The Last Theorem
by Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl
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Book Reviews of The Last Theorem
Book Review: The Aliens Are Coming
Summary: 5 Stars
The Last Theorem (2008) is a standalone SF novel about Fermat and aliens. It is set in a universe where civilizations exist further than the mind can conceive. Within our galaxy, the Grand Galactics rule with some fairness and much wisdom.
In this novel, Ranjit Subramanian is a Tamil, but his best friend is Sinhalese. This difference means nothing to Ranjit and Gammi Bandara, but means much to their people on Sri Lanka. For a long time, the friends do everything together, but one day Ranjit's father summons him to the temple.
Ganesh Subramanian is chief priest of the famous Hindu temple of Tiru Koneswaram in Trincomalee. Ranjit loves and respects his father very much. But Ganesh tells him that his friendship with a Sinhalese is causing some dissension within the temple. He gives Ranjit the choice of shunning his friend or being shunned by Ganesh.
Ranjit sorrowfully chooses to stay friends with Gammi. Like the matter of religion, Ranjit disagrees with his father and goes his own way. But he is going to miss the conversations and kindness of his father.
In this story, Ranjit is obsessed with Fermat's Last Theorem. He has been studying the subject for years. Although a freshman at the university, he has little interest in other subjects. Even the math courses are rather boring, either because of their familiarity or their irrelevance to the Theorem.
Then he takes Astronomy 101 from Joris Vorhulst. His teacher has a doctorate from Caltech and worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Yet it isn't his education that captures the attention of his students, but his enthusiasm. From the first day, Ranjit and most students spend hours researching topics for the next class.
During his summer vacation, Ranjit meets a family living in a house on his father's property. The father is incarcerated for possession of stolen goods and his family is hard pressed to survive. Ranjit takes care of the four children for their mother while he works nearby.
One day the mother has found work near the docks and Ranjit drives the family there in the temple van. He drops them off, but later he sees the youngest waving to him and meets their father. He is lured aboard a ship and kept captive until pirates take over the liner.
Ranjit is eventually accused of being one of the pirates and taken far away to a prison where he is kept for a long while. In between his torture sessions, Ranjit starts thinking even more about Fermat's Last Theorem and develops a proof of its validity. After his return to civilization, he publishes his proof and becomes a celebrity.
This tale relates the dangers of human militarism within the Grand Galactic domain. Aliens are coming to devastate the Earth. Only luck will prevent the destruction of humanity.
The future society in this novel includes many of Clarke's innovations, providing an ambiance not found in the works of lesser writers. Pohl also contributed ideas from his previous works, including computerized personae. He probably added the parts about Fermat's Last Theorem.
Still, the novel feels more like Pohl than Clarke in many respects. Pohl has always been better at characterization than Clarke and it shows in this work.
The story is mostly about friendship and love. Ranjit not only keeps his best friend, but also meets a woman who captivates his mind and emotions and gives him very lovable children. Enjoy!
Highly recommended for Clarke & Pohl fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of mathematical investigation, galactic domination, and abundant romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Book Review: Clarke's Worlds, Revisited
Summary: 2 Stars
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)
Book Review: Clarke's swan song
Summary: 4 Stars
This last book by Clarke, co-written with Frederick Pohl is a vehicle to explore the themes that Clarke has covered through his fiction in the past.
There are all-powerful aliens, much like those behind the monolith in the space odyseey series. There is human transcendence (Childhood's End) and aliens and humans as software entities (Bowman & Hal by 3001). The space elevator theme, again from one anchored in Sri Lanka (The Fountains of Paradise) and solar sailing, from which the solar sail race is lifted from almost whole cloth from the short story (The Wind from the Sun), maths (the Ghost from the Grand Banks), and Sri Lanka as a setting. Achieving world peace has been one of Clarke's themes in both fiction and non-fiction and here we have a resolution that is used for both our parochial salvation and for that of the whole planet, when the aliens come to destroy it and us to prevent our contaminating galactic culture.
