylines intersect near the end of the book.

I found the Ranjit story to be the most compelling...it is just basically the life story of a young man - nothing special (except that he finds a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem using the mathematics available to Fermat at the time). This story chronicles his life in Sri Lanka, intersecting some current political elements over time (piracy of cruise ships by Somalis, imprisonment and torture, the Iraq War, etc.), his dissatisfaction with his work, his subsequent marriage, and family life...pretty mundane stuff, but it was extremely well written and I could identify with it. The parallel Grand Galactic story was more of an added bonus. The Ranjit story could have stood on its own (with some obvious tweaking of the end).

I didn't care for the portrayl of America as the bad guy at the end of the story...I'm afraid that Clarke's opinion of recent past American foreign policy has become his vision of America in the (near) future.

The ending was also a little too pat for me...everything tied up nicely. Aliens befriended the Terrans instead of obliterating them, a non-religious version of the Golden Rule was applied by humanity, humans discovered eternal life by downloading their counciousness into computers, and humans took over after 13,000 years the role of the Grand Galactics in manipulating time, space, and the evolution of the universe. Interestingly, Clarke (and Pohl) deal with a lot of spritual and religious issues for professed atheists.

It also has a lot of history, Sri Lankan culture, math, and hard science fiction (technological) elements, which I thought was wonderful. I learned a new way to calculate the number of combinations of a binomial system using binary numbers and how to multiply large numbers together by halfing and doubling the multiplicants and adding them (Egyptian or Russian multiplication). Some of the hard sci-fi elements include using boron to produce hydrogen powered cars (glossing over some of the problematic chemistry involved) and electromagnetic pulse weapons. Pretty interesting stuff.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overall, the word I'd use to describe this book is "shallow." Clarke and Pohl, two big names in SF, have managed to take two interesting concepts (Fermat's Last Theorem and alien sterilization of Earth) and turn them into a boring book. It's as if they said one day, "Well, we've succeeded at everything else in literature; now we have to succeed at writing a bad book!"

My major problem with the book is the lack of any consequences, or really, any conflict at all. At points the story threatens to inject a conflict--such as when Ranjit becomes an unwitting accomplice to pirates and subsequently spends two years being tortured in prison. For a moment, I thought that might produce some genuine unhappiness that could mar this otherwise oppressively upbeat book. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Even toward the end, tragedy loomed on at least three separate occasions, yet somehow everything turned out all right. It's not that I have a problem with happy endings; I loves me a good happy ending. But happiness without struggle against adversity is hollow. I've read much better science fiction than this--this book feels like it was written for a fourteen-year-old as a "My first science fiction novel"--it's patronizing.

Our "protagonist", if indeed we can call him that, Ranjit, stumbles through his life without ever having to make any important decisions. Everything just sort of falls serendipitously into place. Oh, and along the way he discovers a miraculously short proof to Fermat's Last Theorem. Meanwhile, alien overlords have sent alien minions to sterilize Earth of dangerous humanity. But it's OK, because the overlords change their minds and then the minions befriend humanity.

As with the possibilities of tragedy I mentioned above, the book tempts us with the prospect of a meaningful theme when it touches upon the dangerous nature of an EMP-like weapon controlled by "the Big Three"--Russia, China, and the United States. Will this lead to an Orwellian future in which these Big Three control the only military forces on the planet? And will first contact with an alien species ironically lead to all-out planetary war even as the countries of humanity approach global peace?

Nah. It's much easier to just tell us in an epilogue that everything worked out fine, and thirteen thousand years everything was still going fine.

I'd have to say that even The Da Vinci Code better integrated an esoteric academic subject than this book. I understand that not everyone loves math as much as me, so I tolerate the explanations of Fermat's Last Theorem. But it wasn't even interesting. It had no relevance to the plot, because there was no plot. And since this book had Arthur C. Clarke's name on the cover, this has been the cause of severe disappointment for me!

