Book Review: The Last Theorem

I want to start by directing you to the pilot entry in Fredrick Pohl's blog.

Go read "Sir Arthur and I". [link]

I just finished reading the book he's talking about in that entry. "The Last Theorem" is a collaboration between Sir Arthur C Clarke and Fredrick Pohl. It's the last book that Clarke worked on and a brilliant send off for any science fiction author. It has first contact, a war with aliens, a space elevator, minds stored in computers, hydrogen cars, ancient mathematical proofs, EMP bombs, world peace, galactic caretakers, solar sails, lunar Olympics, human powered flight, and everything that prolific writers like Clarke or Pohl might want to get out in the little time they have left.

I also love this book because it's shockingly modern. Part of this is my fault for reading so many books with age yellowed pages. I'm used to talk of fax machines on space ships. They talk of the Boxing Day Tsunami and include Somali pirates in the story.

The story starts in the introductions. Clarke tells about being in the military in WWII and having control of one of the most powerful radars of the time. He fired it at the Moon and hoped for an echo. He didn't get one, but someone out there did see it. Pohl talks about his own mathematical fiddlings in his youth and some tricks he figured out that he'll talk about later in the book. When the proper story begins it's worded in such a way that makes it clear that the story was under way before chapter 1.

The bulk of the story takes place shortly after today on the island nation of Sri Lanka - the adopted home of Sir Clarke for most of his life. A young man by the name of Ranjit has a fascination with Fermat's Last Theorum and pursues his dream of solving it well into college. But then come the pirates, the EMP bomb, the gradual peaceful unifying of various governments, space travel, and aliens sent by the galactic master race to wipe out Earth for having radar and nukes.

If you're a science fiction reader this book is a must have. Not just because of the authors, but because it's a damn good book. If you're not a science fiction reader... well, you can probably pass this up. Ranjit's story is a good story well told, but I can see how it's not everyone's cup of tea. Most of the story is told on Earth and about Ranjit with occasional glimpses about what's to come. It's a good adventure story. But then we get into tech and aliens and whatnot. Mostly hard science, too. Stuff that can be done today or we can expect in the next 25 years.

Of the 1000+ books in my collection this one goes in my to 50.