Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Childhood's End

Beware googling before reading this book. There’s a fantastic reveal about a third of the way through that might be given away. I’ll not, but just to say that when you get to it your mind will toll as you realise that this is a book about the conflict and the brotherhood between science and religion. Here evolution and prophecy are identical. It’s so rich in allusion, so subtle in its detail, and so sweeping in its music. It was the first adult book I ever took down from my father’s bookshelf, and the one I’ve come back to more than any other over the years. It’s hard to really talk about it because it was the first book that really gave me freedom of thought and has probably made a part of me to some extent.

Content Warnings

ru_th's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Humanity had lost its ancient gods: now it was old enough to have no need for new ones.

Content Warnings

magicshop's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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.

you should read this book if...

you enjoy mostly plot-driven stories
you want something philosophical to munch on
you don't mind a plot-driven narrative without much character focus

the good

writing style suited my tastes well enough, with standout lines and paragraphs every so often. not so many that they get overwhelming, but enough to make you go “oooooo i like that!”
interesting concepts and ideas peppered throughout. the overall execution could’ve been better, but for the most part i sincerely enjoyed the things clarke’s mind was able to come up with.

the bad

a bit too dry and expositional/documentary-like at parts, especially when it came to
the effects of the overlord’s plans on earth, which earned pages upon pages of looong descriptions several times throughout the book.

the complicated

childhood's end is very much a product of its time: there are several social justice "blunders" throughout, such as open usage of the n-word and some very interesting, to say the least, interpretations of the apartheid. it also clearly doesn't think very highly of women in general. it's important to keep this in mind going in, but i wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to go in at all ⁠— it's not a good enough book to necessarily put yourself at the risk of being triggered by its content. no book is, really.
i really don’t know how i feel about the entire second half of this book. i don’t hate it, nor do i love it, and it absolutely did let go completely of actual science the further we got into it. it also had no qualms about admitting that fact though, which i appreciated. ultimately i think i’m fascinated by the concept presented therein, yet fail to see just how exactly it could come to happen in our universe as it is. the book asks you to suspend disbelief to a point that is slightly ridiculous, but at the same time that is the entire point: we don’t know everything, and ultimately some truths might be beyond our grasp. how much you enjoy the second half and the ending really will depend on how successfully you can accomplish abandoning logic for the sake of exploring clarke’s fictional world.

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