3001 The Final Odyssey. Arthur C. Clarke. 1997.

In the year the computer Hal was created, Arthur C. Clarke brings the Odyssey to the conclusion millions have been awaiting.

Arthur C. Clarke, the greatest prophet of the space age, at last concludes the space odyssey he embarked upon in 1968 with both the book and film of 2001. He shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of the film, and later resolved some of its lingering enigmas in the sequels 2010 and 2061 - vertying Kubrick's comment, "Arthur somehow manages to capture the hopeless yet admirable desire to know things that can really never be known.

Arthur C. Clarke's continuing and constant search for answers has brought us now the final episode in the greatest story ever written of humanity's destiny in space. With 3001: The Final Odyssey we experience once more the uncanny influence of the Monoliths and the limitless power of an alien technology.

Frank Poole was last seen alive in the vicinity of the United States Spaceship Discovery en route to Jupiter's moons. The year was A.D. 2001 and the Series 9000 HAL computer on board Discovery had malfunctioned. Frank was Hal's first victim. Grappling frantically with the broken air hose of his spacesuit, Frank died in the blackness and vacuum of space.

In A.D. 3001 his perfectly preserved body is retrieved by Captain Dimitri Chandler of the spacetug Goliath; medical and electro-optical technologies restore his life and then enhance it with a Braincap. Thus Frank becomes a telepathic, machine-assisted inhabitant of the first years of the fourth millennium, with a lot to learn.

The alien Monoliths have been silent since the eruption of Jupiter into a sun in A.D. 2010. Their last message was a warning: ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE. But Frank Poole is an exception to the aliens interdict. Or so he hopes. Frank has unfinished business on Europa. And perhaps Dave Bowman, his long-lost colleague from the Discovery, is there, a thousand years older but not dead. And alien.