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    3001: The Final Odyssey
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    3001: The Final Odyssey
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    3001: The Final Odyssey
    Audiobook6 hours

    3001: The Final Odyssey

    Written by Arthur C. Clarke

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    In 3001: The Final Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke brings the greatest and most successful science fiction series of all time to its magnificent, stunningly unforeseen conclusion. As we hurtle toward the new millennium in real time, Clarke brilliantly, daringly leaps one thousand years into the future to reveal a truth we are only now capable of comprehending. An epic masterpiece at once dazzlingly imaginative and grounded in scientific actuality, 3001 is a story that only Arthur C. Clarke could tell.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 12, 2012
    ISBN9780449806807
    Author

    Arthur C. Clarke

    Born in Somerset in 1917, Arthur C. Clarke has written over sixty books, among which are the science fiction classics ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’, ‘Childhood’s End’, ‘The City and the Stars’ and ‘Rendezvous With Rama’. He has won all the most prestigious science fiction trophies, and shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of the film of 2001. He was knighted in 1998. He passed away in March 2008.

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    Reviews for 3001

    3/5

    904 ratings31 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Lightweight futurism, plus an alien threat. The notes at the end, justifying the predictions through the current state of the science or engineering, are conscientious and interesting.
    • 2/5
      Too many problems with this book to go more than two stars. Science fiction imagines futures...distant, disconnected futures and sometimes alternate futures with familiar elements. Frank Herbert did a good job taking a disconnected reality and jumping it forward 4,000 years. Stephen Donaldson also did a good job when he wrote the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (also 4,000 years forward in that fantasy universe). Clarke was ambitious in trying to take his Odyssey saga 1,000 years into the future...but he didn't do it well.

      Because he resurrected a dead Poole (sorry, couldn't resist, though I don't read comics)he spent a lot of time trying to acclimate the reader through Poole to his imagined future. The first part of the book seemed to be a What's What of Clarke's Bucket Wish List for what he hoped would happen to humanity. Because he was tied to an alternate past and (I'm guessing) wanted to connect the reader to his future, he dropped a lot of 20th century anchors that really hurt in a cliche way that was beneath Clarke. Star Trek? please. I'm sure Roddenberry would be flattered that space captains 1,000 years from now would not only know what Star Trek was, but had watched it. A thousand years from now??!! That's where Clarke really stooped to an early Stephen King level...product placement is unbecoming to a grandmaster.

      And language... We're to believe that someone awakened from a 1,000 year frozen death would only have a marginal difficulty understanding the language? 400 year old English has numerous differences from modern English and 1,0000 years ago, English was in the waning years of Old English, making its way into Middle English, which is pretty unintelligible to us. Ray Kurzweil has had limited luck predicting technological advances more than 10 years out (unless you ask him...he thinks 60-80%) - I would think rather than trying to nail 1,000 years down the road it would be easier to just not try to connect with current technologies.

      I'm not even going to go into the Independence Day bit (that came out three years before this did...did he not know?), and I thought the hat tip to Asimov cute (Susan Calvin...).

