Childhood's End

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.

Rating:
Summary: an extraordinary novel
Review: Arthur Clarke cannot be praised for his literary skills nor for the relatively shallow and underdeveloped characters in all his books. This is book is no exception, but it has other merits that make it one of the best sf novels ever.

Alien "overlords" (with an interesting physical appearence, no less) arrive at earth and take over humanity. Under their ruling, all known great problems of humanity (war, poverty, discrimination etc) disappear and earth finally becomes something close to a paradise. Sounds interesting? No matter what, it is impossible to guess the stunning unforgettable climax towards which the novel slowly builds up. The scale of Clarke's theme is of cosmic proportions. A must read for every sci-fi lover.

Rating:
Summary: Intresting means so many things
Review: The word 'intresting' is often used when trying to be kind, and still give an opinion,my opinion of this book is the same. I did, in all honesty, find certain parts of the book to be fascinating and thought provoking. However, I was deeply disturbed by the author's view of society,and by the way that he thinks - the evidence being the story in the book itself. I was horrified at the ending, and repulsed by so many of the points made by the book. I found the entire read extreemly, almost intinctively disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: Our future?
Review: I blew a Saturday reading this book; I could hardly put it down. I wouldn't call it a utopia, like some readers; even the "Golden Age," when the Overlords rule a prosperous earth, seems from the first the beginning of a horrible and fascinating nightmare. And, I couldn't help thinking, one that might come true. Not that our Overlords will come from space; I suspect we may build them ourselves. Our computers won't need psychic abilities; they may float their thoughts across the Internet and become One. What they will do after that -- Clarke's may be as good a guess as any.

Clarke's other peeks at the future often seem shrewd and even inspired, but sometimes bizarre. The cosmic leap in evolution produces a collective entity with as little in the way of scruples or love of beauty as Big Brother; yet he seems to think it a step forward. His overlords begin their regency by ending cruelty to animals, and end it . . . All in all, a weird, psychodelic ride. When you get off, you might decompress by visiting the lovely utopia of C. S. Lewis' Perelandra, where also you can tell the devils and heroes apart.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

Rating:
Summary: A Very interesting books...
Review: This book has a very interesting point of view concerning telepathy and our, and other species' place and purpose in this universe. It portrays the changes occuring in the human attitude towards the aliens from the moment they got here to the point the human race (in its present form) is diminished.

The only point that slightly disturbed me is the fact the aliens were given a better set of morals - but human morals after all. That seemed a little unnatural to me in a race so different than our own. Personally, I would expect their morals to be different (if they have morals at all, that is) - but simply different, not considered as better / worse than our own.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Sci-Fi Book Written
Review: When I was high school, back in 1975, my English teacher kept me after clss when I told him I hadn't read Catcher in the Rye, but instead read a piece of science fiction. He handed me a book for science fiction teachers, which included the best 50 science fiction books as rated by science fiction teachers. Guess which book topped the list.

Rating:
Summary: Collective Consciousness
Review: Without giving away the ending of the book, suffice it to say this novel was heavily influenced by Clarke's conversion to Buddhism, as the concept of ONENESS permeates the story. The Overlords visit Earth from a distant galaxy and seemingly solve Mankind's problems: hunger, racism, war, poverty, etc. But at what price? What is the ultimate goal of the Overlords? Are they benevolent? The realism of how humanity would react to the takeover by alien beings is absolutely believable and probable. There is no silliness and the reader doesn't get stereotypical laser beam wars while it remains suspenseful nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Arthur needs to get over himself
Review: This "classic" was a disappointment. First the events were too fantastic, too far fetched even for science fiction and too hard to swallow,..etc. Again and again through out the book, Arthur demonstrates that he has this British Empire superiority complex. He assumes that measures of human progress include such things as everyone on earth speaking English, that ALL religions are the same and that London is the jewel of Europe and therfore, the world. On the whole, I found the book irritating despite a clearly sophisticated writing style.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Clarke, Classic Utopian Speculations...
Review: If you are an Arthur C. Clarke fan, you must read this. Characteristically, some of his main themes include the tension between rationalism and mysticism, which crops up repeatedly in his work, as in the ending of "2001: A Space Odyssey", or in "The Fountains of Paradise", to name just two examples. He seems to have a real love/hate relationship with this issue -- as far as I know, it may date from his experiences, as a scientist, of local religious beliefs in the land he has called home for decades now, Sri Lanka... At any rate, in this book the "Overlords" are a mysterious, powerful, but ultimately tragic group of beings which have vastly potent minds, but which cannot undergo the spiritual metamorphosis which would take them into direct communion with the sort of Godhead that directs their (and our) destiny. I liked Clarke's ideas about utopia, which is more or less what the Earth becomes after a few generations under the guidance of the Overlords. He seems to have had a lot of fun playing with ideas about future art forms, for example, among other things. However, this utopian society is doomed, because of an unforeseen, quantum leap in evolution, which turns out to be an evolution of the communal spirit. Clarke has a lot to say here about what connects us to each other, as human beings. Are we all linked with some higher being at the level of spirit, in the manner that islands would be revealed to be all linked, if one were to somehow drain the world's oceans? Or is striving toward a planned, ordered, social utopia, with allowances made for developing all of every individual's gifts to the fullest possible degree, the best way to relate to each other? These are the sort of questions that Clarke explores in this terrific novel, and he does it in a highly entertaining fashion throughout.