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The answer of this novel is not necessarily Mr. Clarke's own; it is offered by him as a possibility. Perhaps on a future occasion he will explore a more promising possibilityhow each individual may find that he is already related to a larger unity and that relationship, when understood, both preserves and enhances individuality.
Space fiction of this type is not just for adolescents. It may have far to go before fully establishing its place in serious literature, but it is already meat for adult readers.
Peter J. Henniker-Heaton, ''Space Fiction Can Be Literature," Christian Science Monitor, 10 September 1953, p. 7
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Jeremy Bernstein
Science fiction is not for everyone. But the Clarke genre is something else again. By standing the universe on its head, he makes us see the ordinary universe in a different light; the things that are accessible to our experience become illuminated by the light cast on them by our imagination. 2001 began as a short story about the moon, and then, in the four years Kubrick and Clarke worked on it, it became a complex allegory about the history of the world. Fiction it is, but in our time the line between fact and fiction is often as nebulous as the matter in outer space. In his foreword to 2001, Clarke cautions, "But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger."
Jeremy Bernstein, "Chain Reaction," New Yorker, 21 September 1968, p. 184
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David N. Samuelson
Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is one of the classics of modem SF, and perhaps justifiably so. It incorporates into some 75,000 words a large measure of the virtues and vices distinctive to SF as a literary art form. Technological extrapolation, the enthronement of reason, the "cosmic viewpoint," alien contact, and a "sense of wonder" achieved largely through the manipulation of mythic symbolism are all important elements in this visionary novel. Unfortunately, and this is symptomatic of Clarke's work and of much SF, its vision is far from perfectly realized. The literate reader, especially, may be put off by an imbalance between abstract theme and concrete illustration, by a persistent banality of style, in short, by what may seem a curious inattention to the means by

 
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