      So, it's not worth picking all the low hanging fruit on this one. It was just okay and a sad conclusion to an okay series.
    • 1/5
      If "2001" the movie is perhaps the greatest film of all time, there is an undeniable symbolic irony that "3001: The Final Odyssey" is perhaps the worst book ever written. It was impossible to beliee that the mind who invented such a cornerstone of science fiction could somehow have fathomed this unmitigated disaster... until the writer's afterword explains how all of his previous books have been coauthored while this was the first one he ever wrote alone. Even if this were the crudest fan fiction, it is mind-boggling that the writer's friends, editors, etc. could allow him to print such a blasphemous defamation of this classic legacy. Where to begin? The author must've struggled to find enough to say as this lightweight tome barely escapes orbit from a novella, weighing in at a measly 180 pages. The first half of the book is dedicated to an awestruck protagonist swooning at the magic of the future, one that's so juvenile in its conception that dinosaurs are babysitters while virtual reality is used to fly with scantily-clad women riding dragons. The book is pathetically anachronistic, dating itself by marveling at the wonders of the pocket calculator. The writing is dreadfully uneven as it meanders around a poor pastiche of strange logs, stage conversations or plain old piss-poor prose. Yet in the end the plot is a poor reject from the most cliched Hollywood story about aliens, and NONE of the headier ideas demonstrated in the first installment are on display anywhere. Why, I even had to reread the entire ending to be sure that I caught the most sudden and anticlimactic conclusion ever committed to paper. In conclusion, this book is very bad.
    • 4/5
      As a novel, 2001 is by far the best of the series, the other books simply relay certain events of a future that is completely believeable and realistic. As individual books, though, the sequels are lagging in the quality department, relative to 2001. That one should be required reading for anyone who considers themselves a SF fan, but the sequels exist only for the readers interested enough to see what a genius like Clark can imagine.3001 is the best of the sequels, as it shows the difficulty of someone removed from their time and forced into a new one. Astronaut Frank Poole ('killed' in 2001 by the computer HAL in 2001)is found drifting, Buck Rogers style, in an orbit out near Neptune. He is rescued by a comet wrangler, out nudging icy comets towards the sun to harvest their water in a project to terraform Venus, and resuscitated a thousand years after his 'death'. The story is rather humdrum, but Clarke always has an interesting idea working, even if it doesn't make for the most gripping of stories.An odd thing to quantify, how to phrase a recommendation of the series. They are good stories from a great imagination, but if SF isn't your cup of tea then the sequels are honestly best left at the bookstore. They are simply a vehicle for his idea of a future world of space faring and space living humans, really.
    • 4/5
      While better than 2061, this book is still not as good as the 1st 2 (2001 & 2010). It provides more insight into the monolith and Europa, but the story is only loosely connected to the original books (which Clarke readily admits).
    • 4/5
      A great ending to the series. This book, along with 2001, gave me more to think about than the other books in the series, gave me more insight into theoretical technology and had the most interesting character story of them all. The epigraph at the end of the book filled me with an eery insecurity as a human after reading all of the bold moves mankind made in this series (and in real human history).
    • 3/5
      This one left me feeling a little disappointed. I greatly enjoyed the first three, but just didn't enjoy this one as much.
    • 4/5
      As with the first three (2001,2010,2061), 3001 is a fun read that was written for the inquisitive mind wanting a glimpse into the possible future. Clarke doesn't just paint you a picture of magical technologies, he delves deeper and gives explanations for how they work and why they were developed. This feeds the craving I often have with futuristic novels to learn the science behind fantastical inventions.As a story this isn't the most exciting book in the series and I found the ending to be rather lacklustre. Without giving anything away, the ending felt forced and implausible given the context of the entire series. That said, I enjoyed being brought back into the 2001 universe and I feel like the series ended where it should have ended.
    • 2/5
      A disappointing end to the otherwise excellent Space Odyssey series. If you've read the other three you should read, if only because it presents an interesting conclusion to the saga.Unfortunately it's not good as a stand-alone novel.
    • 4/5
      I liked this almost as much as 2001! A really fun take on the man from the past dropped into the future story. I was so glad he didn't actually kill Frank. That was just such an evil way to die.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful ending to the four volume series, even if it has a Hollywoodish ending. But hey! Would anyone REALLY want mankind wiped out by those transcendental beings who gave us intelligence through the monoliths? larke is nearing his mortal end, and the simplism of the writing and shortness of the chapters shows this. Too bad as another sequel, say, 5001; another galaxy, could have sprung from D Bowman's statement: "I don't want to talk about it, but a couple of times I thought I felt two or three intelligences that were even greater than the one I belong to."
    • 5/5
      Frank Poole was killed in 2001, and here, 1000- years later, he is revived!A superb book!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this series. Arthur C. Clarke is pretty much my favorite sci-fi writer, well at least he was when I was younger. I say that because this was probably the last sci-fi non-Star Trek book I have read. I'm glad that I have added this to the list because it reminds me how much I enjoyed his books.
    • 1/5
      Largely unintelligible - a disappointing sequel. Doesn't seem to bare any relation to previous Odyssey books, other than the name "Frank Poole"
    • 1/5
      My initial reaction to 3001 is "Do not waste your time with this piece of tripe." The plot is thin at best, the presumptions of the future by the author are idealistic, and the characters are two dimensional. However, if you are a fan of this 2001, 2010, and 2064, you might want to read this just because it provides a nice and tidy wrap up to the series.
    • 3/5
      My main quibble is the preachiness. Yes, a LOT of science fiction is preachy, but it doesn't have to be in your face about it. And the fact that I agreed with much of what he was preaching about didn't help. It was still annoying.
    • 4/5
      A thrilling conclusion to the series that ends all to soon. I feel an investment into this story that I've not felt in a while.
    • 2/5
      Alternates between repetitive (several chapters are pretty much copied and pasted from previous books) and really freaking weird (gardening velociraptors anyone?). Maybe I'm not a match for sci-fi.
    • 5/5
      And everything is explained and tied up in a bow.
    • 1/5
      [July 27, 1997] If anyone suggests you read this book, just say NO! Why? How about: NO plot, NO characterization, NO answers, NO drama, NO tension, and above all:

