- Human-alien encounters, Fiction, Science fiction, Long Now Manual for Civilization
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their ships, governing through indirect rule. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age. However, the last generation of children on Earth begin to display powerful psychic abilities, heralding their evolution into a group mind, a transcendent form of life.
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Character
Epic, earnest, grave and classical in form.
- intimateepic
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- classical in formformally daring
- character-ledplot-driven
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About the book
- Author
- Arthur C. Clarke
- First published
- 1953
- Pages
- 222
- Publisher
- Sidgwick and Jackson, Random House Audio, Caedmon Audio Cassette
- Editions
- 81
- Language
- Italian, Portuguese, German, French
- ISBN
- 9780345315588
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On Open Library, 81 have read it and 301 want to.
“BEFORE SHE FLEW to the launch site, Helena Lyakhov always went through the same ritual.”
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke CBE FRAS was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He is famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science writer, who was both an avid populariser of space travel and a futurist of uncanny ability. On these subjects he wrote over a dozen books and many essays, which appeared in various popular magazines. In 1961 he was awarded the Kalinga Prize, an award which is given by UNESCO for popularising science. These along with his science fiction writings eventuall
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