How long does it take to read Childhood’s End?
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke takes about 4 hours 4 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 4 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1952. 222 pages, about 61,050 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 47 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 4 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 33 minutes |
The page count is the median across 81 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their ships, governing through indirect rule. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age. However, the last generation of children on Earth begin to display powerful psychic abilities, heralding their evolution into a group mind, a transcendent form of life.
Subjects: Human-alien encounters, Fiction, Science fiction, Long Now Manual for Civilization, Human evolution, Fiction, science fiction, general