[Mohammad · Rating 5 out of 5]

اشتريت النسخة العربية من مكتبة ألف. الرواية بدأها آرثر سي كلارك كاتب الخيال العلمي الكبير، ثم لم يتمكن من اتمامها، فأرسل بها الى الكاتب فريدريك بول ليكملها، فرحب بالفكرة. أسلوب الرواية رشيق يتسم بالحماسة والخفة والشغف بالخيال العلمي. هذه أول رواية أقرأها لآرثر سي كلارك وأول رواية خيال علمي أهتم بقراءتها، لذا فليس عندي اطار مرجعي أقيم على أساسه مدى جودة هذه الرواية. الرواية أعجبتني كثيرا واستمتعت بها من الغلاف الى الغلاف وأعطيتها خمسة نجوم، ولكن بنظرة سريعة على الريفيوز تجد أن أغلب - ان لم يكن كل - الآراء سلبية وتتسم بخيبة أمل مقارنة بأعماله المشهورة مثل سلسلة سبايس أوديسي.

الحكاية تبدأ بهذا الشاب السريلانكي العبقري الشغوف بالمعادلات الرياضية. وتروي لنا أنه بدأ دراسته الجامعية، وأثناء اجازته بدأ في مساعدة امرأة وحيدة في العناية بأبنائها، لينتهي به الأمر مقيدا في سفينة سطا عليها القراصنة! بعد فترة ينتهي حبسه في السفينة، ليبدأ حبس آخر في مكان غير معروف تابع لاحدى الحكومات التي لا تصادق على قوانين حقوق المعتقلين، فتمارس ضده أشكال التعذيب ظنا منهم أنه أحد القراصنة. أثناء وجوده في المعتقل، يتوصل فجأة لحل النظرية الأخيرة التي ادعى أحد الرياضيون المشاهير أنه توصل الى اثباتها ولكن لم ينشر هذا الاثبات تاركا الرياضيون من بعده في حيرة شديدة بين من يحاول التوصل الى الاجابة وبين من يقول أن الأمر كله كان خدعة. يفاجأ الفتى بالسجانين يطلقون سراحه، وي��ود الى بلده لينشر حله للنظرية الأخيرة ويكسب شهرة كبيرة وأموال كثيرة. أثناء ذلك عظماء المجرة يراقبون الأمر من بعيد... حتى الآن القصة لم تبدأ. الأمور الغامضة المختلطة بالخيال العلمي الخصب تبدأ من هذه النقطة.

[Jon Norimann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Theorem is a bit of everything. It's a story about Sri Lanka, about life as a young student, about the world political order, about aliens, about space colonization, about mathematics and then some. As it's so broad and just a few hundred pages long it lacks a bit in depth here and there but overall its a nice read.

[Keith Stevenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the sublime to the not so. And it really pains me to say that. Arthur C Clarke died last year and it was a great loss indeed. It’s hard to imagine a more famous science fiction author and one who had such a prestigious career. So when ‘the final novel from SF grandmaster Arthur C Clarke’, as the shout line went across the cover of The Last Theorem, came through the letterbox, and I saw that Clarke had co-written it with Frederik Pohl, another significant talent, I though, ‘Wow, this is going to be special.’

The fact is that — pretty much from page one — it wasn’t, and as I read further and my hopes of any improvement were dashed I became saddened and really rather annoyed. I was sad because I no longer saw the spark of brilliance, the unique ideas that characterised Clarke’s work. He was always a bit dodgy on characterisation, but it was the development and explanation of the science at the core of his work that drove you on through his novels. The Last Theorem is a rambling tale where not a great deal in the way of science fiction actually happens, and when it does, it certainly isn’t startling or new.

The story concerns Ranjit Subramanian a young student living in Sri Lanka who takes up mathematics at university and goes on to get married, have kids and solve Fermat’s last theorem which makes him rather famous. Meanwhile some aliens who don’t like Earth developing nuclear weapons, let alone using them, send a destruction fleet to do what destruction fleets do best. The whole story is told in what I think was meant to be a light-hearted jokey way which just comes over as a bit condescending and supercilious. It’s also ‘told’ rather than ‘shown’, despite the age old law of Creative Writing 101, which only serves to do what such an approach always does — distances the reader and robs us of the detail, the immersive experience, to really go with the narrative. There’s also a kind of fifties sensibility running through the book that I really didn’t like. Most women don’t rate a second name and the more ‘developed’ women characters are devoted to their men and know their place. At one point Ranjit’s friend turns up with flowers for his wife and a bottle of whisky for him and Ranjit to drink. I cringed in the background somewhere. As to the science fictional aspects, as you might guess from above, they are lacking in originality. Indeed Clarke basically rips off himself, recycling his skyhook idea from his earlier The Fountains of Paradise and using a mechanism for the aliens to communicate with mankind straight out of 2010: Odyssey Two. This is not a fitting capstone for a lifetime of achievement, and that is what saddens me.

