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Book Review of CHILDHOOD'S END

CHILDHOOD'S END
CHILDHOOD'S END
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 122 more book reviews


I think this book could have been better. It was more a college paper on the psychology of man than a story. When there was a plot (and there were several), they were pretty good. But Clarke switched tracks so often in the story that the characters were at best flat. You really didn't care what happened to them. It almost started out like a "What if..." type story. What if aliens showed up on Earth and took away our freedom of choice. Gave us a perfect utopia. Answer: We would become bored. Because the nature of man is to strive and stuggle to become better. That theme ended about half way through the book before he changed course again. Anyway, it didn't really have a whole lot of anything in this book...science, dialog, characters. So it wasn't really that enjoyable for me.