Customer Reviews

Childhood's End

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It sounds like a story you've heard before: great alien masters descend on Earth and take control of the world, ushering in a golden age that may be cleverly disguised creative slavery. But Clarke's legendary novel (equal to _Rendezvous with Rama_ and _2001: A Space Odyssey_ in fame) isn't about a human rebellion against alien overlords, but the evolution of humanity into its next stage, and the ultimate dwarfing power of the unknowable order of the cosmos. The narrative glides between different characters and different eons, occasionally with a seeming clumsiness that turns out to be purposeful plotting devices. The pay-off is sublime science-fiction poetry that shows the genre's power to transcend human drama and fly into the infinite. The sheer scope of its conclusions leaves the reader wiser and sadder, the sign of a superb novel.

Author Arthur Charles Clarke is renowned as one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. His "2001: A Space Odyssey", written with and filmed by Stanley Kubrick, is viewed as one of the seminal works in science fiction history. Obviously, Clarke didn't make his career out of one single book (and movie). He has been quite a prodigious, and proficient, writer. In addition to writing three sequels to the "2001" saga, he also wrote the best-selling "Rama" series, numerous single novels like "Hammer of God" and "Songs of Distant Earth", and untold numbers of short stories. His stories have won just about every conceivable award for this genre and have achieved the dual goal of garnering critical praise and popular approval. Of all his novels, though, it may be one of his earliest that still stands as his best.

"Childhood's End" was first published in 1953, a time when the cold war was in full form and people were beginning to truly look towards the stars for other life and possibilities for exploration. "Childhood's End" tapped into that fertile imagination to craft a story of profound scale and meaning. It begins one day when numerous spaceships suddenly appear in the sky above Earth. They are flown by an alien species referred to as the Overlords. The purpose of their journey to third planet of the Solar System is subject to much speculation and fear. These aliens seem to be a benevolent race that only wants to help humanity solve the problems that plague it. In fifty years, these Overlords will end ignorance, poverty, war, and disease. To what end do they do this, though? The absence of any obstacles and struggles renders humanity complacent and inert. Is this designed to make Earth pliable for invasion, or is there a greater, more benevolent purpose behind these actions by the Overlords?

"Childhood's End" is an appropriate title as it references the end of humanity's childhood. The Overlords are on a quest to condition the people of Earth for it's new role in the order of the Universe. Current humanity will not be able to handle what is asked of them, but through the generations they can be evolved to be prepared to take their next step. "Childhood's End", in the space of a mere 224 pages tells the stories of the different steps of this evolution in an episodic manner that is rich in detail and profound in meaning. Clarke is fascinated by the potentials of human destiny. Sometimes, as with "Light of Other Days", he is not as successful in realizing that destiny as he is in other stories. "Childhood's End", though, extraordinarily realizes what humanity can become and its importance to strive towards that. "Childhood's End" is as relevant and compelling and novel in 2003 as it was in 1953.

I fell in love with movies when I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. I fell in love with books when I read this science-fiction masterpiece. Both deal with what one might transcendental evolution i.e. mankind taking the next or final step in ways way beyond science (or, at least, "explainable" science). No other novel I have ever read (s-f or otherwise) has ever filled me with such an epic feeling of loss and loneliness. This short tale -short by today's standards- tells of the sudden, but benign, invasion of Earth by a superior race from other space. The media dubs them "the Overlords". Clarke masterfully unveils their mysterious plans to midwife the human race as it unknowingly is about to give birth to the next generation. It will be a generation that bears very little resemblance to the ones before it. The three stories about 1) our first face to face meeting with the Overlords (a monumentally advanced race that sadly knows it will never get anymore advanced), 2) the Golden Age that follows their arrival to clear the way for the next generation and 3) the tradgedy of our species having to watch and comes to terms with its own extinction all fill you with awe and wonder. Clarke skillfully creates whole characters with economy and fluidity. His descriptions of other worlds would stop George Lucas and his wizards in their tracks. Those worlds are utterly alien and believable. However it the emotions of romance, yearning, loss and desolation that send you reeling. This book extends the reaches that 2001 sent you out on and it saddens you deeply. Few authors have ever used science better to thruster power their imagination. Clarke has done it many times in novels and stories. Childhood's End is his finest work.