What annoys me is that the publishers went ahead and published it. I am not party to any conversations around how that decision came about. The only reasons that come to mind are they didn’t know or realise that as a piece of writing it sucked or they didn’t care because it was going to sell a boatload anyway or they were asked/ compelled by Clarke’s estate or there was some other legal requirement. I hope there is some other, saner reason.

The other thing that annoys me is that this book is being pushed and pushed hard in the shops. That means that readers who may not have read in the genre before will pick it up as it is purportedly one of the best books by one of our best authors and they will get a totally wrong idea of what we are actually about. Let’s move on to a happier subject.

[Iulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poate fiindcă am citit-o în limba română, poate fiindcă am văzut de curând 2001: A Space Odyssey pe marele ecran şi mă aşteptam la o poveste cu aceeaşi rezonanţă psiho-intelectuală, sau poate fiindcă trec printr-o fază în care, poate în mod nedrept, nu consider simplitatea ca fiind o valoare – Ultima Teoremă mi s-a părut o carte prea uşoară în raport cu aşteptările mele. Nu mi-a trezit emoţii sau idei pe care nu le-am mai avut; nu a strălucit cu nimic. Personajele sunt prea ideale ca să prindă contur sau ca să pot să mă identific cu ele – nu mi-i pot imagina pe membrii familiei Subramanian altfel decât cu chipuri perfecte ca în reclame, fără nicio zgârietură literară. Diversele specii de fiinţe cu care se întrepătrunde destinul omenirii în această carte nu au nimic remarcabil – iar Marii Galactici nu reuşesc să prindă o aură transcendentă.

E o lectură plăcută pentru cine doreşte o lectură plăcută. Dar mie-mi place să fiu impresionată. Aşa că n-am să-i dau acestei cărţi mai mult de trei stele.

[Sean Rourke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love both these guys. They're unquestionably masters of their craft, and two of the greatest luminaries of science fiction. Having said that, this book is...well...very mediocre. I went on Wikipedia to find out if maybe something was going on during the development of the book, and it turns out that Arthur C Clarke was in the late stages of his life when he started this one. He owed his publisher a book, but hit a point where he felt like he just couldn't generate the ideas anymore. So, he reached out to his friend, Frederik Pohl, and asked if he could finish the thing. Frederik would write chapters and send them to Clarke, who would approve them as his health was failing. The result is a story that starts off pretty strong, but then just kinda descends into a weird sort of short hand where the human race goes into space, good things happen, aliens show up, and everything turns out great.

So yeah, all praise to the men involved, but it definitely came across as an orphaned project.

[ياسر · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتب محامي فرنسي في القرن السابع عشر على حاشية كتاب يقول:
اكتشفت برهانًا رائعًا حقًا لهذه الفرضية، لكن الهامش لا يتسع.
كان المحامي هو بيير دو فيرما، ولم ير أحد برهانه حتى الآن لهذه المسألة الشهيرة ( التي سنلقي عليها الضوء بعد قليل).
ومن وقتها إلى الآن لم يتوصل أي رياضي لحل مقبول من جميع الرياضيين حول هذه المسألة. إلى أن أتى «رانجيت» بطل روايتنا الذي توصل لخل هذه المسألة في برهان من ثلاث صفحات، أثبت صحة نظرية فيرما التي لم يكتب برهانها. ثم تبدأ بعد ذلك أحداث رواية «النظرية الأخيرة» في التصاعد.
استخدم كلارك كثافة التفاصيل العلمية كعادته في رواياته، فقد كانت هناك معلومات تاريخية ورياضية عن نظرية فيرما الأخيرة، وعن كواكب المجموعة الشمسية وظروف الحياة فيها، وعن المركبات التي أرسلها البشر لفضاء المجموعة الشمسية.
وكان هناك أيضًا الكثير حول التشفير وطرقه وتاريخه. ومصاعد الفضاء المستقبلية وسفن الفضاء وسباقات تجري بينها كنوع من أنواع الألعاب الأوليمبية. و بالشراع الشمسي الذي سيُستخدم في السفن الفضائية مُستقبلًا، عن طريق استغلال الضغط الناشيء عن ضوء الشمس في تسيير السفن الفضائية. واستخدمت تلك الأشرعة (في الرواية) في سباقات للسفن الفضائية.
واستخدم كلارك إسقاطات على البشر خلال تحذير مستقبلي من عدة أحداث جسام تنتج مثلا عن تآكل طبقة الأوزون.
وسخر المؤلفان من الأوضاع السياسية في العالم، والصراعات، حتى العربية منها مثل الصراع السني الشيعي في العراق تحديدًا إذ أن الرواية كُتبت بعد الغزو الأمريكي للعراق الذي كان سببًا رئيسيًا لتفجر الأزمة. كذلك انتقاد سياسة كوريا الشمالية.
ربما الشيء الواضح جدًا هو متابعة البطل للأحداث السياسية متابعة يقصد منها المؤلفان توضيح حدثًا تاليًا.

