Had read 2001 and saw this book in the book store at calcutta airport so I thought to buy n read this on my way to delhi. people have regarded Arthur C Clarke’s attempt to explain the ancient black monoliths as a failure, being fan of Clarke’s.
But was disappointed with this book, hoping it to be more than it was.3001 is more of a prediction of future events than anything else. In 3001, Frank Poole, thrown into the wastes of space by the mad computer HAL, is found floating around in space.
Medical technology is so advanced in fact and his body is lucky enough just to have suffocated that, the doctors are able to revive him from the dead. Clarke manages to get some more of his predictions across as frank traverses the year 3001, ideas such as the space elevator are reintroduced, and several new concepts such as the braincap, a device which is in fact a computerized than the brain , everyone has which enables them to communicate with each other by thought.
There is no real mention of day to day people relationships, there is mention of sex and frank gets married, but even this doesn’t enlighten us further on the mood of the times. Enevitably, we come on to the issue of those never changing monoliths. In this book, Frank is able to communicate with Bowman and Hal, now one entity. He finds out the meaning of the monoliths and their purpose, but in the end he manages to destroy the main one and eliminate the threat from these God Like cretures. Clarke gives them a name, the "firstborn", which pretty mcuh explains what they are.
But I don’t regard this book as a bad one. I enjoyed it the very first time I read it, which wasn’t so long ago, and although no real relationships could be mentioned without throwing in the uselessness of circumcision, I feel that this book has not rendered me uncapable of reading and enjoying it ever again, but has made me think whether Clarke did the right thing by righting it in the first place. He wrote it after such a long period of time from writing 2001, and maybe it’s this that made the book not as good as the other three. Clarke could have made more of this book 40 years ago. But let’s give the hero a break.
He’s in his nineties, getting millions of letters a day, and whether he has time to consider that this book could have been a better tale, I do not knoe. I think he has enough to keep a ninety year old man busy enough. So I am going to give this book the thumbs up because I believe that where in some parts failed in others it rose above its mistakes, which today is an important thing. We can all learn from Mr Clarke. Bought this book if only to quell the curiosity but would request clarke not to attempt 4001.