I was strictly a dabbler in science fiction, until this book grabbed me and pulled me in. To this day, it ranks as my favourite in the genre.
The Overlords appear one day over every city on Earth, and with little resistance, mankind submits to the technologically superior race. After all, their demands are entirely benevolent; they seem to want no more than to end war, poverty, and the other evils that have always plagued the Earth. But why? Through three generations, a few people endeavour to find out.
What they finally learn is something they never imagined: mankind's terrible and wonderful final destiny, and the part the mysterious Overlords are fated to play in achieving it.
Many of Clarke's novels are somewhat lacking in character development, and though Childhood's End is not an extreme example of this tendency, some fairly important characters are only half-formed. In some books, this is a flaw, but when Clarke is truly in his element, the vagueness of the characters seems to work in the story's favour. Here, particularly, I found myself getting quite attached to characters it seemed I barely knew (including some of the enigmatic aliens).
One feature I particularly liked in this book was the glimpse of the Overlords' home world, a tour of wonders that Clarke knows better than to try and explain in terms of known science, at least not with any detail. If anything, the mystery of it all makes the story-- and the Overlords-- seem more real.
The ending, though inspiring from a certain angle, can be a downer in terms of the characters you come to know and like, no matter where your sympthies end up lying. Mine, in the end, fall with Karellen, the Overlord supervisor, who, like the other Overlord characters, manages to be thoroughly believable despite the fact that his background and motivations remain more or less a mystery.
Science fiction is often infused with philosophy; this book pulls off the mixture better than any other I've read.

The vision of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is as remarkable and beautiful in the year 2001 as it was the day that it was written. I was doing some internet research on the great author when I stumbled upon some recent customer reviews on this masterpiece. It appears that many children in Illinois were recently coerced into reading this book by some Overlord of a teacher. (I'll bet that teacher looks like Satan, himself.) Most of these reviewers felt that this book was an inconvenient waste of time. After all, this time could have been spent watching Temptation Island. One reviewer wrote: "Exactly the type of endings that made me a science fiction hater to begin with. Nothing happened like I expected." The conclusion of this book is quite unexpected. This is, no doubt, disconcerting to children who have been raised on the predictable outcomes of Baywatch, V.I.P., and, of course, the W.W.F. This same reviewer stated: "Nothing imaginative happened, things just disappeared and the book ended". What happens at "Childhood's End" is something that must be believed, in order to be seen! Some twenty thousand years ago, a small change in genetic code transformed certain primates from cannibalistic beasts into beings capable of producing the Mona Lisa, Beethoven's Ninth, and the writings of William Shakespeare. Childhood's End raises the question: What if there is yet another key inside the soul and/or physical being of humankind that can transform us once again as an entire race. Witness the sadness of the Overlord who is condemned to only sit and watch. With all of their advanced technology, with all of their seemingly vast power, The Overlords cannot take that next step. Even with their mighty ships, The Overlords require years to travel across the galaxy. What if humans will one day traverse the galaxy instantly as beings of sheer thought and pure energy. I guess the students of Illinois are not yet ready for "Childhood's End".

I think most people have missed the point of this great work.
In this book, Clarke re-tells the old Christian-Islamic creation myth from a mystic point of view in a Science-Fiction novell!
According to this myth, man has a divine gift in him that allows him to finally join in with God , where as the Devil, though the archangel, made of fire instead of clay, can never reach this phase. Though by God's plan it serves His great purpose of making that final union of Man and God possible.
Clarke takes this , wraps it up in a Scientific world-view, even explains the origin of the above myth in its plot's context, in the mean time makes fun of all the prosaic results of the very same myth, and finally portrays the union in perhaps the most fascinating way ever told!
If this is not masterpiece , I don't know what is!

He also gives us a hint at the very first page where he writes :"the opinions expressed in this book are not that of the author".
Ofcourse they're not!
Clarke is a scientifically minded atheist, who uses the very core of modern religions to write a science fiction master piece!

I am stunned by people moaning that this masterpiece is 'depressing', as if a book can only be of great quality if it's a happy-smiley love and cuddles affair. OK, that's a bit harsh but it's how I feel sometimes.

There's so much imagination here. I'm astonished that Clarke is regarded as a conventional, hard sf writer; there's so much more to his best works. Yes, in some of his more pedestrian novels (Earthlight, Ghost From the Grand Banks, Hammer of God) Clarke struggles to arouse any sense of wonder or make the reader really THINK, but when at his best few in sf can match him. Childhood's End is (next to 2001) perhaps the finest example of his ability to provoke thought and speculation. It's not a typical Clarke story; many reviewers have picked up on the crucial line "the stars are not meant for man". The philosophical and mystical aspects of the book make a refreshing change from his usual pessimism about such matters (though I have to say I share his scornful appraisal of astrology etc).

