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3.08 AVERAGE
3.08 AVERAGE
Deux ex machina.
So this is a story about number theory, and alien invasions. And I really thought the two would come together in some clever way (despite the fact that it's hard to imagine how number theory and alien invasions would come together without some ridiculous deus ex...). But after the first third of the book, or so, it just kind of felt like they knew the book needed to move on towards the arrival of the aliens years and years down--with a few details here and there to set the ground for how humanity would react to the arrival. But a lot of it is pointless meandering.
So this is a story about number theory, and alien invasions. And I really thought the two would come together in some clever way (despite the fact that it's hard to imagine how number theory and alien invasions would come together without some ridiculous deus ex...). But after the first third of the book, or so, it just kind of felt like they knew the book needed to move on towards the arrival of the aliens years and years down--with a few details here and there to set the ground for how humanity would react to the arrival. But a lot of it is pointless meandering.
[spoilers]
I really wanted to like this book. Two grandmasters of science fiction writing together. Clarke is one of my favorite author's of all time. I haven't read any of Pohl's solo works.
This book is somewhat interesting. It follows the life of Sri Lankan mathematician who ends up solving Fermat's Last Theorem. The problem is that the book doesn't seem to have any real point. The main character goes through life, some things happen. He gets kidnapped. He gets imprisoned. He solves a math problem while imprisoned. Aliens sort of show up. He has a daughter. She wins a medal at the olympics on the moon. He has a son. His son is an autistic savant. Aliens decide to leave us alone. He downloads his mind into a computer. Book ends.
Writing the list, it sounds like this book should have some really cool parts. But all of it falls flat. None of the events feel all that important or dramatic. And the book just sort of wanders around unfocused.
I really wanted to like this book. Two grandmasters of science fiction writing together. Clarke is one of my favorite author's of all time. I haven't read any of Pohl's solo works.
This book is somewhat interesting. It follows the life of Sri Lankan mathematician who ends up solving Fermat's Last Theorem. The problem is that the book doesn't seem to have any real point. The main character goes through life, some things happen. He gets kidnapped. He gets imprisoned. He solves a math problem while imprisoned. Aliens sort of show up. He has a daughter. She wins a medal at the olympics on the moon. He has a son. His son is an autistic savant. Aliens decide to leave us alone. He downloads his mind into a computer. Book ends.
Writing the list, it sounds like this book should have some really cool parts. But all of it falls flat. None of the events feel all that important or dramatic. And the book just sort of wanders around unfocused.
Really felt like 2 stories in parallel… the story on earth (90%) plus the “alien” story. Interesting ideas but it felt more like an outline/proposal and not an actual story. I don’t know if this is due to 2 authors?
Really enjoyed this. Hadn't know that Clarke had written it until recently. Fun mix of math history and sci-fi
It was an enjoyable tale about a mathematician. I think it did well weaving in the science fiction elements into the story, but I honestly felt it could have used a bit more science fiction.
2/10
I only read this book because it involved Fermat's Last Theorem. I wish I didn't.
I only read this book because it involved Fermat's Last Theorem. I wish I didn't.
While sort of readable, this is unfortunately arguably the worst work from both of these authors. The same ideas were explored better by Cixin Liu in [b:Death's End|25451264|Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)|Liu Cixin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430330507l/25451264._SY75_.jpg|18520265], which was written at about the same time and is a better novel.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An interesting and personal tale, and a very interesting insight into Sri Lankan life, 7.5/10, my only gripe being it's lack of truly unique Sci-Fi.
informative
Review from 2/8/2010; very spoilery; first paragraph is my reflection on how fanfiction has shaped my reading expectation.
It is a story of two boys, Ranjit and Gamini, and their lives, essentially, with Pohl's love of number theory and Clarke's love of the Space Elevator idea thrown in as building blocks. I may have spoiled myself somewhat with all this fanfiction I read for the two months prior, because quite early on (first chapter) we discover that these two boys, best of friends, have experimented sexually together whilst teenagers. This is fine, but the story starts with a build up that would, in fanfiction, be a subtext base for a whole epic angst-fest of unrequited love between friends when one boy goes off to London and discovers girls and the other is left behind to mourn. Only in this story, it doesn't and Ranjit goes off to have his first heterosexual encounter when Gamini returns. They are clearly still very fond of each other, indeed, they love each other - like brothers. It starts a trend this book has, of starting an idea and lacking on the follow through: with this build up of subtext, we suddenly swerve to Ranjit going off and falling in love with this perfect woman and getting married, and in all the times thereafter that the two friends meet, there is no resolution of this early sexual tension and interaction, despite their unexpectedly abrupt parting, and I feel it should have been mentioned at least on Gamini's return.
