Consideration of Works Past: Childhood's End

(Picture from here.)

I was a little hesitant to talk about this book. Childhood's End is considered by many to be a seminal work in the field. Certainly, it's one of the two most famous works by Arthur C. Clarke, the other being 2001.

The link above is a good synopsis of the story as is the link from which the picture came. Quickly: The Overlords come and stop human exploration of space along with our tendency towards self destruction. Time passes and things get really, really good but not too interesting for humanity. Then, the children of a later generation become super sentient, uberpowerful and join with the universal Overmind and the ultimate purpose of the Overlords intervention, to shepard humanity into this stage, is revealed.

Okay, then.

It's a thin book. The characterization is sketchy at best. There is a whole lot of Clarke's vision of what an idyllic world should look like. But, by and large, the book is boring.

I didn't expect that at all.

I enjoyed the book as a child. It wasn't my favorite of Clarke's work-- that would probably be The City and the Stars or perhaps The Deep Range. In fact, I would go on to say that most of his books are better than CE. Certainly, CE was an early work. It was only his fifth novel.

Clarke was never known for deep characters but even against those measured standards, CE falls pretty short.

I suppose I gleaned something of the possibilities of SF from CE. But as I read it now, I didn't learn much else. The path I followed was much more in keeping with his other works than this one.

It's interesting how Clarke returned to the same themes again in 2001. Others have also. Even John Wyndham did, by a back door approach, in The Midwich Cuckoos, aka, Village of the Damned. (BTW: A really interesting take on the Wyndham idea is in Freakangels. Go look.)

I would have liked to say there was more influence on me by CE than there actually was. It's such a staple. But, in all honesty, it didn't move me in any particular direction. I've actually gone in an antithetical direction.

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Wall of Idiots
Nessie on Land
Michael Jackson solves Hitler
Lies about Obama appointments
Lies about car dealers
Lies about Obama's reading material

Links of Interest
The vertical redwood
The Ignobels
Fossilization on Mars
Post Rapture Pet Rescue
Steamcon
Pictures of the oldest living things in the world
Space fuel shortage
Retinal implants
Comets vs Asteroids
CO2 Falls from the Air
Ardi
The Solar Impulse
Supervolcano plumbing
More on global warming
Virtual composer
God in the brain
Wooden sportscar
Launch Photography
Ephemerisle and here
Water on the lens

DIY
Manly knotwork
Algae Geek and here
V: Unpowered gate opener
Cardboard tube geodesics
Fried Ice Cream
A Treehouse
A polished concrete desk
Wimhurst Machines: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Operation, Demonstration
Wood lathe and here
Cheap printed circuit boards
Faucet
Zipline
Acorn chime
Rain barrel
Gray water system