From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

Childhood’s End

Arthur C. Clarke

Start date: September 1, 2022

Finish date: September 30, 2022

Discussion: Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Science Fiction and Fantasy

* 2025 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reading Schedule
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2025 September - The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
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Nov 04, 2024 Natalie rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, science-fiction

This is my first Clarke book and while the storyline is clear, it falls into several of the conventions of Sci Fi of this time period. There are broad statements, characters are rather flat, and the aliens are mysterious, and ultimately, humanity is doomed.
The story begins and ends with the viewpoint of various humans. We see the arrival of aliens and their actions through various people at international agencies, a group of Americans, and then a single human, who wishes to remain on Earth. Eart This is my first Clarke book and while the storyline is clear, it falls into several of the conventions of Sci Fi of this time period. There are broad statements, characters are rather flat, and the aliens are mysterious, and ultimately, humanity is doomed.
The story begins and ends with the viewpoint of various humans. We see the arrival of aliens and their actions through various people at international agencies, a group of Americans, and then a single human, who wishes to remain on Earth. Earth is visited by powerful aliens, called the Overlords. We are given a broad view of them: they are intelligent, good at governance, and as we learn later, act out of sympathy for human ineptitude. But they slowly enact far reaching control of Earth in order to make sure things go the way they have planned. Liberty is limited and humans are closely watched. But because the process is gradual, humans, such as Stormgren, are mostly accepting. I did not appreciate the detail that their presence and method of educating humans made religion unnecessary, and scientific study pointless. The Overlords' and representative Karellen's brillance somehow simplified human existence. Religious belief, in my view, is not the result of poor education.
We then see the human experience through George and Jean, who have two children, Jeff and Jennifer. Jeff can see amazing things in dreams and Jennifer has awesome power. The parents learn their children are not human.
Following that, we learn the Overlords were actually sent by the Overmind, an even more powerful and ominous alien force. We see their arrival through a man named Jan, who sees the earth being wiped out. He refuses to leave, and instead is reduced to just atoms.
The writing is clear and there are several nice phrases, explaining the power of the aliens and the changes they bring. But there is very little actual detail about the aliens; we just see how they contrast humanity. Humans are weak and error prone; the aliens are powerful. I wish we had had a clearer picture of the two alien groups, rather than generalities. And it seems that their efforts to help humans are really not altruistic, which I think is just alluded to. The human portrayals make the story more interesting. ...more

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Jan 08, 2016 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I knew very little about this book going into it other than it was considered to be a Science Fiction classic and that SyFy recently produced a miniseries adaptation of it. When it popped up on sale for $1.99 on Kindle shortly after that, I figured it would be a good time to fill in some of the gaps in my SciFi reading (long story short. My parents were SciFi nerds. I rebelled by being a horror/true crime fanatic). I'm glad I waited until I was a fully formed adult before reading this one. I don ...more

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