|
| The Last Theorem | 
 enlarge | Authors: Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $13.50
You Save: $13.50 (50%)
New (39) Used (16) from $11.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 16088
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0345470214
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780345470218
ASIN: 0345470214
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Two of science fiction’s most renowned writers join forces for a storytelling sensation. The historic collaboration between Frederik Pohl and his fellow founding father of the genre, Arthur C. Clarke, is both a momentous literary event and a fittingly grand farewell from the late, great visionary author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Last Theorem is a story of one man’s mathematical obsession, and a celebration of the human spirit and the scientific method. It is also a gripping intellectual thriller in which humanity, facing extermination from all-but-omnipotent aliens, the Grand Galactics, must overcome differences of politics and religion and come together . . . or perish.
In 1637, the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat scrawled a note in the margin of a book about an enigmatic theorem: “I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.” He also neglected to record his proof elsewhere. Thus began a search for the Holy Grail of mathematics–a search that didn’t end until 1994, when Andrew Wiles published a 150-page proof. But the proof was burdensome, overlong, and utilized mathematical techniques undreamed of in Fermat’s time, and so it left many critics unsatisfied–including young Ranjit Subramanian, a Sri Lankan with a special gift for mathematics and a passion for the famous “Last Theorem.”
When Ranjit writes a three-page proof of the theorem that relies exclusively on knowledge available to Fermat, his achievement is hailed as a work of genius, bringing him fame and fortune. But it also brings him to the attention of the National Security Agency and a shadowy United Nations outfit called Pax per Fidem, or Peace Through Transparency, whose secretive workings belie its name. Suddenly Ranjit–together with his wife, Myra de Soyza, an expert in artificial intelligence, and their burgeoning family–finds himself swept up in world-shaking events, his genius for abstract mathematical thought put to uses that are both concrete and potentially deadly.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, an alien fleet is approaching the planet at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Their mission: to exterminate the dangerous species of primates known as homo sapiens.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Clarke's swan song August 7, 2008
16 out of 21 found this review helpful
This last book by Clarke, co-written with Frederick Pohl is a vehicle to explore the themes that Clarke has covered through his fiction in the past.
There are all-powerful aliens, much like those behind the monolith in the space odyseey series. There is human transcendence (Childhood's End) and aliens and humans as software entities (Bowman & Hal by 3001). The space elevator theme, again from one anchored in Sri Lanka (The Fountains of Paradise) and solar sailing, from which the solar sail race is lifted from almost whole cloth from the short story (The Wind from the Sun), maths (the Ghost from the Grand Banks), and Sri Lanka as a setting. Achieving world peace has been one of Clarke's themes in both fiction and non-fiction and here we have a resolution that is used for both our parochial salvation and for that of the whole planet, when the aliens come to destroy it and us to prevent our contaminating galactic culture.
The story ends on a very positive note. Humans are saved, not by some technological cleverness, but by our understanding that we can kill, but we need not do that if we wish. That technology can be used to put targeted human societies back to the stone age. Clarke is saying that if we want to act like Moonwatcher's descendants, then maybe we can oblige you by taking away your technology to do harm in a civilized world. While Clarke shows some misgivings about the consequences of that (shades of Childhood's End), the reward is compelling, humans transcend to become the new caretakers of life in the galaxy and even get to criticize their erstwhile overlords. Thus we are judged by our 'superiors' and eventually found fitting, even as our protagonist, and Clarke, is an atheist and therefore believes in no ultimate being. A metaphor for humans to transcend religious superstition and grow up?
Fermat's Last Theorem, which plays an early role in establishing the main character's credentials to be part of the plot plays no role throughout most of the book. Our protagonist never solves another mathematical problem thereafter. But although the book's title refers to this mathematical puzzle, I am guessing that what Clarke was hinting at in the title is that if we as humans can learn to live in peace by the simple "golden rule", that this is the last theorem of life for us to solve.
It is a nice thought that Clarke died as an optimist for our future, not a pessimist. I hope he is right.
