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India Press Store - The Last Theorem
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List Price: $27.00
Our Price: $12.95
Your Save: $ 14.05 ( 52% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780345470218
ISBN: 0345470214
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-08-05
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: 2008-08-05
Studio: Del Rey
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing swan song for Mr. A. C. Clarke
Comment: I'm a long time fan of Arthur C. Clarke's SF pieces, and I am saddened to have to say that The Last Theorem is very poorly written and edited; the story line in the early part of the book starts out promisingly enough, but loses steam in the middle for no apparent reason, and close to the end there seems to be an entire chapter missing then the book jumps to its concluding chapter. For those who respect the lifelong contribution to SF by the late Mr. Clarke, please stay away from this book, and re-read his earlier novels that made him so famous.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Last Theorem
Comment: Very enjoyable book, Sir Lanka native Ronji a mathmatical wizard takes the reader on a journey of inter development as he progress through life and those around him while twisting the plot into a sci fi visits from beyond earth galaxy. I really enjoy reading the space travels and sports competition and how his daughter had to over come the weightlessness world.The book gave some thought on our future travel and use of energy in this delightful tale of one family adventures.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fair book could have been great!
Comment: I agree with almost everything that has been said by the two main reviewers, but I'll put it more simply. A great premise: the light waves (and other advanced waves) from the 1945 bombs in Japan reach the guardians of the universe, and it is determined that Earth (which has always been watched closely) must be sterilized.
That means us. The sterilizers start toward earth years ago (60??), and arrive in our solar system at about the same time as earth discovers a way to make our planet peaceable (or nearly so).
Will the galactic cleansers back off, or eliminate us anyway?
This could have been a thriller, a tense book of the Michael Crichton or Larry Niven or Alastair Reynolds type, that kept you on the edge of your seat. But it too often plays to the comedy aspects of the other galactic races, and basically tries to be too cute.
I give it three stars for the first 90% of the book, and one star for the sappy, we are the galaxy, 13001 space odyssey ending.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disapponted
Comment: The story starts of as being very interesting but lacks cohesiveness as it develops. A number of interesting sub-plots are never fully developed. For example it seems that Ranjit's son though disabled has some extraordinary abilities but these are never developed. The Grand Galactics biology is never explained and it is never explained what development mankind makes that the Grand galactics are so ready to quit and transfer the job of galactic governance to the human race.
I got a distinctly anti-American sentiment throughout the book. Towards the end, the US Government and its President are portrayed as a bully. I thought that this was a little out of place in a science fiction work whether or not you think the US Government are "good" guys or bullies.
Since the protagonist was a Number Theorist, I was expecting some connection with the beauty of Number Theory with the way the Grand Galactic and other advanced aliens think, but this was never developed.
I was not sure of why the sub-plot of Ranjit's capture by pirates and his torture was introduced other than that he developed the Fermat's Conjecture proof under the duress of torture and captivity.
All in all Last Theorem is disappointing as Arthur C Clarke's "Last Book."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Idiot's Guide to Writing Sci-Fi
Comment: Poor Clarke has been on a downward slide for some time. From the early promising days of Rama and 2001 we have descended to clap trap (the gun destroying thing was THE worst) and repeats and more repeats. Some people just can't quit when they're ahead!
Believe me, this is classic Clarke and Poul and since both are classic sci-fi writers you know pretty well what you get except in this case the product is definitely lacking. There are subplots (the son) that are given time and attention and then dwindle away. There are the usual scientific questions such as Fermi's - "IF they're out there why haven't they come?" Dozens - no, hundreds - of authors and scientists have attempted to come up with a satisfactory answer and so far, few have succeeded like the biologist who declared that we are unique and alone. That is by far the best definition.
Clarke's real problem (and Poul's) is that they are not current on what's "in" with today's science fiction - nanotech, Singularity, virtual reality, biotechnology and robotics. Clarke is a certified engineer and in a way, he has always written like one. His characters have a somewhat pedantic quality and indeed, characterization is the weakest element in his writing. Poul, too, is a classic writer - space ships, aliens, war and the like. It's not the subject matter or the writing that's old (but instead, the ideas are dated. My advice - get one of the older books and enjoy a good read.
My grade - D-
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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