200 pages
English language
Published Aug. 13, 1990 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.
This book holds up fairly well. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe overly heavy prose or a strict adherence to science. But Clarke just tells the story.
Of course there's anachronisms; it was written in 1953. Like the jarring use of the n-word, even though he uses it to express it's silliness. And although superbly advanced, they still use TVs and faxes. Kinda funny.
But he gets the important things right making the extrapolations thoughtful, even to us future-people. Like check this passage where he gets it so wrong (the time) yet perfectly right:
"If you went without sleep and did nothing else, you could follow less than a twentieth of the entertainment that's available at the turn of a switch! No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges--absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day?" …
This book holds up fairly well. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe overly heavy prose or a strict adherence to science. But Clarke just tells the story.
Of course there's anachronisms; it was written in 1953. Like the jarring use of the n-word, even though he uses it to express it's silliness. And although superbly advanced, they still use TVs and faxes. Kinda funny.
But he gets the important things right making the extrapolations thoughtful, even to us future-people. Like check this passage where he gets it so wrong (the time) yet perfectly right:
"If you went without sleep and did nothing else, you could follow less than a twentieth of the entertainment that's available at the turn of a switch! No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges--absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day?" (3 whole hrs, huh Arthur?)
Worth a read for its scientific journey into the mystical.