That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although it could be better. Perhaps because it was started by Clarke before he got ill and forgot the rest, and then was passed to Pohl to continue from notes and consultation, but it does feel somewhat unpolished. There is an odd kind of feeling in it, where it is written now (well, 2008) while the majority of science fiction I read was written in the 1950s and '60s. There is a running commentary on how badly our world is falling apart, and it seems to be making a point without - in my mind - touching enough on it. We have Ranjit aware at every point of wars in Iraq, disturbance in the Middle East, problems in North Korea, wars across Africa, confrontation over the Nile River, the three main powers (Russia, USA, China)'s supremacy over the world etc., and yet while it's said often that this makes him unhappy, they don't really come to a head until much later on when aliens intervene to stop the emergance of humanity as a war-loving space-faring race. And yes, the aliens have been there all along, alerted to our presence by the electromagnetic pulses from our planet from our radar and atomic weapons detonated way before the story starts (actually, in a nice touch, released and discussed by our authors in their autobiographical preambles) and yes we see that the wars and conflict are all along going to be a point that the aliens come to us on, but it seems that Ranjit's consideration of these issues is only there so that we can continue to be reminded of them; he sees these issues all the time as background noise, TV shows to be lamented while they are on but ultimately put out of mind when more important things come up, and we as readers suffer a similar kind of apathy to them, until we are reminded by the next news bulletin. Or the next mention of the Boxing Day Tsunami.
However, the aliens I did enjoy. I loved the Grand Galactics, and the Nine-Limbed's sense of humour. They are mentioned all along, set up so that we know they are there and that something will happen, whilst the characters are oblivious: 'little did Ranjit know he was being photographed.' We learn a lot about the alien races before they even come into contact with the humans, and I think they are pretty interesting.
I guess at some point - actually, the point at which Ranjit gets married and lives his perfect married life with his perfect wife and perfect family - that it gets a bit well, perfect; he has solved the theorem and become world-famous at 22, has married the second woman he has ever had sex with, and then his perfect daughter grows up to become the first world-champion on the fly-bike race on the moon. It seems at this point that it's mostly about expanding our technological advances and waiting for the aliens to turn up. The Peace Committee have a super weapon for one, that can wipe out a country's electrical capabilities, leaving it open for the peacekeepers to come in and take over. It's all a bit too perfect, and yes - the characters do question this (perfect-wife likens the situation to that in Nineteen Eighty-Four and questions the Peace Committee's motives) and it's not entirely perfect really, but it still kinda is in the way that it miraculously solves the remaining conflicts in the world with rather less opposition than I would expect, and rather less resentment at the fear caused by the weapon than there should be. Some bits of future-tech are awesome though; we have the space elevator, and there is a solar-powered race, which is lifted straight from The Wind from the Sun - but unfortunately, because I loved that short story so much, its insertion here was very jarring, and I was expecting it to head the way the short story did.
Oh yes - and there was that very odd section where Ranjit gets kidnapped by pirates (yes, those same pirates from Somalia that were in the news in 2008) and then held under torture by inquisition services, which only seems to serve the purpose to a) show us that in our current world we do still have countries that are willing to torture for information on behalf of the other countries that have sworn not to use torture (see my point above about being reminded how bad our world is without really exploring it as much as is possible) and b) to allow Gamini time to become a Super Awesome Secret Agent Government Man without Ranjit, and therefore us, knowing.
In conclusion: despite this review turning somewhat negative, and there being a lot of potential that the authors didn't carry through on, it was still an enjoyable read and a worthwhile use of my Saturday.
