Childhood's End

Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

Although everybody keeps bringing up 2001: A Space Odyssey and its various sequels, I much prefer science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke's earlier 1953 novel, Childhood's End, which shares with the previous books the common theme of Earth's first encounter with aliens far more advanced than ourselves. Clarke's writing is much more imaginative and striking than in his later works, and the idea that we can progress and evolve into a higher form of life (albeit with help from aliens from other, more advanced, planets) is powerful and compelling. Clarke returns to the theme--but with a twist that I won't give away!- in the 1973 novel Rendezvous With Rama (which, like 2001, was spun off into a series of artistically uneven sequels) that is also thought provoking in its tone. Both Childhood's End and Rendezvous With Rama transcend their "space opera" settings with a more intellectual agenda than the average reader might think.
-Ed