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Cradle (Paperback)

~ Arthur C. and Gentry Lee Clarke (Author) "THE emerald water smashes against the dark volcanic cliffs..." (more)
Key Phrases: mating symphony, ocean telescope, marina headquarters, Commander Winters, Key West, Captain Homer (more...)
2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Product Description

This far-reaching, spine-tingling adventure stretches from the dawn of time to the distant future, from the edges of the universe to the vast depths of the sea. At the bottom of the ocean, an alien creature is dormant. But the time has come for it to awaken. And as it stirs, its power will be unleashed on the planet--and trigger the dawn of human extinction. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead in 1917. During the Second World War he served as a radar instructor for the RAF, rising to the rank of flight-lieutenant. After the war, he entered King's college, London taking, in 1948, his Bsc in physics and mathematics with first class honours.One of the most respected of all science-fiction writers, he has won Kalinga Prize, the Aviation Space-Writers' Prize and the Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. He also shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his story, 'The Sentinel'. He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback
  • Publisher: Warner Books; First Edition edition (June 1989)
  • ISBN-10: 9994936115
  • ISBN-13: 978-9994936113
  • Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Arthur C. Clarke
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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THE emerald water smashes against the dark volcanic cliffs. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mating symphony, ocean telescope, marina headquarters, golden trident, buoyancy bag, exercise bag, isothermal regions, target planet, splash pool, seed package, diving gear, golden object
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Commander Winters, Key West, Captain Homer, Lieutenant Todd, Florida Queen, Miss Dawson, Carol Dawson, Nick Williams, Outer Shell, Gulf of Mexico, Santa Rosa, Vernon Winters, Dale Michaels, Lieutenant Ramirez, Homer Ashford, Troy Jefferson, Palm Beach, Amanda Winchester, Council of Leaders, Saint John, Angie Leatherwood, Broken Arrow, Miami Herald, Sloppy Joe, Zoo Complex
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Customer Reviews

34 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.2 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Concept, but Lee a Weak Link, June 5, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Cradle (Mass Market Paperback)
Having thoroughly enjoyed Clarke's solo works, especially Rendezvous with Rama, I thought I would give Cradle a shot as that story idea looked interesting. I would soon be disappointed however as I began sinking in the quicksand that is Gentry Lee. If you are looking for a really good science fiction book, you should pass on this one and continue your search.

The first few hundred pages are filled with more-or-less pointless character development, clearly written by Lee, that would be perfectly at home in a Harlequin romance novel. A few pages of sci-fi, clearly written by Clarke, are interspersed so that the reader may be reminded that they paid $6 for a Clarke novel and not $2 for a grocery store romance tome. To be fair, I will admit that the general character interaction and background does come into play later on. But it just drags on and on and is littered with unnecessary sex scenes. I fail to understand Lee's obsession with writing about sex in the middle of a science fiction novel. Once would be OK, but after about the 4th time I found myself dropping the book and thinking "again?!" In addition, Lee's obsession with race, with each character being introduced as being black, white, Arab, Mexican, etc. is very annoying. The way that the race is then portrayed in the most cliché way is increasingly so. Lee may be an able and accomplished scientist, but his writing does not belong on the same pages with that of Arthur C. Clarke.

For some reason, probably because I had paid 900 yen for the book, I decided to stick with it and see the story through to the end. Around page 250 (of 408 total) the book got interesting. From that point forward I found myself wanting to continue to see what would happen next. But 250 pages is a lot to plod through before hitting something worth reading. In the end, the book wasn't that bad. The story could have been rather good had Clarke gone at it alone and focused the book on the sci-fi. As is stands, the bulk of this novel has very little to do with! sci-fi. So all-in-all, Cradle disappoints. The back cover says basically that something terrifying lies at the bottom of the ocean and could mean the extinction of the human race. This whole concept lasts maybe a dozen or so pages at the end of the novel and is never terrifying. The "scary" part is introduced and resolved so quickly that there is hardly time to assimilate it. And as the final words were read, I found myself wondering if the duo had just grown tired of the story as it seemed to suddenly end with several issues unresolved.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Gentry Lee begins his sabotage of Arthur Clarke, August 15, 2005
By Aaron Lawrence (Palmerston North, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Cradle (Mass Market Paperback)
I remember receiving this book with excitement. Arthur C Clarke was up until then a consistently good read: capturing, like few others, a real sense of wonder without belabouring his points.

This book was his first "collaboration" with Gentry Lee, and from here on his books completely lost me. Lee seems to be obsessed with rubbing our noses in the lesser qualities of humanity while Clarke always made me feel there was something better about us. In this respect I consider that Lee sabotages and subverts Arthur C Clarke's original style and visions. Likewise, he emphasises religious topics where Clarke was always refreshingly free of this.

