Childhoods End written and read by Arthur C Clarke order Excerpts read by the author Vinyl Record Album LP Spoken Word

Childhoods End is an order audio recording of excerpts written and read by Arthur C Clarke on Caedmon Records. Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture. From the back cover (written by Isaac Asimov): Arthur Clarke is a good friend of mine. In fact, we have a A treaty that was put together in a taxi barreling down Park Avenue about fifteen years ago. This “Asimov-Clarke Treaty of Park Avenue” states that I must insist at all times that Arthur Clarke is the best science fiction writer in the world (accepting second place for myself) while Arthur must equally insist that Isaac Asimov is the best science writer in the world (accepting second place for himself.)

I don't think either one of us means it, since humility is a word neither of us has ever heard of, but we are honorable men who stick to the bargain.

In many respects, Arthur is my undoubted superior. He is my superior in age, for instance, by three years, having been born in 1917 so that he is now a little over sixty, whereas I am (as everybody knows) only a little over thirty. He is also my superior in baldness and ugliness, being both balder and uglier than I am, and I confess that freely.

Continued below
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Childhoods End written and read by Arthur C Clarke Excerpts read by the author

Vinyl: VG+ glossy
Cover: VG+ mild shelf wear, edge bumps

The opinions expressed in this book are not those of the author
SIDE A:
Band 1: Chapter 1
Band 2: Chapter IV
Band 3: Chapter V
Band 4: Chapter VIII
Band 5: Chapter XIV
Band 6: Chapter XVI
Band 7: Chapter XVIII (beginning)
SIDE B:
Band 1: Chapter XVIII (conclusion)
Band 2: Chapter XX
Band 3: Chapter XXI
Band 4: Chapter XXIV
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He entered the field of professional science fiction writing in 1946 (seven years after I did) with a short story named “Loophole" in the April, 1946 Astounding and it was quickly to be seen that he and I belonged to the same school of s.f. writing.

It turns out that anyone who likes my writing will bashfully confess to liking Arthur's as well, and vice versa. There is also an extraordinary tendency to confuse his writings with mine, something to which we both react with resignation.

There are two poles to s. f. writing-cool versus warm; logical versus emotional; scientific versus humanistic. Both Arthur and I are warm, emotional and humanistic in spots, but there is no question that our favored mode of expression is cool, logical and scientific.

Arthur is strongly technology-oriented. He has been scientifically trained and his imagination is a disciplined one. It roams the Universe but remains within the bounds of natural law. He was the first, for instance, to conceive of communications satellites, explaining their workings in an article he wrote in 1945. It sounded like science fiction, but it wasn't. We now have them and Arthur says, sadly, that if he had had the forethought to patent some of his basic notions, he would now be an incredibly rich man. (Weep not, Gentle Reader, he has managed to become an incredibly rich man anyway.)

This disciplined imagination of his characterizes his stories, which do not rely on either sex or violence, nor on purple prose—but on a mind-boggling view of the Universe that you know has a chance of being quite correct—like those communications satellites of his.

It was in 1953 that Arthur hit the big time with the publication of Childhood's End. This vision of man and the future, which rises spirally in vastness from the Cold War of the 1950's to an almost ungraspable climax, has been popular ever since.

The general Clarkeian notion of Overlords, of guardian life-forms in the Universe, was to make itself felt again in the classic motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey, and is hinted at in his recent award-winning Rendezvous with Rama.

The grand original, though, and the key to Arthur's thinking of the benign influence of technology, the unending horizons of human advance, the victory of life in a friendly Universe, is present right here in Childhood's End.

Arthur claims he has retired now, and, to be sure, there are few people with the excuse for retiring that he has. He is respected alike by scientists and by science fiction enthusiasts, he has won every appropriate award in existence, he has gained fame and wealth.

He has no family and lives in splendor in a servant-laden mansion on the shores of Sri Lanka (once called Ceylon, and earlier, Serendib) where he has indulged in the sport of scuba-diving and where he has the privilege of watching the only TV set in the entire nation. He is Sri Lanka's natural wonder, and tourists come to gaze at him from afar.

For the last twenty years, in poll after poll intended to determine the favorite science fiction writers, the top three winners (in alphabetical order) have invariably been Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein...which raises only one question. How did Robert get into the act?
-Isaac Asimov

Dr. Isaac Asimov began his professional career at the age of 18 with the sale of his science fiction story “Marooned Off Vesta” to Amazing Stories. He went on to become a Ph.D. in chemistry and a professor at Boston University, but he continued to write and is now perhaps America's best known writer on science fiction and science. One of his most important contributions to the latter is "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline."

He has had enormous success with his books that run the full range from Asimov's Guide to Science and Asimov's Guide to the Bible, right down to The Sensuous Dirty Old Man and Lecherous Limericks. So far. 200 of his books have been published. His FOUNDATION: THE PSYCHOHISTORIANS (TC 1508) is read for Caedmon by William Shatner, and FOUNDATION: THE MAYORS (TC 1527) is read by Dr. Asimov himself.

A Time-Life editor once asked Arthur C. Clarke about a part of one of his forthcoming books, “What is your authority for this statement, Mr. Clarke?” Arthur's reply was rapid, to the point and brevity itself: “I am the authority for that statement.” Lest that seem like swaggering braggadocio, it may be necessary for those few who do not know his credentials to indicate that Arthur is not only well-versed in current science but, indeed - and here lies the rub - is about 1,000 years ahead of today in his grasp of what we will become and where we will go.

Arthur C. Clarke was born in England. His prime interest was as it still is: Science. He became the Chairman of the renowned British Interplanetary Society, when to confess to an interest in space was to admit to some kind of advanced lunacy. He began to write for British and American magazines, and his first book was one of the masterpieces of imaginative science fiction, Against the Fall of Night, later re-written as The City and the Stars. Another early book of non-fiction was The Exploration of Space which was offered by the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1952.

More than an author, more than a scientist, Arthur is one of the world's great idea men. Just take a notion of his from 1945 that he developed from concept to mathematical reality, and which became COMSAT, our now standard run-of the-mill synchronous orbit communications satellite some 17 years later. For this ‘notion' Arthur received a Gold Medal from the prestigious Franklin Institute.

By this late date it is doubtful if even Arthur knows how many books in how many languages are to his credit. To mention only a few: Rendezvous with Rama, Imperial Earth, the recently published Fountains of Paradise (Caedmon TC 1606), the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as co-author with Stanley Kubrick of the screenplay of that memorable film (Caedmon TC 1504).

CREDITS: Cover: John Schoenherr Library of Congress #: 78-741949
© 1979 Caedmon Directed by Ward Botsford
Recorded at Sri Lanka Studio Engineer: A. C. Clarke
Tape Editor: Daniel A. Wolfert SOURCE: CHILDHOOD'S END by Arthur C. Clarke; copyright © 1953. Published by Ballantine Books (paperback), and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. (hardcover).

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