Childhood's End
A Novel (Del Rey Impact)
by Arthur C. Clarke
1 more
More Recommenders
“Rereading Clarke’s Childhood’s End after decades. Wonderful book set in 2050 ish but an astronomer has to go to a library to look up a star’s catalogue number. Very few scifi novels predicted the internet! | The best science fiction book probably ever. | This story of a singularity always stuck with me as something to prepare for.”
Source →Recommended by 3 notable people, including Ben Shapiro and Kevin Kelly
Check price on AmazonProof-backed recommendation
Amazon availability
Should I read this?
Recommended by 5 sources and appears in Apocalyptic, Most Recommended Books, and Science Fiction.
Soon to be a Syfy miniseries event Childhood_x0092_s End is one of the defining legacies of Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and many other groundbreaking works. Since its publication in 1953, this prescient novel about first contact gone wrong has come to be regarded not only as a science fiction classic but as a literary thriller ...
Looking for Kindle, hardcover, paperback, or audiobook editions?
Check formats, pricing, and current availability directly.
Why recommended
Recommended by 5 sources and appears in Apocalyptic, Most Recommended Books, and Science Fiction.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Kevin Kelly
“Rereading Clarke’s Childhood’s End after decades. Wonderful book set in 2050 ish but an astronomer has to go to a library to look up a star’s catalogue number. Very few scifi novels predicted the internet! | The best science fiction book probably ever. | This story of a singularity always stuck with me as something to prepare for.”
View sources (3) ▾80%
Appears In
Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider The Republic by Plato. Recommended by 13 sources.
“Plato stages an extended Socratic conversation that moves from concrete questions about justice into broad proposals about an ideal city, the structure of the soul, and what counts as reality and knowledge. Reading alternates brisk question-and-answer snippets with long, cumulative demonstrations that reward careful attention and annotation. Main value: a wealth of thought experiments for testing political and ethical intuitions. Main limitation: repetitive refutations, long policy sketches and dense metaphysical passages can feel abstruse and slow; patience and some philosophical background help.”
Similar books
How recommendation signals are reviewed
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
Childhood's End
View on Amazon →