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Title: Sadly diminished
Review: Although I have enjoyed many of Arthur C. Clarke's books, this is one that made almost no impression upon me. Perhaps I've gotten used to the conventions of the genre which this book in part set up from scratch, but knowing that a book was groundbreaking in its time and now simply reflects standard cliches does not make it any easier to enjoy. The aliens, despite their initially mysterious behaviour, turn out to be all-too-human and banal; the touching but rather juvenile faith in the UN and other world institutions that permeates most of the book reeks of 1950s transnationalism; and the mystical aspects of the book are rather amateurish and anti-intellectual. Compare this to Theodore Sturgeon's To Marry Medusa and you will find Childhood's End seems like an appetizer in comparison to the literary feast that Sturgeon presents on a similar topic. Unless you're eager to explore the antecedents of modern sci-fi cliches, I can't honestly recommend this novel.
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