Childhood's End

By: Arthur C. Clarke

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.

But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own.

As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind...or the beginning?

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by Hugo Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer, who explains why this novel, written in the 1950s, is still relevant today.

©2001 Arthur C. Clarke (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"In Eric Summerer's capable hands, the plot of Childhood's End is smoothly presented and fully credible. He highlights the patient nature of the Overlords, which has caused humans to become ever more complacent. Summerer excels at delivering the aliens' quiet and intensely engaging dialogue with people. His nuanced performance creates a growing feeling of uneasiness in the listener as the Overlords' insatiable curiosity and watchfulness begin to suggest something less than benign at work." ( AudioFile)

Narrator is great!

I really liked this experience. It was my first time that I read+listen. The narrator really brought the characters and story alive!

Great Book from a Great Era in SciFi

This was a pretty fun sci-fi story with great narration. It was well written and only feels dated in a few very obvious scenes. The end was a surprise and I'm still not certain what to feel about it, but overall this was a fun and thought provoking book.

Amazing

I already sort of knew all the major plot points and I think that helped me appreciate it even more. I was completely blown away. What a masterful piece of science fiction. Definitely not an easy listening book, it took me a few weeks to finish.

Very interesting book. Worth at least two hearings.

So it was a nice read. The fascinating how this book can still be very applicable as a sci-fi story with minor modifications.

There are racial tones which I found offensive. Keeping in mind the date the book was written and the vernacular of the time. Well you can easily see the author was not using those therms to out of the period’s context.

The technology of the. is fascinating and it’s limited reach. It is also interesting to see where our technology has brought us in this modern age of 2018. The overall story is very nice. I was not blown away because I could not get over recognizing the limitations of the 1960s, Technology,vernacular and outlook on every day life.

This is a pleasant story if one chooses to overlook the racial tones within it. That being said it is important to acknowledge the main Protagonist is a person of color. It is also important to acknowledge, the authors attempt at unity, love and peace between races.

Not Clarke’s best.

The story has an interesting premise, but the characterization was stilted, resolution was simplistic, and the social conditions between races and genders were a bit too dated, even considering the time of original publication in 1953.

The narration, however, was atrocious. Accents were clumsy, delivery was hammy-bordering-on-corny. It was the closest I’ve come in a long time to stopping playback on narration alone.

Just a bad, bad combo.

Not great, but interesting

Interesting story, but I wanted more depth. One of those books that you finish and say, "Oh, that's it huh"? Hmm....

What Lies Ahead for Mankind

So important are we in our own minds we once thought the heavens revolved around us. What if the picture focused, put us as one of many greats and yet only children playing feebly in the grander cosmos. Clark weaves a tale of possibility, containment, freedom, and bursting blazes of break through. Ancient fear and yet benevolent kindness races to take mankind to new reaches, and unimaginable changes. This is science fiction like only a master can pen. One of Clark's best for sure.

Another masterpiece

I have read most of the ACC books
This one stands out for me .
If I could I would have asked him why he chose the race for the overlords that has bee so freighting to humanity?!

Short sighted and vaguely biblical

Let me start by saying that the narrator was perfectly fine. The story is so woefully overblown. It's poorly written, and mistakenly failed as some great work of science fiction, when it might as well be the foundations of some silly religion. Clarke seems to also have a very poor understanding of not only the human dilemmas of his own time, but also of the natural world. He goes to great lengths to lift up this spiritual undertaking while similarly exploring no counter argument to these ideas. There's no philosophical point that's reached. No understanding. No mirror to reflect the world, or even a window to another one. Go read Asimov.

Loved the concepts of racial memory this book extrapolated upon(even if I did drop a pronoun and end in a preposition).

There was lack of character depth which made it hard to care about any one person’s fate. But considering the ending, maybe that was the point.