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Dec 26, 2011

Terence rated it:

When I was in 8th grade, I wrote a story about humans evolving and becoming “luminous beings” (similar, I suppose, to those Yoda mentions in The Empire Strikes Back), and I was reminded of this when I read the ending to Childhood’s End. Humanity’s last generation joins a vast collective intelligence that has been assimilating civilizations for countless eons, and in the process consumes the Earth and all other life on it. (As I recall, my process wasn’t quite so genocidal; in fact, it took place More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2008

Matt rated it:

I've done a lot of odd jobs over the years. At one point, back before I got my degree and I was still working to put my wife through school, I worked as a delivery driver for a company that sold construction supplies - 50 lb boxes of powdered Kool-Aid, portable generators, hammers, safety harnesses, 2x4's, circular saws. It was one of those barely above minimum wage jobs generally populated by people who for whatever reason find themselves unable to get anything else and competing against a la More...

5 comments like (36 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2011

Steve rated it:

Oddly, I finally got spurred into reading this great book while watching a documentary on UFOs, featuring Dan Aykroyd! Aykroyd is evidently quite a UFO buff, and during the documentary the discussion (What do UFOs want?) touched upon Clarke's book, Childhood's End. Well, I’m into UFOs. Saw one (at close range) when I was 13 or so. So I went and dug this puppy out of my large “To Read” box downstairs. (My wife says there’s more than one box.)

I’m glad I did, though the book is one More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2011

Jackie rated it:

Childhood's End has been sitting on my bookcase for quite a while. I made a promise to my friend Jason: we traded favorites and he fulfilled his end of the bargain by reading my favorite scifi novel, so I read his.

In recent times, I've shied away from scifi novels published 50+ years ago as I've been sucked into a good sounding stories only to be disappointed. I don't doubt that these novels were fantastic at the time they were written. It's hard to stand up to time in the scifi g More...

8 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2008

D_Davis rated it:

Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, is a prototypical alien invasion story. It is safe to assume that just about every book or movie featuring such a scenario made after Clarke's Hugo award nominated novel owes some deal of debt to it.

Humongous spaceships appear in the skies over the Earth's major cities, and throughout the course of many generations the seemingly benevolent alien Overlords solve all of humankind's problems. They create a so-called “Utopia,” in which crime, hunger, h More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2008

Joshua rated it:

I've always felt a bit mixed about Childhood's End . While at times the writing felt bogged down and a little sluggish, the ideas and concepts Clarke comes up with are astounding and thought provoking. This is a story not just about man's first contact with an alien species and creating a utopia, but also about man's eventual evolution and transformation, by breaking off the shackles of its previous existence.
Clarke has always been intrigued by the idea of transcending ones body and achi More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Lana rated it:

This book is very interesting. It talks about alien spaceships who come to Earth and just float above the cities for a couple of generations until people get used to their presence. For the first 50 years the inhabitants of the ships don't really show themselves but still communicate with one chosen individual who then sends their messages to the people and also using the media. They are called the Overlords and their presence makes national governments dissolve into one world government accordi More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

I am a fan of science fiction, and I wanted to read Childhood's End after hearing it is supposedly one of the best novels in the sci-fi genre. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I just didn't enjoy it.

I won't belabor this review by posting a synopsis; I'll just summarize my general impression of the book (SPOILERS ahead).

First off, the characterization is extremely weak. I understand that some science fiction is more plot driven than character driven, but I still th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2011

Jordan rated it:

Unlike Isaac Asimov, Clarke's characters have depth, nuance and reality to them. In addition to this, his stories are filled with the wonderful hard sci-fi crack you are used to from Asimov.

Childhood's End has quite a few twists and turns, and you'll notice a lot of similarities to V during this alien invasion, similarities which Clarke notes in the introduction. Fortunately, Clarke's aliens are not trying to find and extract the human soul. The twists weren't the ones I expected - an More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Manny rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

29 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2009

Zigger rated it:

I always feel so terrible when I read, or attempt to read, Arthur C. Clarke. But I also feel terrible when I don't. I like fantasy. I like science fiction. Arthur C. Clark is a genius, a pioneering, farsighted sci-fi icon. I should like reading his books. And so I try every once in a while, in the same spirit that I eat half a banana once or twice a year. I like fruit. Bananas are good for you. But I have yet to finish either a banana or an Arthur C. Clarke book.