He did the same thing with Rama, taking something wonderful and piling it up with low-grade human dross. In some respects his writing is realistic, but he is too pessimistic and seems to be fundamentally at odds with the genre he is in; he wants to write basic human drama but for some reason insists on doing it within science fiction trappings.

As others have said he is unfortunately not all that great at human drama anyway. There is a lot of effort expended, but characters somehow fail to convince me.

At the end of Cradle I was left feeling flat and uninterested, and I can't really remember much of the story.

The politest way to view this "collaboration" is that the "marketing department" simply chose to use Arthur C Clarke's name to boost a less-than-average writer. Clearly, Clarke has lost interest in the mechanics of writing, or at least no longer has the time for it. As a result I consider that he stopped writing some time ago and discount Cradle and the Rama sequels entirely.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting ideas but cookie-cutter characters, October 15, 2003
By Craig MACKINNON (Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Cradle (Mass Market Paperback)
There is a piece Star Trek lore that states a race of beings called the Preservers went through the galaxy picking up semi-intellegent life and planting them around the galaxy to protect them from extinction/war/meteors. Spielberg's ET is essentially this same idea, and it's the idea behind this novel, Cradle. In fact, these same authors explore the same territory to better effect in their Rama series. So why read this book?

Frankly, it is inferior to the Rama series. The plot mostly focusses on a reporter trying to find a test missile she suspects was lost on a test flight. The navy, naturally, wants to prevent word of this leaking out, so are also searching for the missile. One of the absurdities of the book is that the reporter finds the missile site so easily when the navy has been looking for weeks (?) with more resources and information. There are similar absurdities throughout the book. In addition, the characters are laughably 2-dimensional, all defined by some life-altering mental or physical trauma that took place years before. Thirdly and most annoyingly, great detail is taken to explain the details of alien manufacture without telling the reader what they are assembling, so the reader must wade through 4 pages of alien automatons attaching sticks together to discover that they are building an antenna. It's really trying on the reader's patience!

And yet I couldn't help but enjoy the book. The pacing is quick, the writing is usually loose and flowing (with the exception noted above), and it's an easy read. It's not nearly as good as the Rama series, but more enjoyable than much of what's out there in science fiction.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars All character development and no story
Eighty-five percent of this story is character development, and the characters are as paper thin as the science fiction plot. Skip this one.
Published on July 17, 2007 by Regular Reader

1.0 out of 5 stars painfully lecherously pointless
Ugh!

It's ever so rare to come across a book of this caliber - that caliber being the poo you have to scrap off the bottom of your shoe. Read more
Published on May 26, 2007 by M-I-K-E 2theD

1.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing
I have always been a huge Arthur C Clarke fan, I felt that his contribution to Cradle was only limited to the first chapter of this book; which was good. Read more
Published on July 18, 2006 by SciFiFan2006

1.0 out of 5 stars Almost as bad as Clarke's Light of Other Days
Clarke used to be great, especially his short stories, Childhood's End, and Rama. This poorly written book is almost as bad as Light of Other Days. Save your valuable time!!!
Published on July 12, 2005 by Avid sci fi bookreader

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Most momentous encounter in the history of humanity"
Two gods of science fiction - Arthur C. Clark, and ex-Director of NASA's Mars Viking Expeditions in 1977 Lee Gentry - have come together to write a novel of "the most momentous... Read more
Published on October 31, 2004 by Ash Hibbert

2.0 out of 5 stars Oddly Disappointing
Years ago I eagerly purchased a copy of CRADLE by Arthur C. Clark and Gentry Lee. I had really enjoyed the books Clarke wrote just before CRADLE. Read more
Published on July 13, 2004 by Joshua Koppel

1.0 out of 5 stars Like Tom Swift with [intercourse] thrown in
Weirdly juvenile, sitcom-like 'humor', incoherent plot, conversations, descriptions - I kept thinking, "Maybe it's some kind of parody," but in the end I decided it was just plain... Read more
Published on December 7, 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Gave up after 220 pages. Hidden plot, cardboard characters, disjointed storyline. Clarke must have had little to do with this yawner.
Published on September 20, 2002 by Cassandra Arnold, Children's L...

2.0 out of 5 stars Must be early Gentry Lee
I had a very hard time with this book. I was quite confused, as I had read the whole Rama series as they came out. Read more
Published on September 15, 2002 by Steve P

3.0 out of 5 stars Kept me interested
I found it difficult to put this book down because I kept thinking that very soon I would read the information that would make the story crystal clear to me. Read more
Published on January 24, 2002 by missannie1686

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