It is a story of two boys, Ranjit and Gamini, and their lives, essentially, with Pohl's love of number theory and Clarke's love of the Space Elevator idea thrown in as building blocks. I may have spoiled myself somewhat with all this fanfiction I read for the two months prior, because quite early on (first chapter) we discover that these two boys, best of friends, have experimented sexually together whilst teenagers. This is fine, but the story starts with a build up that would, in fanfiction, be a subtext base for a whole epic angst-fest of unrequited love between friends when one boy goes off to London and discovers girls and the other is left behind to mourn. Only in this story, it doesn't and Ranjit goes off to have his first heterosexual encounter when Gamini returns. They are clearly still very fond of each other, indeed, they love each other - like brothers. It starts a trend this book has, of starting an idea and lacking on the follow through: with this build up of subtext, we suddenly swerve to Ranjit going off and falling in love with this perfect woman and getting married, and in all the times thereafter that the two friends meet, there is no resolution of this early sexual tension and interaction, despite their unexpectedly abrupt parting, and I feel it should have been mentioned at least on Gamini's return.
That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although it could be better. Perhaps because it was started by Clarke before he got ill and forgot the rest, and then was passed to Pohl to continue from notes and consultation, but it does feel somewhat unpolished. There is an odd kind of feeling in it, where it is written now (well, 2008) while the majority of science fiction I read was written in the 1950s and '60s. There is a running commentary on how badly our world is falling apart, and it seems to be making a point without - in my mind - touching enough on it. We have Ranjit aware at every point of wars in Iraq, disturbance in the Middle East, problems in North Korea, wars across Africa, confrontation over the Nile River, the three main powers (Russia, USA, China)'s supremacy over the world etc., and yet while it's said often that this makes him unhappy, they don't really come to a head until much later on when aliens intervene to stop the emergance of humanity as a war-loving space-faring race. And yes, the aliens have been there all along, alerted to our presence by the electromagnetic pulses from our planet from our radar and atomic weapons detonated way before the story starts (actually, in a nice touch, released and discussed by our authors in their autobiographical preambles) and yes we see that the wars and conflict are all along going to be a point that the aliens come to us on, but it seems that Ranjit's consideration of these issues is only there so that we can continue to be reminded of them; he sees these issues all the time as background noise, TV shows to be lamented while they are on but ultimately put out of mind when more important things come up, and we as readers suffer a similar kind of apathy to them, until we are reminded by the next news bulletin. Or the next mention of the Boxing Day Tsunami.
However, the aliens I did enjoy. I loved the Grand Galactics, and the Nine-Limbed's sense of humour. They are mentioned all along, set up so that we know they are there and that something will happen, whilst the characters are oblivious: 'little did Ranjit know he was being photographed.' We learn a lot about the alien races before they even come into contact with the humans, and I think they are pretty interesting.
I guess at some point - actually, the point at which Ranjit gets married and lives his perfect married life with his perfect wife and perfect family - that it gets a bit well, perfect; he has solved the theorem and become world-famous at 22, has married the second woman he has ever had sex with, and then his perfect daughter grows up to become the first world-champion on the fly-bike race on the moon. It seems at this point that it's mostly about expanding our technological advances and waiting for the aliens to turn up. The Peace Committee have a super weapon for one, that can wipe out a country's electrical capabilities, leaving it open for the peacekeepers to come in and take over. It's all a bit too perfect, and yes - the characters do question this (perfect-wife likens the situation to that in Nineteen Eighty-Four and questions the Peace Committee's motives) and it's not entirely perfect really, but it still kinda is in the way that it miraculously solves the remaining conflicts in the world with rather less opposition than I would expect, and rather less resentment at the fear caused by the weapon than there should be. Some bits of future-tech are awesome though; we have the space elevator, and there is a solar-powered race, which is lifted straight from The Wind from the Sun - but unfortunately, because I loved that short story so much, its insertion here was very jarring, and I was expecting it to head the way the short story did.
Oh yes - and there was that very odd section where Ranjit gets kidnapped by pirates (yes, those same pirates from Somalia that were in the news in 2008) and then held under torture by inquisition services, which only seems to serve the purpose to a) show us that in our current world we do still have countries that are willing to torture for information on behalf of the other countries that have sworn not to use torture (see my point above about being reminded how bad our world is without really exploring it as much as is possible) and b) to allow Gamini time to become a Super Awesome Secret Agent Government Man without Ranjit, and therefore us, knowing.
In conclusion: despite this review turning somewhat negative, and there being a lot of potential that the authors didn't carry through on, it was still an enjoyable read and a worthwhile use of my Saturday.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No