A review by magicshop
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

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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