Before I get into the meat of this review I just wanted to mention something rather annoying. The thing is, I’ve read this book before. I’m not actually sure where or when, but seeing as I do read a lot of this kind of sci-fi, and so far as I know this book is something of a classic, it really isn’t too surprising. The problem I had was that I couldn’t remember anything about the book. Or more accurately I could remember everything about the book, only five pages in front of where I was at any given time. So while I had no clue as to what the book was about, I knew everything before it happened. Honestly this put a real damper on the entire experience. I had no idea as to what was going to happen but there were no surprises, all the revelations were spoiled. I really liked the book, but the experience was exceptionally frustrating.
Anyhow, the book itself is very cool in some ways and a little aggravating in others. It follows the story of aliens coming to earth to help guide mankind out of our primitive ways. Although people are obviously wary of these Overlords, and their secretive ways for the most part nothing can be done about it. Now, I know people think that this is the kind of tale that has been written countless times in science fiction; but for my money it honestly hasn’t. The image of great silver spaceships descending over the cities of the world is something that sounds like its commonplace but I’ve only encountered it a very few times. Perhaps it was all over in the true pulp fiction of the 50s and 60s but I never got to see that stuff. Thing is, this great image of spacecraft coming to earth to educate or enslave mankind while graphically enchanting, presents some plot problems. For one thing Childhood’s End takes place over 3 or 4 generations. This means that we are continually shifting our focal character, which to be honest really annoys me. I know that some of the most popular sci fi does it (such as Asimov’s Foundation series) but it drives me crazy. I don’t like investing in a character that I know will be forgotten in fifty pages. Then again I’m not a writer, and it doesn’t seem to bother other people so much so perhaps this is just me.
Sorry for the rambling, back to Childhood’s End. What was good about it? Well, the concept for one, although it takes a long time in coming, the payoff at the end is very interesting albeit depressing. I don’t want to give anything away, but Clarke has painted a somewhat grim picture of Earth’s future. He does state in a very interesting forward that he wrote in 1990 that he really didn’t want people to misconstrue his intent; he just wanted to tell something of a cautionary tale. Actually the fact that this book was written in 1952 is pretty amazing as it stands up very well in light of modern sci fi. This was a very interesting book, which made me rather sad by the end. If you run across it I’d recommend you check it out, but you are forewarned, this book is a bittersweet ride.
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