The novel starts well, but the point where the book becomes a true classic is with the visions experienced by the young child at the centre of much of the second half of the story (I'm writing this from memory - I can't remember his name! John? Jack?). The visions are breathtaking and totally gripping.

The conclusion is shocking and left me sitting still for around 5 minutes trying to get my head round it.

I would say that only Iain Banks' The Bridge and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy can match this novel

Although I have enjoyed many of Arthur C. Clarke's books, this is one that made almost no impression upon me. Perhaps I've gotten used to the conventions of the genre which this book in part set up from scratch, but knowing that a book was groundbreaking in its time and now simply reflects standard cliches does not make it any easier to enjoy. The aliens, despite their initially mysterious behaviour, turn out to be all-too-human and banal; the touching but rather juvenile faith in the UN and other world institutions that permeates most of the book reeks of 1950s transnationalism; and the mystical aspects of the book are rather amateurish and anti-intellectual. Compare this to Theodore Sturgeon's To Marry Medusa and you will find Childhood's End seems like an appetizer in comparison to the literary feast that Sturgeon presents on a similar topic. Unless you're eager to explore the antecedents of modern sci-fi cliches, I can't honestly recommend this novel.

The synopsis above says that the overlords start eliminating humans, which is utter tripe. I apologise for the plot spoiler, but it's worse to have a wrong spoiler like that above.

Anyway, rant over. The story starts off almost exactly like the film Independence Day - huge ships appear and hover over Earth. But the continuation is very different. The Overlords are definitely hiding something, but it's not clear what. Don't worry, all is revealed over the course of this readable, short, and engrossing book.

There are two things to like about this book. The first is how prophetic it is. It was written in 1953, but foresees the pill, and DNA testing, and universal surveillance, and holograms, among other things. One prophecy that has not come true, but might, is that as people become richer, they become lazier, especially mentally, and watch TV the whole time. At one point, Clarke says, in shocked tones, that people are watching three hours of TV a day!

The second thing to like about this book is the way that it manages to tell the story of the relationship between the human race, and the Overlords, through individual stories, rather than through a history-book like relating of the facts. There is not a lot of character development, but you get to identify with the players.

The way the story developed was surprising, and it's surprising how original it felt. I would have thought that someone would have ripped it off by now. Maybe the later generation of sci-fi writers don't read the classics. Anyway, you won't get the feeling that you have read this book before, which is quite common for me with these sci-fi and fantasy books.

Arthur C. Clarke is the master on the science fiction genre, and Childhood's end is one of his greatest works. The book begins with humanity near the possiblity of nuclear destruction, and just beginning to look to the stars for their future. However, the hope for conquest of the stars is shattered when a fleet of alien ships suddenly appears over every major city on the planet. The aliens are far more technologically advanced than man, and their intellect is unmatched. Instead of having the aliens take over the planet and enslave humanity, however, Clarke has the aliens(dubbed the "overlords" by the citizens) request only a few things- abolish war, poverty, segregation, and cruelty to animals, and set up a global nation. With these obstacles removed, humanity enters a golden age, and earth is a utopian society; yet the Overlord's still keep their true reason for visiting earth secret.
Childhood's end is engrossing, read it in one sitting. The ideas that Clarke puts forward are classic, the characters, such as the enigmatic Overlords, are original and captivating. With the overlords, Clarke has set up an alien race unlike any other in science fiction. Earth doesn't know the intentions of the Overlords, and neither does the reader, making the Overlords mysterious and magnificient at the same time. The Overlords are a key part on the book, and one of the reasons that make it a classic. The ideas Clarke has in the book(despite the caption in the front that reads" the opinions expressed in this book are not those of the author") make you think in a different way, and put a new spin on the history and future of humanity. The ending, which I won't spoil, is both great and sad at once, very bittersweet.
Childhood's end is a classic, and the ideas that Clarke had about the future are far-reaching, and some of the aspects of his future earth can be seen in our modern culture. The only problem with the book is its slightly dated beginning, however the rest of the novel more than makes up for it. Childhood's End has influenced everything from sci-fi movies like "Independence Day" to computer games, and even a Pink Floyd song. I highly recommend it to any fan of the sci-fi genre, and to anyone looking for a new perspective on humanity.