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The Last Theorem | 
 enlarge | Authors: Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $13.49
You Save: $13.51 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 8149
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 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
A fitting tribute August 25, 2008
In "The Last Theorem" we are treated to a homily regarding transcendence of humanity. Arthur Clarke and Frederik Pohl cleverly elucidate their "last theorem" for the societal, spiritual, and scientific enlightenment of mankind. It involves the calculus of justice, the algebra of cooperation and the fundamental equation that science = future.
Ranjit is our reluctant Candide, of sorts, whose adventures and travails explore the state of the world. It is through his exploits, and those of his family and friends, that we witness the events that finds mankind on the precipice of destruction or salvation. The Grand Galactics and their surrogates are on their way from the stars to destroy the Earth.
Clarke and Pohl present little "prescience" fiction that punctuates their prior works. Rather, their most powerful technique in this compassionate and entertaining novel is the 360-degree mirror they hold up for society to evaluate itself. Is this truly the "best of all possible worlds" - or can it be better?
If you're a Clarke/Pohl groupie, you gotta have it.. August 24, 2008
I've been a huge Clarke and Pohl fan, so there was no way I was not going to get this book. I would give it a B minus. The only real negative I feel I need to commment on is the ridiculous Lt. Col. Bledsoe character, who seemed like a cartoonish stereotype from Dr. Strangelove. A military man, in our near future or present, calling the Russians "Russkies" and the Chinese "Chinks" ? Maybe the authors don't care for the U.S. Military, but this is a dopey way to express it. Still, overall I enjoyed the book.
 Good Writing, Weak Plot, No Climax. August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Act I:
Ranjit Subramanianis is obsessed with proving Fermat's last Theorem.
Aliens decide to kill all humans.
Act II:
Ranjit Subramanian solve's Fermat's Last Theorem.
Fifteen years pass by.
Act III:
Aliens decide not to kill all humans.
This decision has nothing to do with Ranjit Subramanian or Fermat's last theorem.
Moral of the Story:
You can count to 1023 using only your fingers.
Recommendation:
Don't buy this book. The final climax of the story was resolved so quickly, with so little explanation, and by even less action on the part of the main character that I was left wondering why this character was even in this novel, and why did I have to read fifteen years worth of trivia about his life. The initial premise was interesting, and the writing was excellent, but after a while it becomes little more than a vehicle for Clarke to discuss his own pet ideas, most of which ideas have already been discussed in previous books.
80% science fiction story, 20% political diatribe August 17, 2008
The story was good and kept me interested until the end. There were minor errors in the mathematics presented there, but the science did not have the depth that I usually associate with Arthur C. Clarke--in fact, I suspect he had little input into this book. There was only one actual scientific blunder that I noticed--a 1 degree microwave beam aimed at the moon but reaching Alpha Centauri, the former never being within quite a few degrees of the latter. Still, I don't see Clarke, or anybody who has done a modest amount of amateur astronomy, making that particular mistake.
I said in the title it's 20% political diatribe. One could chalk that up to merely opinion, but toward the end, that 20% shows a naivety rivaling that seen in a beauty contest. Would you believe a race of super-advanced aliens who could destroy the Earth in a heartbeat don't know about economics and scarce resources, and what injecting trillions of dollars into an economy overnight would do to the economy?
Clarke's Worlds, Revisited August 15, 2008
9 out of 10 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)
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