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“No utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time. As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights and become discontented with power and possessions that once would have seemed beyond their wildest dreams. And even when the external world has granted all it can, there still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.” The United States and the Soviet Union were in the midst of a military space race when large ships appeared in the skies over al...
Childhood's End, Arthur C. ClarkeChildhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture. In the midst of the US-Soviet rivalry for space, unknown spaceships appear over all major cities on Earth, ending the race. Spaceship crews avoid showing their faces, but they b...
Overlord and Overmind come to open up many questions about the meaning of life and stuff.The main underlying theme is how much of the presents given during a first contact event should be used or not and this trope grew to a redwood tree size and may evolve to a planet tree in the future with all the subfields, new interpretations, use in a mainly Social Sci-Fi setting, etc.How Sci-Fi was written those days would be close to unsellable today because each agent would just step back as wide as pos...
you think you're so fucken smart, don't you mark? ha, think again. all your little plans and goals, your little community of friends and family and colleagues, your whole little life... what does it matter in the long run? not a whole fucken lot. grow up.take this book for example. a classic of the genre, written by a classic author. you thought you knew what you were getting into; you've read countless examples of the type. you sure are a well-read little scifi nerd, aren't you? for the first h...
This is a strange and beautiful novel. Written in the early 1950s (some 15 years before 2001: A Space Odyssey), it is, with Asimov’s (overrated) Foundation, Bradbury’s (superb) The Martian Chronicles and a few others, one of the significant works of sci-fi’s “Golden Age”. Oddly enough, apart from a few plot irregularities and the outlandish author’s naivety regarding the paranormal and the occult, Arthur C. Clarke’s story doesn’t feel dated. The plot is based on a few episodes scattered in time....
As I read this book, there is a part that led me to believe that the picture that They Might Be Giants found to use for their album Apollo 18 had to have been inspired by this book:Sadly, I was expecting more from this book. I had heard lots of good things and seen many positive reviews, but it didn’t strike as much of a key with me as other Clarke novels have. While there was some food for thought and a few cool sci-fi concepts, it was a bit too out there and disjointed for my tastes. I know th...
Kurt Vonnegut said of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End that it is one of the few masterpieces in the science fiction genre. Vonnegut went on to say that he, Vonnegut, had written all the others. As humorous as that is, at least the first clause of that declaration I feel to be true. Written simply but with conviction and persuasion, with an almost fable-like narrative quality, Clarke has given to us that rarest of literary achievements: a science fiction masterpiece. The genius of Clarke...
I've done a lot of odd jobs over the years. At one point, back before I got my degree and I was still working to put my wife through school, I worked as a delivery driver for a company that sold construction supplies - 50 lb boxes of powdered Kool-Aid, portable generators, hammers, safety harnesses, 2x4's, circular saws. It was one of those barely above minimum wage jobs generally populated by people who for whatever reason find themselves unable to get anything else and competing against a larg...
If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.The Silent Ships: "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke“No one of intelligence resents the inevitable.”In “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. ClarkeOne of my favourite long novel is `Childhoods End`, but commenting on it without revealing the ending is difficult. That is the whole point after all, but still, think the early 80`s TV mini series/series of `V` - with Jane Badler as a seriously sexy, sociopathic alien - think they really were b...
Theological PoliticsFor an avowed atheist, Arthur Clarke had a great deal to say about God, and not all of it negative. Childhood’s End is a tale of the theological roots of politics and how religious belief simultaneously stimulates and inhibits human society. Clarke’s view is subtle, complex, and appropriately ‘cosmic.’ As a commentary on the centrality of religion to human existence - for its opponents as well as its adherents - Childhood’s End is hard to beat.If I read Clarke correctly, his
If science fiction usually treads the fine line between mere speculation and actual scientific feasibilities, then Arthur C. Clarke can be accused of taking a cosmic leap of faith into the realm of highly unrealistic speculation, in this book.For at least 75% of the narrative, I remained largely clueless about where the story was heading and for the remaining 25% I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the ludicrousness of it all.Aliens, who are referred to by a fancy name like 'Overlords' (*eyeroll...
From my vast expertise of having read all of two, count them, two, Arthur C. Clarke books, I am seeing a common theme. I don't know if it extends beyond that to his other books, but here it is: The universe is a very, very big place. And humans might just be irrelevant to it. What is going on out there is so vast that it's an immense piece of egotism to think of ourselves as central, or even incidental, to it. Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodread...
As I write the TV adaptation of Childhood's End is being promoted by the cable channel Syfy (goddam silly name). Given how much I like this book I will probably watch it but before I do I want to reread the source material first, as it’s been decades since I last read it. Childhood's End is — to my mind — Clarke's best novel. It is very unusual among his works in term of plot and setting. Most of the book is Earthbound and the story starts in the present day (year not specified). Very little tim...
“The stars are not for Man” (137).In Dante’s Inferno, there is a place wherein the virtuous pagans dwell. It is here that Virgil spends eternity. Here there are none of the gruesome punishments to be found in the lower circles of hell. But it is a dreary afterlife. This place exists because the virtuous pagans do not deserve the punishments that are inflicted upon the vicious, yet they lived before Christ redeemed mankind, so they cannot enter heaven. It may seem unjust that they are condemned t...
As a sci-fi fan, I've been trying to go back and read some of the classics and it's been... interesting.The book manages to have some very captivating concepts while being quite tedious to read.The book felt dated when mentioning POC and women which, while not surprising, did still take me out of the story at times.Overall I'm glad I read it, at least I can consider that an achievement as I look at all the "top 100 sci-fi books to read in your lifetime" type of lists but, contrary to popular opi...
I read this long ago, just when I was becoming a teenager and my tastes were changing, you might say I read it at childhood's end."When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11. But we cannot do this without the help of our parents and teachers (view spoiler)[and politicians. Well some of them. A few. One or two, you know (hide spoiler)]. And so it is the Aliens come.The story is ess...
I always feel so terrible when I read, or attempt to read, Arthur C. Clarke. But I also feel terrible when I don't. I like fantasy. I like science fiction. Arthur C. Clark is a genius, a pioneering, farsighted sci-fi icon. I should like reading his books. And so I try every once in a while, in the same spirit that I eat half a banana once or twice a year. I like fruit. Bananas are good for you. But I have yet to finish either a banana or an Arthur C. Clarke book.It's me. It must be. So I'm givin...
{Warning: lots of spoilers.}I read Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End many years ago. I also read it to my son when he was eight. So why did I come back to a book that was originally published in 1953, read it yet again, and feel it necessary to write a review?What got me thinking about Childhood’s End again is the emergence of the Internet as force for change within the Global Community. Also, my limited experience teaching university students impressed upon me the impact that the Internet is h...
Old SF sometimes has a kick to it that nothing modern can quite manage. There's a speed and economy of words, of action progressing so quickly that I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster ride and it's all downhill. This is what Childhood's End feels like.It's hard not to write about this book without giving away spoilers, so I'll just warn you now and get right down to business.It starts out with damn old tropes and bit of spunky adventure, but it quickly becomes obvious that all that was a lark. T...
At one point while reading this I was reminded of astronaut Dave Bowman from 2010: Odyssey Two, when he was telling everyone, "something is going to happen, something wonderful". Something does happen; whether it is wonderful or not is a matter of debate. In 2010 the message was of new beginnings, in Childhoods End it is something quite different. You can't go wrong reading Arthur C. Clarke, just a brilliant writer with a wonderful imagination.