واتضحت بعض الأبعاد الدينية في الرواية في نقطتين رئيسيتين وهما: ديانة البطل نفسه ووجهة نظره في الدبن بوجه عام، والنقطة الأبرز والأعمق بخصوص الدين ظهرت في أواخر الرواية في حدث (لا أريد أن أحرقه) وتبين نفسية البشر في التعلق بالأمور الروحية والغيبية، وأن الإنسان يبحث عن شيء -أي شي- يؤمن به، ويستمر في وضع روابط دينية بين أي سياق ودينه واعتقاده.
إذ بات مشغولًا تمامًا بفهم الغموض الذي يكتنف المعادلة أ(تربيع) + ب(تربيع)= ج(تربيع)، والمفارقة التي تقول أنه حال تكعيب هذه القيم لن يتساوى طرفا المعادلة أبدًا.
لا أكذب عليكم، الرواية في بدايتها كانت مثيرة ومحمسة جدًا، لكن مع الدخول في تفاصيل الأحداث وجدت تركيزًا من الكتّاب على أحداث جانبيه لا تهم، ولا تؤثر في مجرى الأحداث، مما قلل من الإثارة كثيرًا.
وعلى الرغم من عدم وجود أحداث مثيرة كثيرة، فقد أكملت الرواية وكنتُ مستمتعًا بذلك، ولا أعرف كيف. وربما تكون هذه أوّل مرة أقرأ رواية باستمتاع مع أنني لا أرى فيها أي أحداث مثيرة أو مشوقة!

في خاتمة الرواية وضح فريدريك بول بعض النقاط في رحلة كتابة تلك الرواية، أذكرها لكم في نقاط:
١- كلارك اشتد عليه المرض قبل الانتهاء من كتابة الرواية وكانت ملاحظاته عليها مقتضبة بعد تكملة بول لها، مما قد يوضح بعض الضعف في الرواية، فأنا شخصيًا لا أرى كيف يمكن أن يبدأ أحدهم رواية وينهيها آخر دون أن يكون الأوّل ملمًا تمامًا بما كتب الثاني.
٢- ذكر بول أيضًا ملحوظة في غاية الأهمية، وربما يكون أوّل كاتب خيال علمي يوضح الأخطاء العلمية في روايته في ملحق في نهاية الرواية.
وأستغل هذه الفرصة لأوضح أن رواية الخيال العلمي لا تقاس بجودتها أبدًا بصحة المعلومات فيها، بعكس ما يعتقد الكثير من القرّاء. في أغلب الأحوال يعتمد الكاتب على خطأ علمي ليضيف إلى قصته عنصر الإبهار، فيقول بول:
الكاتب يضطر في بعض الأحيان إلى أن يتيح لنفسه مساحة من الحرية العلمية، وإلا لن تُحقق الرواية مفادها.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why, when two great writers work together on a project, the result is so poor? Same happened with The Medusa Chronicles by Al Reynolds and Stephen Baxter. But this one is even worse.

I expected some hard sci-fi and what I got was the story of a young man (obsessed with proving Fermat's Last Theorem), with a lot of useless details and digressions, which did nothing to shape the character or help the storyline in some way. And this was just one thread.

The other is the story of some aliens, the Grand Galactics, some kind of masters in the universe, which after discovering that on Earth were detonated a lot of atomic bombs, sent another species of aliens, One Point Fives, to obliterate the Earth. There are some other species too, but I still wonder why were they introduced in the story for their contribution is rather secondary.