It's me. It must be. More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 23, 2008

Clinton rated it:

In honor of the late, great Arthur C. Clarke, I picked up one of his books I'd never read: Childhood's End. The book recounts the story of an alien civilization that comes to Earth and rules over it for 150 years, before mankind's true destiny is revealed.

I won't get into the overall story of the book itself - it's a quick read and certainly worth picking up. One of the most interesting things to me about the book was that Clarke wrote it in 1953, but it's set between about 1970 an More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2007

Illyria rated it:

Childhood's End is signature Arthur Clarke in that it blends hard science and wild fantasy and elements of metaphysics and mysticism; if you've read Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God" you get the picture.

The story begins with the arrival of an alien race with superhuman powers, whose subtle and not-so-subtle interference in the lives of Men changes the course of human history. Take for instance their first demand: an end to all cruelty to animals. This is enforced b More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2011

John rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2008

Nancy rated it:

I was expecting this book to bore me to tears. Since the book is a classic, I had to give it a try. Clarke's sophisticated, yet easy to read prose had me riveted! While lacking to some degree in human character development, the plot, descriptions and depth of the story more than compensated. I wish Clarke had expanded on the details about how crime, poverty, class consciousness, religion and menial labor were eradicated.

The book left me feeling moved, vaguely sad, yet hopeful about More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2011

figura4 rated it:

E’ incredibile la quantità e la grandiosità delle idee contenute in questo romanzo di 200 paginette scarse.
Si inizia con una delle scene più suggestive e memorabili che la SF abbia mai proposto: enormi navi aliene che compaiono nei cieli delle maggiori città della Terra, stravolgendo per sempre la concezione del mondo nella mente degli uomini. Prima di dire “ma questa l’ho già vista un milione di volte!” guardate bene la data di pubblicazione del romanzo, e pensate un attimo a chi è che può rive More...

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Jan 16, 2009

Shaun rated it:

Most of us who read SF have read works by Clarke or have at least heard about him. He is, after all, one of the most popular 'golden age' SF authors. So, by saying this I want it to be clear that Childhood's End is a classic. It was written in a time when SF had practically no foothold whatsoever in the mainstream market. Like Foundation by Isaac Asimov, Childhood's End was written in installments and published in magazines. I didn't know this when I first started reading it, but now that I do k More...

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Dec 24, 2008

Jessi rated it:

I ended up reading this book after a chain of events that actually started in a parenting community. Anyway, reading this was like going back to my first beloved genre, science fiction.

I liked the book a lot at first even though it was a little difficult to follow, but towards the end, I got a strong sense of depression. I probably would've thought a lot differently about this book if I had read it back in high school, but now that I have a child, the story left me feeling empty. The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Noah rated it:

A rather amazing piece of fiction. I originally picked up this book because it was said to have influenced an anime called Neon Genesis Evangelion, but when I nabbed it from the library I found that it was also recommended by CS Lewis. After finishing the book I now see how it would attract these two types of readers as well as sci-fi readers in general and, in some ways, definitely works to bridge gaps between genres (though in this way not being in any one of those genres fully).

Th More...

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Dec 06, 2011

Christopher rated it:

An incredibly thought-provoking novel by the late, great science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke. In this novel, Clarke explores two ideas that seem contradictory and, yet, work beautifully. First, he explores the idea that a truly utopian, paradisal world may not be a good thing for humanity. The first two-thirds of the novel explore this by showing how as humanity's alien masters, known as the Overlords, end all wars and disease, they also destroy man's desires for pursuing anything of cultur More...

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Nov 21, 2011

Mike rated it:

This review is not for sci-fi fans, but for those who had this book recommended to them, as did I. Faults: No protagonist. The people you meet are hard to like. Readers do not know what is happening for many pages at a time. No discernable style. This is considered a sci-fi classic. Why?

