クラーク最後の共作、発売迫る

▼Arthur C. Clarke's last vision　（CNN.com）
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/07/29/clarkes.last.novel.ap/index.html

PALATINE, Illinois (AP) -- Arthur C. Clarke's health was failing fast, but he still had a story to tell. So he turned to fellow science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, and together the longtime friends wrote what turned out to be Clarke's last novel.

"The Last Theorem," which grew from 100 pages of notes scribbled by Clarke, is more than a futuristic tale about a mathematician who discovers a proof to a centuries-old mathematical puzzle.

The novel, due in bookstores August 5, represents a historic collaboration between two of the genre's most influential writers in the twilight of their careers. Clarke, best known for his 1968 work, "2001: A Space Odyssey," died in March at age 90; Pohl is 89.

"As much as anything, it'll be a historic artifact," says Robin Wayne Bailey, a former president of Science Fiction Writers of America and a writer. "This is a book between two of the last remaining giants in the field."

Clarke originally intended "The Last Theorem" to be his last solo project, and he began writing it in 2002.

But progress was slow because of his poor health, and he missed the book's original 2005 publication deadline. Worried the book wouldn't be published at all, he began to search for a co-author.

　そこで名乗り出たのが、フレデリック・ポールだったというわけだ。いや、すごいね。なんちゅうか、三波春夫と三橋美智也のデュエットみたいな画が浮かぶ。合計百七十九歳の大ベテラン、夢の共作である。合計二百二十一歳というアニメ史上最高齢ユニットのドロンボー一味よりも、平均年齢は上だ。

　クラークもいろんな人と共作してきたが、最後の最後にえらくインパクトのあるやつを遺していってくれましたな。どのような出来栄えであろうとも、このタッグは気になる。

　とりあえず、夏休みの読みものは、これで決まりだな。