Maybe is sounds interesting but it isn’t. All those details about Ranjit’s life are way too many and pointless. Although he is a math genius, he is involved in some actions which are very hard to believe. The story abounds in lots of facts and tricks from number theory, some indeed interesting but most of them are there just to fill the pages.

The whole novel seems to have, at least for me, an air of mocking; not sure if it was desired to be a political satire, or just seems so because of the childish plot, cartoonish alien characters and the simple writing. Furthermore, I couldn’t suspend the disbelief. Not a single main action in the story seemed plausible to me. Yes, it’s fiction but I rather believe in FTL speed being real than in the events Ranjit was involved in. Not to mention that after building Skyhook (the space elevator) and tourists being able to travel to the Moon, the first thing it was done was a sport competition…

It also has bits and pieces from other works and movies, the most evident to me being A Beautiful Mind (Ranjit & Robert’s characters having a lot something from John Nash) and the original A Meeting with Medusa (the orbital race to the Moon in the sail space ships). I can’t point the finger exactly which are others but most certainly this story has nothing original in it.

The one thing that kept me finishing it was the curiosity on how it ended and how proving Fermat’s Last Theorem fits the plot – well, it didn’t. Or I missed the point…
The feeling now is that I have read a story written in the beginning of sci-fi era, not in 2008. Really disappointing. The translation didn’t help either, but that’s another story and not the authors' fault.

Two stars for the number tricks.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written by two great, but very old, authors.It shows. Half of the book is Clarke and Pohl,often ignoring the 4th Wall, telling the story of a young mathematician in the manner of two benevolent grandfathers who're trying to impress their grandkids by throwing random mathematical tricks (some of them pretty neat, tbh) and info in the plot.In the other half they're dreaming of a world where the UN, with Sri-Lanka as the vanguard (!!) can bring about world peace, where Clarke's dream of the space elevator can come true simply because it's a great idea, and humanity, having ridded itself of conflicts, can focus on hosting olympics in space. Somewhere along the way there's a rather small alien invasion of sorts. And Ferma, who wonders why he's in the title.
Nothing wrong with hoping for a bright and glorious tomorrow for mankind a few days before you died, mr Clarke, but we, left behind, cynically see your naïveté. You already wrote this book when you were younger and it was better in its bleakness.

[Brian Beatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several reviews that didn't compliment this book, but I loved it. Reasons:
1) it is relatable. Even though it focuses on societies and people I am not necessarily part of, there is a common humanism and joy of curiosity that just drew me in. The integrity of the central characters was also a big draw.
2) it is very subtley sci-fi. Yes, aliens are absolutely sci-fi, but that is a very small part of it. The story of the main characters is largely independent of the alien part for much of the book, and that is good and important to the value of the story.
Some of this is also captured in the futurism of it, and how things and technology turn out.
3) Optimism. The story teeters on potential disaster repeatedly, but despite that it isn't a dystopian story. I can't help but feel glad, satisfied, and hungry for more of this, as it makes me feel like something good lies in the future.

[Elly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was, especially at the beginning, not at all what I expected. It was mostly a novel about a young man growing up, and not much mathematics, or science fiction in evidence. There is a second, smaller, storyline that is interwoven within this story which is very much sf. But in the end it was a very nice story, and I am happy to have read it.
One thing I missed: the actual 5 page proof of the theorem. It would have been so nice to read that... But given that the actual proof is 150 pages long, a short version will not be first published in an sf novel.

BTW I actally read the e-book in the Mobipocket format, not the hardcover.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

From what I have read Frederick Pohl actually wrote this book based on a few notes from a dying Arthur Clarke.

Pohl managed to turn this book into a tribute to Clarke's best known work including, but probably not limited to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, and Fountain's of Paradise.

There is an alien race in this novel called the One-Point-Fives which reminds me of the Daleks from Dr. Who. I'm not sure that Clarke was fan, but I do remember seeing a photo of him posing with a Dalek. Perhaps Pohl saw the same photo.

[Satyr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Clarke || Pohl = Good
Clarke && Pohl = Bad

[will · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't even like, viscerally dislike this. slow burn and not very much of it was especially enjoyable. would have been three stars if it was 40% shorter (which it really really should have been)

[Michael Kott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not only a terrible mess, it's a terrible story. Hated it Deserves NO stars.

