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Arthur C. Clarke: Childhood's End (Paperback, 1987, Del Rey) 4 stars

Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The …

Good look into human existence

4 stars

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.

@AndreasD Yeah, I guess he thought he has to address the word; I suppose he did at that time. At the beginning of part 8. It really doesn't add anything, which made it a bit more jarring to me.

I realized I was confusing him with Asimov (He's the one with the sideburns, right?). So I think this was the first novel I've read of Clarke's. I agree, it flows well.