      NO sense of wonder! Of all the books I would have loved to see convey a sense of wonder over the mysteries of the universe, this would be it. A very disappointing Cincinnati-to-San-Francisco-on-Delta read.
    • 1/5
      I couldn't finish it. Looking back I should have stopped with this series at 2001.
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining final sequel to 2001, it brings back to life the astronaut who was killed by Hal while doing an EVA!
    • 3/5
      Not as enjoyable as the previous novels, but a nice way to wrap up the series.
    • 4/5
      As the ending to the series, this was okay. It was a bit slow. Lots of leading up to the climax, and then all the action took place in about 2 pages, and then, it was just a clean-up effort for the characters. I felt there could have been more action and less scientific explanation of things with no bearing on the plot. And yet, for all this, it is a strangely satisfying last chapter to the entire series. I can't explain it. But, I would recommend reading this one, and the three before it.
    • 4/5
      A great conclusion to an awesome series of books. I love the picture Clarke paints of the future, although some ideas are obviously "vintage" (like the Braincap). Must read for anyone interested in science (fiction).
    • 4/5
      Lords of the galaxy rove at will as energy with no body restraints. Never human they did seek fellowship in the stars with the power they possessed. They encountered life throughout the worlds and watched the faint sparks of intelligence die in the great cosmos. Planting life they valued mind above all. They reaped and weeded life forms dispassionately. Ages had passed as they returned to earth they began to study, catalog and modify the destiny of life forms. Now they set goals of their own, not being immune to the corruptions of time they use memory. Their indifference through science may exclude plans for a future. This well written book endures time and steps into the future with striking insight.
    • 2/5
      A poorly written vehicle for some more of Clarke's technological future-gazing. The format is just another take on H. G. Wells's The Sleeper Wakes using the 2001 astronaut Frank Poole as the central character. The author confesses to what I instantly spotted - that five of the chapters are lifted from earlier books in the sequence. An afterword traces the sequence from the original short story written in 1948: it's a pity that, other than updating of technology, the style of the prose is still stuck in 1948.MB 14-vi-2013
    • 2/5
      The elements that make "2001: A Space Odyssey" a classic -- the pacing, dramatic tension, smartly efficient plot lines -- are mostly missing from Arthur C. Clarke's "Space Odyssey" finale, "3001". What it retains is Clarke's obvious exuberance for biological, technological and cultural evolution. Each book in the series represents an evolution in itself even, of Clarke's own perspective and thinking on the growth of humanity overtime, while providing a platform for his reflections on extraterrestrial life and evolution.This story follows Frank Poole, murdered by the omnipresent HAL in "2001", found preserved and alive after floating in the cold vacuum of space for 1000 years. It's through Frank's eyes, mind and mouth that Clarke exposes his views on the future. Religion is no more; and technology is the new religion. And while technological advancement has skyrocketed beyond Poole's own age, one character comments that "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Poole doesn't understand it, but has faith enough to accept it.In connecting this story to the previous three novels, Clarke writes in a couple 'guest appearances' by David Bowman and HAL - now a single entity called Halman. They appear, literally and figuratively, as mere shadows of their former selves. Poole's character, and the smattering of future humans he interacts with, are not nearly enough to carry the story itself, however.In tying up loose ends, we learn more about the entities that sent the Monolith's to earth as well. Much of this is speculated in the previous novels so don't really count as 'spoilers':"And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everhwere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.""For years they studied, collected, catalogued. When they had learned all that they could, they began to modify. They tinkered with the destiny of many species, on land and in the seeas. But which of their experiments would bear fruit, they could not know for a least a million years. They were patient."The last two novels in the "Space Odyssey" series are weak; are really no more than long novellas (about 200 pages) and do little to build on the mythology started in "2001". Unless you feel compelled to 'complete' the Clarke's quadrility, you miss out on little by reading only "2001" and it's very strong sequel "2010".

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      3001 isn’t a terrible story, but it does fall way short of 2001 and 2010. The storytelling doesn’t have the same resonance and the plot itself was forced and felt unnecessary. The humanity feels like it has been stripped away. There is no longer any mystery to the fates of Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, nor is there any sense of danger. It seems that 3001 was an attempt to resurrect the series after the flat reception of 2061. Instead, it is simply a continuation of a once great story that has fallen into mediocrity.
    • 3/5
      Earlier this year I made a vow to read all of the Space Odyssey books before 2010. By golly I did it. I was warned that the last two were rather lackluster, and while 2061 struck me as rather perfunctory I did enjoy reading 3001 : the final odyssey even if it did meander and then come to a shuddering halt like a stalled car. I am not a fan of transhumanist, post-scarcity speculative fiction particularly if everyone has abandoned their bodies and are living in some computer server somewhere. Iain Banks and his Culture novels were the sole exception to the genre that I sought out. 3001 is transhumanism with a light hand giving the reader Clarkes’ idea of what the far-flung Third Millennium might look like. Here we find Frank Poole, that guy in the yellow spacesuit that HAL 9000 murdered in the first book floating out in the Kuiper Belt. His corpse is rescued by a deep space mining ship (nice touch) and revitalized after a thousand years by advanced medicine. Through Poole we see how humanity has advanced and expanded through the solar system. Many things I found interesting, such as superstructure of spaceports surrounding the earth, tethered at the Equator by four space elevators. Most people have a chunky human-brain interface implanted in the scalp which I found rather clunky in light of nanotechnology developments. The best parts of Final Odyssey is when we emphasize with Poole’s cognitive vertigo when he comes to grips with being 1,000 years out of touch with his species.There is a plot about the creators of the Monoliths making judgments about which species they advance being worthy and which need extermination so they don’t become a violence menace, much of which contradicts previous information on how fast the Monoliths can communicate with one another; but the suspense plot seems a bit mechanical and a token offering in comparison to Poole’s journey. Even his reuniting with HALMAN, the HAL 9000/David Bowman hybrid entity is a bit of a distraction. Everything works out in the end and then wump, the ride comes to a stop the bar lifts off your shoulders and it’s time to exit your seat. The Space Odyssey is over.