[Maximilian Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with all Arthur C. Clarke stories, this one has perfect story-telling, exciting characters, and a beautiful link to the scientific boundaries, and satisfaction is guaranteed.

[Prashanth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I respect Mr. Clarke, I really do. And, I like some of his books. Unfortunately, not this one.

The story line follows the travails of one Ranjit, a mathematical genius, from being a kid through his days of glory after solving "Fermat's Last Theorem", and his daughter's (ahem) alien abduction. I remember Mr. Asimov somewhere saying that a story for kids proceeds at breakneck pace, and adult fiction cannot do so. The story here finds the pace somewhere in that category. In summary:
1. Ranjit does some mathematics, and has some tricks up his sleeve
2. He has some powerful friends, and does stupid things like running away on a boat
3. He spends some time in jail, and solves a unsolvable theorem (which by the way is solved, but no one seems to like the proof because it is too complex)
4. Ranjit now settles down in Sri Lanka, and has kids. One of them can sail in space
5. The kid gets abducted by an advanced alien race, who seem to be too afraid of earth's nuclear abilities
6. All's well at the end. Everyone gets to transfer into some sort of galaxy discovering thingy and death is just the next level

Meanwhile, the parts that are not quite well explained are also moving fast:
1. Space elevator (yay!)
2. One-point-fives and some other alien brothers
3. All the earth's problems - incl. North Korea, and other such entertaining stories


Yes, the stories have been told more than a few times. It gets completely boring to almost expect what happens next. I could not empathize with anyone, almost wished Ranjit would just vanish from the jail, and the aliens kindly bomb us into oblivion. Full of details that does not entertain, does not add value, and loose ends that is outright obnoxious, how I wish for a better sci fi novel. This ain't even close.

[Iary · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Last Theorem... also known as ”Will the aliens EVER reach Earth?”

What is the point of this book? What is the point of the main character? What is the point of the aliens?

I had the feeling that Sir Clarke wanted another kind of Childhood's End, but, unfortunately, somewhere between his and Mr. Pohl's contribution, things got really lost. The first part was actually good. Between Ranjit's angsty teenage years, the kidnapping and solving Fermat's famous last theorem, it represented the strong bit... but then things mellowed, as Ranjit apparently forgot his feelings for his best friend and decidedly turned straight. Oooooh, there goes the angst. Then the US forces wanted him to work for them... except he never did any kind of work... just sat about in an office and signed some pointless papers. Then he got back home and kind of mooched off family friends; he had kids, one of whom got even more famous than her dad... and then the aliens finally came... and nothing happened... again!

At least half of this book is filled with Subramanian domesticity, most of which is so unreal it pained me to go through tens of pages on pregnancy and baby-rearing and sitting around, watching TV and exchanging thoughts on international politics. At times, it felt like watching a Hallmark movie, but with aliens coming home for Christmas, instead of a prodigal offspring. Not to mention that, in the end, we don't actually understand why Mr. Subramanian was so important in the whole scheme of things.... Just ugh...


For a more detailed and slightly academic review, drop by:
Ze Blog

[Sud666 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Last Theorem was a joint work by Arthur Clarke and Frederik Pohl. I expected it to be better. While not awful the story seems disjointed. I don't know if that is due to each author doing a different part (Clarke for the aliens and Pohl for the Ranjit parts? I don't know merely guessing) and the two parts don't really seem to mix.

There are two stories here. One is Ranjit's struggles to solve Fermat's Theorem and his "biography", while the second concurrent story is about aliens coming to destroy the Earth. Ostensibly the stories merge together, but it is an awkward merge. They seem like two separate stories. This is by no means bad, but it seemed disappointing.

I won't spoil any of the plot. Ranjit's look into math and the tricks he teaches are interesting and the aliens and their masters the Grand Galactics could have been very interesting bt it never really came to pass.

Each story by itself might have done better. The attempt to combine the math prodigy with the alien invasion into one story arc doesn't really seem to come about. The ending (even if you consider it a "twist") was merely a "meh" and Ranjit's Theorem seems to fall by the wayside.

A decent sci-fi story. Considering the authors I expected so much more.

