200 pages
English language
Published March 17, 1954 by Pan Books.
(p.6) First published 1954 by Sidgwick & Jackson. This edition, with foreword and new first chapter by the author, published 1990 by Pan Books an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Ltd ISBN 0 330 31661 3 Copyright (c) Arthur C. Clarke 1954, 1990
(p.10) Note: Apart from the new Prologue, no alterations have been made to the text. From Chapter Two onwards, Childhood's End remains exactly as in 1953.
This is an absolutely outstanding, albeit disturbing, tale of the future. It is simply amazing that it was written in the 1950s. I place it in a category of must read science fiction.
Written in 1953 and covering Clarke's ideas of modernity and social philosophy, it was interesting to compare reality with the fictional predictions of how to create utopia. Two moments stood out: the invention of birth control and paternity testing leading to the end of "Puritan aberration"; and while he claims, " Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded," he doesn't seem to apply this to systems-thinking. So, there's a lot of racism and patriarchy in a book that is trying to write those things out of fictional existence. I imagine Escher's flawed hand drawing the flawed human. He also had a character outraged at the THREE whole hours of radio/TV consuming people's minds, and how this was a blight on humanity's creativity and thinking. That one he seems to have nailed pretty spot-on. His solution for it was odd, and left …
Written in 1953 and covering Clarke's ideas of modernity and social philosophy, it was interesting to compare reality with the fictional predictions of how to create utopia. Two moments stood out: the invention of birth control and paternity testing leading to the end of "Puritan aberration"; and while he claims, " Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded," he doesn't seem to apply this to systems-thinking. So, there's a lot of racism and patriarchy in a book that is trying to write those things out of fictional existence. I imagine Escher's flawed hand drawing the flawed human. He also had a character outraged at the THREE whole hours of radio/TV consuming people's minds, and how this was a blight on humanity's creativity and thinking. That one he seems to have nailed pretty spot-on. His solution for it was odd, and left out women completely. He kind of glosses over UBI or work-related issues. I suppose that was necessary to keep the focus on the plot, but it's a pretty huge handwavium for a utopia. I would have preferred to hear more about those things, and less about the flying transportation. There was a lot in the travel parts that I found silly. Did they not have international travel in 1953? [they did: 1945] It certainly hasn't cured any societal ills. As far as the actual plot of the book goes - meh. The aliens were a fun surprise, but beyond that I found it kinda dull.