The friend who recommended the book answered these complaints saying that evolution is the protagonist (which I got, but find it an inadequate protagonist), liking characters is not the point, he is n More...

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Oct 31, 2011

Terry rated it:

After some reflection, I feel that Childhood's End is the best science fiction book I have yet read. It both projects into a future past without dating itself and gracefully skips over underdeveloped characters (they simply aren't important) and the details of the future envisioned but without the sense that the reader is left in the dark or that things are being glossed over.

Childhood's End is marked by a simple premise: that a biologically and technologically superior species of ali More...

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Sep 28, 2011

David rated it:

{Warning: lost of spoilers.}

I read Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End many years ago. I also read it to my son when he was eight. So why did I come back to a book that was originally published in 1953, read it yet again, and feel it necessary to write a review?

What got me thinking about Childhood’s End again is the emergence of the Internet as force for change within the Global Community. Also, my limited experience teaching university students impressed upon me the impac More...

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Sep 21, 2011

manuti rated it:

Este mes ha tocado una impresionante novela de ciencia-ficción, no sé como la había dejado de leer con lo fanático que soy de este género, pero todos cometemos errores.

Una vez subsanado el error, paso a comentar la novela. Aunque no es una novela de acción ni de grandes epopeyas, si que es lo que para mí es la base de la ciencia-ficción que especula con lo que podría ocurrir con la llegada de una civilización extraterrestre muy superior a nosotros (si, como en V o Independence Day).
More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Ranga rated it:

If not for a few points here and there it would be hard to believe that this book was written in 1953. This is no doubt a sci-fi classic. And for those of you who are bored to death or even angry at the constant stream of dystopian first contact fiction and films that are masquerading as science-fiction, this may well be a breath of fresh air.

Perhaps this is not Arthur C. Clarke's best book on human nature, as most of the characters are portrayed as extremely honest and gullible. Even More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Alexander rated it:

Arthur C. Clarke

Childhood's End

Del Rey, Paperback, 1990.
12mo. viii, 212 pp. Foreword by Arthur Clarke, 1989 [iv-viii].

First published, 1953.
First published with new foreword and new first chapter, 1990.

Contents

Foreword

Part 1: Earth and the Overlords
Part 2: The Golden Age
Part 3: The Last Generation

======================================================

I have to say that I am a l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2011

Ethan rated it:

This review is for the 1989 revision in which the first two chapters have been altered (according to the introduction).

It's a fascinating book, sort of split into two halves, with the overlying (no pun intended) theme of the Overlord occupation. Clarke's prose is clean, the characters are interesting (although people who are looking for today's character-driven fiction will be disappointed), and there was enough action and plot-twistiness to keep me interested right up until the end. More...

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Apr 18, 2011

John Tye rated it:

The depiction in science fiction of technological and cultural development quickly and almost invariably takes on a quality of quaintness, and this holds true for the future shown in Childhood's End. In common with many of its contemporary works, the novel displays an overly optimistic outlook on progress in energy and propulsion while vastly underestimating the rate of innovation in information technology. The novel becomes, in this sense (and like many of its vintage), an interesting archaeolo More...

1 comment like

Mar 26, 2011

Chris rated it:

I have somehow managed to make it past the age of thirty, with very little personal contact with the legendary Arthur C. Clarke outside of his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on the seminal film, "2001". I recently changed that by picking up his first novel, Childhood's End. Within the first ten pages it became apparent that I have done myself a great disservice.

Childhood's End is a century-spanning alien "invasion" story that tells the tale of a mysterious r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

Grant rated it:

Decent book.

I feel like it was structured around two big 'reveals'. To avoid spoilers, I won't mention them directly, but they were pretty obvious. I really liked the first one - it held up to it's promise - but the second one came too close to 2001 to really feel original or interesting.

The characters were boring.

This seems like a flaw to me for most sci-fi: really boring characters. I swear, they're as flat as cardboard. One of them is faced with the prospect of More...

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