Rating: 
Summary: The best book I've never heard of.
Review: I've read about 40+ books, ranging from horror novels, sci-fi, true life, etc., and have never left a book with such a feeling of raw wonder. I've asked many to tell me their "favorite" book, regardless of genre. This title had come up repeatedly in the sc-fi circles as a true 'classic'. For this, they couldn't be more right.
Throughout the entire novel, I couldn't believe how accurate it felt. By this, I take into account the book was written in the 1950's. Yet it could have been published yesterday in terms of how the book gave you the experience of the era. Even though that era is a completely ficticious one. Without spoiling too much, the book tells the story of what happens when spaceships show up on the brink of the human race leaving it's homeworld. Taking into account that the novel was written BEFORE we ventured to the moon, is just one of the elements that makes the book so enjoyable on so many levels.
My favorite aspect of the book is simply what it isn't. Arthur C. Clarke does a wonderful job of making the story evolve from a simple alien invasion cliche', to something far more encompassing. In short, this book is far better than the cover makes it look.
A real 'classic' is far too limited in describing a book that I believe transcends the genre of science fiction. Very readable, thouroughly enjoyable, and a must read for people who love good stories.
Rating:
Summary: This is a story that will make you think, and stays with you
Review: I read this book over 10 years ago. The story was thought provoking. This is one book title that has always stayed on my mind and I definately would read again.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Clarke is not a master of insight into the human soul, and "Childhood's End" reflects that soullessness. There is not anything here worthwhile enough to redeem this tedious paean to the New Age philosophies. If you want to read Clarke at his best, look at 2001. It's far more readable than Childhood's End, and has the added advantage of not aspiring to silly philosophies that ultimately can't be substantiated
Rating: 
Summary: This is great!
Review: Imagine this: suddenly, a lot of alien spaceships comes to earth. They stay airborne for a while, but then they land, the aliens steps out and they look like the devil himself. A great number of bad looking aliens have landed and what do you think manking is doing about it? Read and find out..
Rating:
Summary: The End of Childhood
Review: John W. Campbell, Jr., the father of science fiction, earned his title by discovering and printing the stories of such names as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction. Though some of the names in those pages refuse to be remembered, the "big" ones will always stay with us. But why?
Arthur C. Clarke, in Childhood's End, shows us why. Not only do we follow a few characters through the story, but we are also introduced to a larger character, the true protagonist of the story, the human race. We do care about Rikki Stormgren, George Greggson and Jan Rodricks, but we also care about what species they represent, and what that species is capable of.
The book, written in 1953, is often prophetic and optimistic as Clarke moves us into the future 150 years from the present day, and at forty-four years later, we need only make the slightest changes to imagine it happening in 1997. The story is sparked by the arrival of the, Human coined, Overlords, and whether intentional or not, the makers of Independance Day owe Clarke royalty checks. It is by constant and dull pressure that the Overlords push us into a Utopia, regardless of our lack of desire for one. While that is a struggle for humanity, the means are obvious, but what will be the result? What will the Overlords gain?
It has been a long time since I've closed the back cover of a book with such a feeling of completion and awe. And it is such an aptly named book, that it makes me question the amount of time authors spend titling their books. It is a quick read, I finished in four days, but it carries so well that it is worth a second read, even a third
Rating:
Summary: Alien invasion - for the thinking person
Review: Arthur C. Clarke weaves a thought-provoking tale of alien invasion, racial precognition, and human destiny in the story of CHILDHOOD'S END. Where Mark Twain postulated Angels as Beings Who Can Do No Wrong, Clarke goes one better with the Overlords, a devilish race of beings who can only do what's right! A true SF Classic, by the British Master of the genre
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: As everything Clarke has written, this is a great story. While i was reading it, i didn't get much time over. If you like other Clarke books, you should read it, and if you never read anything by this great writer, this is a good start
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, though not for everyone
Review: This is one of those books you'll read voraciously, then put down and go, "Huh?" While revealing anything about the plot you won't read in the first few pages will give too much away, suffice it to say that Clarke's opinions about the fate of humanity may raise your eyebrow. You'll probably either love it, or wonder if you're time wasn't wasted. As I said: fascinating, though not for everyone
Rating:
Summary: I continue to be a huge Arthur C Clarke fan!
Review: Along with Asimov and other great science-fiction authors whose works have added themselves to other great works by other sci-fi masters: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Ringworld", "Foundation", as well as the more modern cyberpunk works like "Neuromancer", "Mona Lisa Overdrive", "Snow Crash", "Prey", and "Cyber Hunter". All are must-reads for any hardcore science-fiction and cyberpunk collector.
Rating:
Summary: The Future of the human race
Review: This book is one of the most important books ever written. It's authored by a man whose statement: "The greatest human tragedy was the hijacking of morality by religion." was contradicted by the book's major idea, i.e that at some point the 'irrational' will seduce the last generation of the 'children of man'. There is a statement in some editions by the author that 'The author is not responsible for the ideas within the book. (????!!!) Who then is responsible? In the last days, the physical world began to tremble and shatter as the minds of the children begin to create for themselves another level of 'being'. a world their parents cannot comprehend. There are two levels of 'oversoul' tenders, one higher level which controlled even the 'controllers' who administrated the children's entry into the higher level...(which seems to me to accord with William Blakes' Tree of Life Allegory, if you want some validation that 'creating mentally' is an idea that's 'out there' in the general realm.) Read the book as pleasure and as a kind of prophetic description of this time, when the 'mental world' of 'man' has altered so very much as to reconfigure what was pre-assumed to be 'reality', per Newtonian mechanics. The 'oversoul' of man must be attached to what has been defined as the 'religious domain', a fact that many scientific minds are being corralled into acknowledging in 2004 If the hijacking of morality by religion was indeed a tragedy the hijacking of 'reason' by 'science' must then be a supernatural tragedy. I love the book, it was the most 'affective' book I've ever read.
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