The Last Theorem
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3.6 • 43 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The final work from the brightest star in science fiction’s galaxy. Arthur C Clarke, who predicted the advent of communication satellites and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey completes a lifetime career in science fiction with a masterwork.
30 light years away, a race known simply as the One Point Fives are plotting a dangerous invasion plan, one that will wipe humankind off the face of the Earth…
Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, a young astronomy student, Ranjit Subramanian, becomes obsessed with a three-hundred-year-old theorem that promises to unlock the secrets of the universe. While Ranjit studies the problem, tensions grow between the nations of the world and a UN taskforce headed up by China, America and Russia code-named Silent Thunder begins bombing volatile regimes into submission.
On the eve of the invasion of Earth a space elevator is completed, helped in part by Ranjit, which will herald a new type of Olympics to be held on the Moon. But when alien forces arrive Ranjit is forced to question his own actions, in a bid to save the lives of not just his own family but of all of humankind.
Co-written with fellow grand master Frederik Pohl, The Last Theorem not only provides a fitting end to the career one of the most famous names in science fiction but also sets a new benchmark in contemporary prescient science fiction. It tackles with ease epic themes as diverse as third world poverty, the atrocities of modern warfare in a post-nuclear age, space elevators, pure mathematics and mankind’s first contact with extra-terrestrials.
Reviews
‘Clarke is one of the greatest imaginative writers of hard science fiction’
New Scientist
‘Arthur Clarke is one of the true geniuses of our time’
Ray Bradbury
‘Arthur C. Clarke is the prophet of the space age’
The Times
‘A one-man literary Big Bang, Clarke has originated his own vast and teeming futurist universe’
Sunday Times
‘Arthur C. Clarke is blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations ever encountered in print’
New York Times
‘One of the truly prophetic figures of the space age… the colossus of science fiction’
New Yorker
‘The most consistently able writer science fiction has yet produced’ Kingsley Amis on Frederik Pohl
‘In his grasp of scientific and technological possibilities, Pohl ranks with Asimov and Clarke, but he has greater originality than either’ Sunday Times
‘I want to be remembered most as a writer – one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well’ Arthur C Clarke
About the author
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 died in 2008 at his home in Sri Lanka.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Grand Masters Pohl (Gateway) and the late Clarke (1917 2008, best known for 2001) collaborated on a can't-put-down adventure that focuses on their mutual strengths: high adventure, fun characters and hard science. Sometime in the near future, teenage Sri Lankan math prodigy Ranjit Subramanian manages to reconstruct and then publish Fermat's claimed proof of his famous last theorem. As Ranjit celebrates fame and fortune, the all-powerful aliens called Grand Galactics see the flash from early nuclear explosions and decide that humanity will have to be wiped out. When Earth's superpowers deploy a new, nonlethal way of handling renegade nations and humanity begins working on global peace and large-scale engineering projects, Ranjit and his family try to broker a truce with the destructive alien force, modeling human optimism through rationality and science. Long passages of math tricks and intrusive narration mar an otherwise enjoyable tale of the struggle between reason and fear.
Customer Reviews
The last theorem
Ghastly and pointless. I thought I had bought a children's book at first, but no child would keep reading until its futile and colourless petering out (I could not describe it as an 'end'.
What a pathetic swansong for Clarke; it should never have been published.
Don't buy this crap
It was a sad day when I bought this book. This is the worst kind of rubbish I have ever attempted to read. As a great fan of the many books ACC has written. I thought I was in for a good read. But to my horror this crap just kept flowing of the pages. Half way through I had to stop. Delete the book from my phone/pad and cloud so this would not contaminate the rest of my collection.
A terrible book
I really should know better by now but all the recent books where Arthur C Clarke receives shared billing with another author are just books by another author with some of Clarke's ideas and interests thrown in. This story is poorly written, has a very uninteresting plot which just feels like padding so that the author can squeeze in some more details about number theory, admittedly the only interesting part of the book. I think the author hoped to achieve something like what was managed with Sophie's Choice where the foundations of an interesting subject (in that case Philosophy) were explained and carried forward with a compelling narrative. Sadly the author fails miserably.
Large chunks of this book do nothing to further the story but feel like the indulgence of a writer who didn't know when to stop and didn't have a writer to reign him in. The science fiction parts of the story aren't new ideas (Clarke's had similar ideas elsewhere and implemented better) and the actual alien element just feels as though someone was trying too hard and consequently drags and fails to mesh with the rest of the book.
I made the mistake of paying for this, I suggest you learn from my mistake and avoid it. Go and re-read Rama, your time will be better spent.