Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke
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Book Summary Information
Author: Arthur C. ClarkeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1987-05-12
ISBN: 0345347951
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of Childhood's End
Book Review: "The Opinions Expressed ... Are Not Those of the Author"
Summary: 4 Stars
There are at least three issues Clarke comments on: religion, sex & romance, and politics. In the novel, he discounts the major religions and their accounts of God as they're believed on Earth. Considering how sketchy their beliefs are based on, this is not a large stretch of the imagination. But Clarke then goes on to state that sexual attitudes (this published in 1953) will be drastically changed in the future by two things: effective oral contraceptives and the ability to do DNA testing. These now already exist; so has everyone's sexual situation drastically improved due to being able to determine if one's wife or girlfriend has slept with someone else since her newborn child has been determined to have been fathered by someone else. Clarke also sounds like quite a worldly person when he chastises a young male for being crestfallen for having lost a love when everyone knows humans are polygamous. So it's disheartening then after this sophisticated comment to have him write with such a naive and romantic attitude on the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is an entity that murdered 20 million people in the 20th century. There's a statement on the copyright page that states: "The opinions expressed in this book are not those of the author." as if that justifies what he's written. If he gave such a positive slant to Nazism, would you think many people would be appeased by such a statement. He makes so many references to metaphors, that it's not clear if the final ending is supposed to be some sort of allegory or metaphor to humanity. That possibly the secrecy of the Overlords was not a problem in the final analysis so the secrecy of a totalitarian state is justified or something. He makes comments to a world statehood, scoffing at democracy as well, at the beginning as being a conduit to a new world order and then the events of the novel occur, so is Clarke trying to make some allegory?
However, when you get past Clarke's preaching is when the novel really shines. It's a fluid and engrossing read. When the Overlords arrive to Earth, they hide their appearance for an extended period of time, and when they're described you understand why they felt their need to do so. However, Clarke takes this and uses it as a theme throughout the book. After continuous hints at some ulterior motive of the Overlords, there's an event in the novel during a dinner party, and a very 50's party, where it hinted at what the Overlords are on Earth for and it's an almost stunning revelation. Many of those in science would like to believe in something `more'. Science by the way is not a religion, it is a doctrine based on observation of repeatable experiments. The sun rises every day due to planetary physics. If some unusual event such as an eclipse can occur, it can be explained, and future eclipses for the next thousand years or so have been calculated by scientists. The space shuttle isn't launched and landed due to group prayers, it launched and landed by a group of dedicated people working very hard. The evidence for evolution is overwhelming in the fossil records. National Geographic, possibly the most mainstream of all magazines, recently wrote an article overwhelmingly in favor of evolution. And so it should be, because it wasn't based on any belief, merely on the evidence. Science attempts to explain the natural universe based on repeatable experimentation and observation. Nothing more, nothing less. Sure this may sound emotionless, but that's the point. Emotions are used for loved ones, for family, etc. Science is there to attempt to explain the universe. Period. However.... there are some in the scientific field, and possibly many, that would like to believe in something `more'. And Clarke takes this and explains it within the science of his novel. That's what makes this a worthy reading. He deals with the philosophical questions of what is our reason for being here, where do we go from here, what's the point of it all. The title of Clarke's book is perhaps the best and most apt title within science fiction. However, it can be considered only One Type of Childhood's End. It can also be seen as a Childhood's Beginning. Perhaps Clarkes' best line of the novel is when he states that if and when man has attained something more, where does he then go from there! Does he then look for something beyond that and another Childhood's End. Is man only happy when he's in a childlike state, shaking rattles or spinning spherical objects before him, as the whole universe at that level lays before him.
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