The story ends on a very positive note. Humans are saved, not by some technological cleverness, but by our understanding that we can kill, but we need not do that if we wish. That technology can be used to put targeted human societies back to the stone age. Clarke is saying that if we want to act like Moonwatcher's descendants, then maybe we can oblige you by taking away your technology to do harm in a civilized world. While Clarke shows some misgivings about the consequences of that (shades of Childhood's End), the reward is compelling, humans transcend to become the new caretakers of life in the galaxy and even get to criticize their erstwhile overlords. Thus we are judged by our 'superiors' and eventually found fitting, even as our protagonist, and Clarke, is an atheist and therefore believes in no ultimate being. A metaphor for humans to transcend religious superstition and grow up?
Fermat's Last Theorem, which plays an early role in establishing the main character's credentials to be part of the plot plays no role throughout most of the book. Our protagonist never solves another mathematical problem thereafter. But although the book's title refers to this mathematical puzzle, I am guessing that what Clarke was hinting at in the title is that if we as humans can learn to live in peace by the simple "golden rule", that this is the last theorem of life for us to solve.
It is a nice thought that Clarke died as an optimist for our future, not a pessimist. I hope he is right.
Book Review: Sadly, not a very good final novel
Summary: 2 Stars
Arthur C Clarke was never my favorite science fiction author but he did write some outstanding books. The best, in my opinion, is still "Childhood's End" from the early fifties although many of the others certainly had their moments. Most people remember him for "2001 a Space Odyssey" which was more of a Stanley Kubrick creation although based on a Clarke short story. Clarke's gift was in his use of technology. The solar system seemed a lot closer after reading one of his books.
The Last Theorem is a rather strange work and seems unlike other Clarke novels. Whether this is due to the collaboration with Frederik Pohl I don't know. The book is essentially the life story of Ranjit Subramanian, a Sri Lankan mathematician who becomes obsessed with finding a simple proof of Fermat's last theorem. As many people would know, this theorem has been proved in the last few years but the proof is hardly simple, running to some 250 pages. Ranjit eventually achieves his goal and his new found fame opens the door to other adventures including involvement with clandestine military forces who use new technology to overthrow troublesome countries. In parallel with this, the "Grand Galactics", the alien overlords of the whole galaxy become aware of the use of nuclear weapons on the earth and decide that the earth should be destroyed.
The strange thing about this rambling saga is that it actually has very little to do with Fermat's last theorem. It seems to be more of a homage to Clarke's adopted home of Sri Lanka and often reads like a soap opera rather than a science fiction novel. Occasional glimpses of Clarke's earlier works are given such as with the construction of a space elevator on Sri Lanka but overall I didn't find it a good read. Just prior to starting this book I had read the final book in the Time's Odyssey series in which Clarke collaborated with Stephen Baxter. It was far better in my opinion.
I was thinking of rating this three stars but I just didn't enjoy it enough for that. 2 1/2 stars would probably be an accurate reflection of my views but the ratings system only allows me to give it two.
Book Review: interesting
Summary: 4 Stars
In the middle of the twentieth century, atomic bomb testing was conducted on the land, at sea and in the air; eventually the radiation traveled into outer space, which brought the planet to the attention of the Grand Galactics who ordered the destruction of Earth before the barbarians devastated the universe. They sent their client races, the Machine Stored, a sentient species who left their bodies behind and become inhabitants of cyber pace. Also on assignment to destroy Earth is The Nine Limbed, the civilized race that speaks on behalf of the Grand Galactics and the one point five, the race that destroyed their world and needs prosthetics to survive.
Brilliant Sri Lankan mathematician Ranjit Subramanian is obsessed with Fermat's Last Theorem. While he is in a prison, he works out the proof in his head and soon becomes an international sensation. He is privy to the non lethal weapon mankind has developed to bring peace to the world, but when the Grand Galactics learn there is no more need to destroy this orb, will they cease the eradication order or bureaucratically wipe out the planet.
THE LAST THEOREM is an interesting work that occurs on two levels. One plot focuses on Ranjit's life from the time he is sixteen; while the other centers on alien invaders sent by their overlords to destroy the warmongering earthlings. Both subplots are fascinating as readers follow the progress made by earthlings to attain Pax through a special non-killing weapon. As fans wait for the macro and micro plots to merge, first contact could prove lethal.
Harriet Klausner