Childhood's End

Rating:
Summary: The Supervisor
Review: Childhood's End, a science fiction book written by Arthur Clarke, describes his feelings of how the end of Earth will be. I have never liked science fiction because I believe in the Bible, and most science fiction contradicts what God, the Creator of mankind, has said. Clarke writes about mankind's last generation. The book suggests that children will suddenly begin to show signs of being a different species, and soon, mankind will have all evolved into this species. This is then the end of Earth and life as we know it. The Supervisor is Karellen, a being from a different planet, who "supervises" man during the ending years of the human race. However, the Supervisor is not the ruler of all. He has a superior, the Overmind, from whom he receives instruction. I believe that God is the highest power there has ever been and there will ever be. Books such as Childhood's End, that contradict my beliefs, have always seemed silly and unrealistic, because I don't believe in anything that is being proposed. Some things that were very unrealistic were the aliens in the book. Also, some of the technology, such as flying cars, seemed too abstract to be believable, even though they may some day come to pass. Although I disagreed with the overall ideas of the book, it did keep my attention. This book was not dull and boring, just unbelievable and contradictory to my beliefs.

Rating:
Summary: Alright for science fiction
Review: This was not my favorite book that I have ever read. I am not personally a science fiction type of reader. I generally stay away from them as much as possible, but since it was required to read I had no choice. The book wasn't as bad as I was thinking it would be. With aliens and life on other planets with little silver ships watching overyou all the time kind of seem a little far out there for me personally. Since the book was written in the fifties, it had some pretty amazing predictions for the future. Ones that came pretty close to what is actually going on today. For example with the DNA testing and the amount of T.V. watching increasing. The people of that time would prabably be shocked to know how much people now really watch T.V. It kind of took me awhile to even get interested in, for me, the far fetched plot. With another race trying to help humans but yet changing them was kind of strange for me also. Basically this would probably be a good book for someone who enjoys reading science fiction, but for me it wasn't my favortie.

Rating:
Summary: The disappointing end to "Childhood's End"
Review: The request by my english teacher to read "Childhood's End" immediately made me turn my nose up at the book. I am an avid science-fiction hater! I don't know that I've ever enjoyed any science-fiction books that I have read. The thought of reading about outerspace and aliens disguisted me. As it turns out the book was not AS bad as I thought. Once I got past the first few explanatory chapters that outlined the plot, I began to somewhat enjoy the book. Now, I wouldn't say that I just couldn't put it down, but it had become somewhat interesting. The "overlords" or aliens, didn't seem so much like made-up creatures, they seemed somewhat like humans, aside from the spacecraft of course. As I began to near the end of the book, I was almost anxious to see what would happen to mankind. That is when it happened, just exactly the type of endings that made me a science-fiction hater to begin with. Nothing happend like I expected!! It seems as thought all this creativity that wat put into the book itself just ran out at the end of the book. Absolutely nothing imaginative happened, things just dissappeared and the book ended. Not meaning to give away the ending for anyone, but you aren't missing much. While the book did keep my interests for awhile, I've fallen back into my science-fiction hater mold. I feel that this is probably where I will remain! There is one thing that I'm very interested by, it is how this book was written in 1953! Aside from the aliens some of the author's predictions in the book, did really come true! That is true ability by the author, Arthur C. Clarke. Read the book for yourselves and find out what you think of "Childhood's End" and it's ending.

Rating:
Summary: Childhood's End
Review: When told that I was going to have to read a science-fiction book for my English class, I was at first very skeptical. When my teacher passed out the book "Childhood's End", I started to get nervous. I had never read a science-fiction book before, and I didn't know what to expect. When I first started reading "Childhood's End", I was confused. It starts talking about one situation with one group of people, and then moves to another situation with another group of people, and the first situation and group of people are never discussed again. The further I got into the book, the more enjoyable it became. But when I got to the middle of the book, my excitement started to decline and my confusion increased at a fast pace. The last 5 or so chapters were the most confusing parts of a book that I have ever read. While I was reading, I was like "What?" But the very last chapter started to make more sense, but was still very disappointing. I will not give away any secrets of the book, but the ending is not the best. It is still very hard to believe that this book was written in 1953, because there are parts of it that are so real. But then there are other parts that are very unrealistic. I guess I could say that his is a somewhat good book. I will just say, that if you are forced to read the book, it's not that bad, but unless you are a science-fiction lover, I would not recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: My Teacher Made Me Read This~
Review: All I have to say is that I am not a huge sci-fi fan, so this book did not appeal to me in any particular way. For the genre of literature that is is, I suppose that it is worth while to read if this is what you like. The beginning of the book reminds me of the movie Indepedence Day but after the intial opening that is all the resemblence that it had to the film. The idea that the Overlords remained at a distance from the human race until they were sure that they would be safe from persecution was a good idea. They have the appearance of what we consider in our everday life to be the symbol of the devil. In other terms they look like what we as a people consider to be the root of all evil. This book aslo adresses the evolution of man, and the idea that we will later evolve into something other than what we now know we are. This is an idea that commonly conflicts with the ideas of everyday religion in today's society, and may offend some people to the point of disgust. I am not one of these people but if you are i would not recommend this book to you. This is just my own personal opinion!

Rating:
Summary: Human race: do we matter?
Review: Childhood's End, a great science fiction work, asks some interesting questions of the reader. Does the human race really play a role? The answer is, they didn't live in vain, but in the scheme of things, meaning in the Universe and whatnot, we didn't play that much of a role. The Overlords had to intervene to keep them from blowing themselves up with neuclear weapons. This evolved the humans, making them into a possible source of a higher civilization. The Overlords, even though they are much smarter and advanced than the humans, envy them because the humans could evolve to the next level of life, which the Overlords could not. Another question is are all possible alien civilizations evil like the stereotype determines? The Overlord civilization says this is wrong, but there is no way to find out.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent prophetic book, ignore the synopsis above
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and engaging coming-of-age tale for the human rac
Review: I had read 2001: A Space Odyssey and I found it a little slow and hard to get through, so I wasn't expecting alot from this book. To my delight, it kept my interest from beginning to end. As soon as the alien ships show up the big mystery of "why are they here?" keeps you reading. Are the aliens good? bad? what do they want? The answer to these questions is thought-provoking and a satisfying end to the book. One of the classics for those sci fi lovers out there.

Rating:
Summary: A SciFi Classic for the Young At Heart
Review: I recently reread Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" and wound up rediscovering my youthful fascination with science fiction.

This is the good stuff. Clarke always told his stories with an Englishman's placid tone. You won't find much in the way of titillation in his tales unless it's the frisson one gets upon seeing an imaginative concept brilliantly executed.

In "Childhood's End", Clarke gives us a distinctly different sort of alien invasion than the laser-and-bomb battles we're used to from decades of movies and novels. Clarke's Overlords simply hover above our cities, unapproachable and immune to harm. When the initial furor dies down, they start to execute their plan.

The tale spans generations and never flags in its ability to grab and hold the reader's attention. The ending is absolutely shocking and yet fits the narrative perfectly.

If you enjoy science fiction or have been looking to dip a toe in the genre's deep well, check out "Childhood's End".

Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: Classic Clarke at its best! One of the most important and enigmatic stories in the realm of science fiction, perhaps one of Clarke's most transcendent and important books, dealing with the (one of the possible) future(s) of mankind composed of just a few ones, and even beyond that single destiny...

This is a small book, you can be done with it the very same day you begin reading it.