[Phoenix · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Last of the the Old Wine

Here both Clarke and Pohl revisit some of their perennial themes. In the case of Clarke its that of ancient intelligences watching in puzzlement over a humanity on the brink of either extinction or adulthood; with Pohl it's his fascination with the "Machine Stored" and the decay of other non-human civilizations. There was some novelty in terms of Clarke's examination of 21st century Sri Lanka though the eyes of his protagonist the largely self taught mathematician Ranjit Subramainian but both Clarke and Pohl have mined the same vein before, in Clarke's 2001/Childhood's End and for Pohl in the HeeChee Gateway series.

Its not the best that either have done but it was an enjoyable read like spending an afternoon meeting with old and dear friends, with the foreknowledge that this may be their last time. There are a couple of mathematical parlour tricks and one gets the sense of the drive and joy of pure mathematics in the pursuit of a solution to Fermat's Theorem that, unlike Wiles proof, would use the tools available to Fermat himself, or pure applied science in the subplot concerning the space elevator.

I rather liked it.

[Andrea Bampi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Merita di essere letto anche solo perchè è l'ultimo progetto a cui abbia lavorato Clarke. Per il resto, pur essendo sicuramente godibile e ben scritto, fa veramente fatica a decollare.
La sensazione è che gli autori abbiano voluto un pà strafare, il contesto è da Space Opera, lo span temporale è di due generazioni, c'è un pò tutto l'armamentario classico della SF (operazione anche piacevole, innumerevoli le autocitazioni) ma per 300 pagine forse c'è un pò troppa carne al fuoco. Inoltre il vero difetto, secondo me, è l'evidente mancanza di collegamento tra i plot principali (presumibilmente scritti separatamente dagli autori): come prima (e ultima, purtroppo) prova a quattro mani tra ACC e FP, il mix di ingredienti, pur buoni se presi singolarmente, non è riuscito benissimo. In particolare tutto il "subplot" relativo al Teorema di Fermat (da cui anche il titolo) è simpatico ma alquanto fine a sè stesso, nonostante la vana speranza di una trovata geniale nel finale.
Peccato... in ogni caso, grazie a Arthur Clarke... per tutto

[Doren Damico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book. The particulars that stood out for me:

As a writer, I liked how the big story wrapped around the single character. I enjoyed the light-hearted descriptions of dangerous things--all just part of this adventure called 'life'. I enjoyed how the writers preambles offered insight into their mathematical interests and connected the reader to the personal value of the writing.

I learned some cool math tricks that made me want to study and do more math. The way the aliens in the universe were described and developed was interesting to me. A whole universe of complexity and hierarchy done simply with only a few interesting details. The 'hard' science of the space sling, and discussions of travel through space were fun, as well. But this was mixed with quite a bit of conjecture--aptly noted as outside the boundaries of conceived science--regarding some of the alien physiology and technology.

Arthur C. Clark has great stories, and Pohl Anderson does a lovely and engaging job of expanding on it.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book quite enjoyable and unique. I learned a bit about Sri Lanka (Arthur C. Clarke's home for the last decades of his life) and some fun facts about number theory, from these two famous old science fiction writers (Clarke and Pohl). I liked that the main characters (both husband and wife) are Sri Lankan nerds who achieve success, although the book wasn't entirely free of sexism. In a wide-ranging plot Clarke took the opportunity to slip in many of his ideas about how the near future should look, including a space elevator, Olympics competitions on the moon, and a possible way to resolve the endless wars within and between Earth's nations. For me this book was an appropriate coda for Clarke's science fiction career - his last book, since it was published in 2008, the year he died. It's not clear if the book was a partnership with Frederick Pohl from the beginning or if Clarke died before it was published and Pohl oversaw the final stages of the book publication.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Given how highly I've held both authors in regard, I was expecting an incredible read. Instead, I found a boring, insipid story about a South Asian family. I'd like to recommend this to South Asian friends and colleagues, but I cannot. Containing very little "science," the book reads like a regular fiction novel by an aspiring author. Fortunately (I guess...) for Mr. Clarke, one of the postambles (there are 5!) suggested that Mr. Pohl did most of the writing, from Mr. Clarke's notes.

The cover quotes Publisher's Weekly as saying, "A can't put down adventure." Did they read the same book? I couldn't put it down fast enough, and was truely glad that it was over.