This week I decided to get back to my Sci-Fi roots and read Arthur C. Clarke’s first novel, Childhood’s End. Somewhat coincidentally, the premise of this novel has been adapted for a SyFy mini-series that is coming out this year.

Arthur C. Clarke [2001: A Space Odyssey] is a highly respected forefather of science fiction, so it is with great disappointment that I report to you today how much I disliked this novel.

Reason 1 – it was boring. (And I’m not easily bored.)
Reason 2 – it was not science fiction. One could accurately describe the book as anthropological fiction, or social science fiction, but there was no physical science and only one point of cosmological note – Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is employed to explain aging during space travel. (And to be perfectly honest, I think he got it wrong.)…(Clarke, not Einstein.)

Keep in mind as you read…