 Clarke's Worlds, Revisited August 15, 2008
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
I wish I could say that this last book by one of the greats of the field is a masterpiece, but unfortunately it's not. Instead, this book covers many of the same ideas that Clarke has worked with before: space elevators, solar sailing, omnipotent aliens, AI and computerized immortality, achievement of world peace, and set mainly in Clarke's beloved adopted homeland of Sri Lanka. There is little that is new here.
Like most of the late period Clarke books, this one has a co-author, in this case a writer who has been around almost as long as Clarke, and his influence shows in this book, I think, in deeper, more fleshed-out characterization than most of Clarke's works have, which is a definite positive. There have been few depictions of real mathematicians in sf, and the portrait painted here of a man fascinated (some would say obsessed, a trait common to those bitten by this particular mathematical bug) by Fermat's Last Theorem is well done. Those in the immediate vicinity of this protagonist are also drawn with more than light pencil sketches, as we see his family, school friends, instructors, and eventually his wife both form part of what he is and sharply influence what he does with his life. As part of this depiction, there are descriptions of certain fairly simple mathematical puzzles and games from pentominoes to the combinatorial numbers relationship with the binary number base, things most people who are interested in math at all will have at least heard of, and these provide some concrete and understandable looks at the world of number theory.
However, the alien angle is very poorly done. Not only are these beings (multiple races) inadequately described in terms of their motivations, biology, and culture (I could never visualize them as real beings), the sections of the book that detail their actions is written in almost self-mocking language at sharp variance with the tone of the rest of the book. This is not too much of problem for the about the first three-quarters of the book, as this material is limited to a few paragraphs here and there, and doesn't interrupt the main story flow, but near the end when the alien's actions become a major portion of the plot, it seriously detracted from my enjoyment of the story. Worse, the alien actions provide a far too easy `out' from the problem of achieving world peace without devolving into a police state or a dictatorship that had been so nicely set up earlier.
There is an entire subplot dealing with the protagonist's son who shows up with a certain type of brain disability that looked like it should go somewhere significant, but there was nothing ever really made of it.
The ending of this book feels very rushed and compressed, with many events glossed over or only hinted at. I think if this section had been written at the same detail level as the rest of the book, it would have made for a far stronger work.
Overall, this book provides a nice return to the ideas and themes that made Clarke famous, with more real characters than is typical for him, but its faults eventually overcame its good qualities, leaving me quite disappointed.
Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
interesting August 7, 2008
13 out of 26 found this review helpful
In the middle of the twentieth century, atomic bomb testing was conducted on the land, at sea and in the air; eventually the radiation traveled into outer space, which brought the planet to the attention of the Grand Galactics who ordered the destruction of Earth before the barbarians devastated the universe. They sent their client races, the Machine Stored, a sentient species who left their bodies behind and become inhabitants of cyber pace. Also on assignment to destroy Earth is The Nine Limbed, the civilized race that speaks on behalf of the Grand Galactics and the one point five, the race that destroyed their world and needs prosthetics to survive.
Brilliant Sri Lankan mathematician Ranjit Subramanian is obsessed with Fermat's Last Theorem. While he is in a prison, he works out the proof in his head and soon becomes an international sensation. He is privy to the non lethal weapon mankind has developed to bring peace to the world, but when the Grand Galactics learn there is no more need to destroy this orb, will they cease the eradication order or bureaucratically wipe out the planet.
THE LAST THEOREM is an interesting work that occurs on two levels. One plot focuses on Ranjit's life from the time he is sixteen; while the other centers on alien invaders sent by their overlords to destroy the warmongering earthlings. Both subplots are fascinating as readers follow the progress made by earthlings to attain Pax through a special non-killing weapon. As fans wait for the macro and micro plots to merge, first contact could prove lethal.
Harriet Klausner
Themes from the past, more should've been done with 'em September 1, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
On the morning of Sir Arthur's death, I pre-ordered this, his last novel. And that after having panned his last three, which were co-written with Stephen Baxter.
First, an observation. I think Sir Arthur may be more "religious" than he claimed to be. Even in ""2001: A Space Odyssey" which clearly put Clarke on the map, he referred to a creature, transcending the material world, close to "God." In this one, the authors create the "Grand Galactics," known collectively as "Bill." There is something distinctive, bordering on the "divine" about them/it.
The story itself is a biography of a young man in Sri Lanka, where Clarke lived for many years. In the book's beginning, the boy, Ranjit Subramanian, has an "affair" of sorts with a good friend. That friend pops up throughout the rest of the man's life, but sporadically, without much rhyme or reason.
In the meantime, the Grand Galactics witness Hiroshima and Nagasaki from afar. Their subordinate creatures of which there are many, the One Point Fives and the Nine Limbeds, for example, are authorized to destroy earth which has become a threat to life elsewhere. It's a theme not unlike "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and inferably "divine."
While this is happening, and while Subramanian is getting a little older, he's imprisoned for a couple of years. That was my first major problem with the text. That imprisonment served no purpose other than to indicate that other technical changes were taking place around the earth. And nothing later came of the imprisonment, no revenge on those who'd imprisoned him, no enlightenment as a result of it, or anything like that. What was the point?
Anyway, during the period, a nuclear weapon is developed which, like Clarke's (and Kube-McDowell's) book "The Trigger," renders its victims' weapons impotent. And that eventually provided a reason for the Grand Galactics' reconsideration of the earth's fate.
Then there was a space transportation means developed, taken from Clarke's novel "The Fountains of Paradise." In neither this book nor that one was I able to picture that means very clearly, but that may be my weakness rather than that of the books. Ranjit's daughter uses that means in a "solar sailing" race from which the message of the Grand Galactics and their subordinates' message comes to us earthlings--in ways that I dare not give away to the potential reader.
The whole story was rather slow in here. We saw Ranjit's kids develop; they had their own gifts and weaknesses. It was interesting, but didn't make me long for the next chapter.
All of these creatures by the way make themselves known by the end of the novel. Even the text refers to how boring the creatures' dissertations and inquiries could be!
And the end of the book I'm still trying to figure out. Ranjit's beloved spouse dies in a diving accident, her consciousness is inserted into a machine, somewhat like the theme of Clarke's (and McQuay's) novel "Richter 10." One passes thousands of years into the future as this consciousness survives and...what? Who is that guy behind the curtain?
I guess the most interesting theme of the text is that of the "theorem." in fact, it interested me enough to study a little about Fermat and that theorem. I'm still trying to figure out its utility, but at least I looked it up. Then there was the incorporation of contemporary themes into the text, especially US hegemony and militarism. But the authors didn't do much with those themes. I appreciate that they were there as that what makes a "story" good. But something more might have been done with them.
I guess I felt let down at the end of the book as I had more questions than answers. Again, there were themes that didn't serve any discernable purpose, others that didn't go where they might have.
If you're a Clarke collector, as I am, you might want it. If you want an uplifting story, any mathematical or scientific insights, you're going to be let down.
3 1/2 star book, decent plot but execution, pacing issues August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Notably, I have read a good bit of Pohl's published SF. This book reads a bit like him rather than clarke at times. I would be curious to know who was the primary writer, etc.
My review does contain spoilers. Consider whether to continue reading, as plot threads will be deflated.
I found the first half of the book well-paced, with the Aliens being 1-paragraph backdrops/subplot elements of the early progression of the protagonist's life, up until his kidnapping/incarceration. At that point, some plot elements seemed a bit contrived (the manner of his rescue could only be described as improbable), and furthermore the pacing of the development of the plotlines, with the protagonist's family life being a central feature, seemed to become very slow. I skipped many pages in the last third of the book to simply get to the next major plot event.
I think this book would have been better with a re-tooling of the pacing in the last half. The actual main plot-lines and ideas are fascinating, though the telescoped epilogue was confusing in terms of how the great galactics were supplanted.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
