Listen free for 30 days
-
Childhood's End
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £15.69
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
A Fall of Moondust
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment.
-
-
Well worth the revisit.
- By Bazz on 10-02-20
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
Inspired Sci-fi
- By Peter on 02-12-09
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grandiose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionise the future of humankind in space: a Space Elevator, 36,000 kilometres high, anchored to an equatorial island in the Indian Ocean.
-
-
Arthur C Clarke at his best
- By Steve B on 24-04-19
-
Rendezvous with Rama
- Rama Series, Book 1
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.
-
-
Well read with distinctive character voices.
- By In car listener on 16-01-17
-
The Collected Stories
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe, Mike Grady, Nick Boulton, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arthur C Clarke is without question the world's best-known and most celebrated science-fiction writer. His career, spanning more than 60 years, is one of unequalled success. Clarke has always been celebrated for his clear prophetic vision, which is fully on display in this audiobook, but there are also many stories that show his imagination in full flight, to the distant future and to far-flung star systems.
-
-
Inventive Early Work
- By Jeremy on 08-05-11
-
The City and the Stars
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it ruled the stars. But then, as legend had it, the Invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.
-
-
Ahead of its time
- By BM on 28-11-14
-
A Fall of Moondust
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment.
-
-
Well worth the revisit.
- By Bazz on 10-02-20
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
Inspired Sci-fi
- By Peter on 02-12-09
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grandiose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionise the future of humankind in space: a Space Elevator, 36,000 kilometres high, anchored to an equatorial island in the Indian Ocean.
-
-
Arthur C Clarke at his best
- By Steve B on 24-04-19
-
Rendezvous with Rama
- Rama Series, Book 1
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.
-
-
Well read with distinctive character voices.
- By In car listener on 16-01-17
-
The Collected Stories
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe, Mike Grady, Nick Boulton, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arthur C Clarke is without question the world's best-known and most celebrated science-fiction writer. His career, spanning more than 60 years, is one of unequalled success. Clarke has always been celebrated for his clear prophetic vision, which is fully on display in this audiobook, but there are also many stories that show his imagination in full flight, to the distant future and to far-flung star systems.
-
-
Inventive Early Work
- By Jeremy on 08-05-11
-
The City and the Stars
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it ruled the stars. But then, as legend had it, the Invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.
-
-
Ahead of its time
- By BM on 28-11-14
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Geoff Annis
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
-
-
Spoiled by awful narration
- By Martin on 05-12-17
-
The Sands of Mars
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the 21st century, and on Mars a dedicated group of pioneers - among them some of Earth's finest brains - struggle to change the face of the planet. Science fiction writer Martin Gibson finally gets a chance to visit the research colony on the Red Planet. It's a dream come true - until he discovers the difficulties and perils of survival on another world...and the very real terror it holds.
-
-
Dated but enjoyable
- By tjt1961 on 27-09-16
-
2001
- A Space Odyssey: Space Odyssey, Book 1
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
-
-
Excellent... but why no 2010 on Audible yet?
- By Martin on 31-07-14
-
Outland
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to Outland - an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. The group races to establish control of the portal before the government, the military, or evildoers can take it away. Then everything changes when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet.
-
-
Bright young things
- By Adam on 22-05-19
-
Time's Eye
- Time Odyssey, Book 1
- By: Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind - until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline.
-
-
Didn't quite make it
- By Chris on 01-02-11
-
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
- By: Christopher Paolini
- Narrated by: Jennifer Hale
- Length: 32 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move. As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human. While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope....
-
-
Very good, surprisingly
- By NumptyDoo on 04-02-21
-
The Deep Range
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It has taken a long time, but humankind has won its battle against the sea. Now Professionals like Walter Franklin patrol the infinite savannahs of the oceans, harvesting from the plankton prairies. But like that other great frontier, space, the sea has not yet yielded up all its secrets. And men like Franklin will never rest until its every fathomless mystery has been challenged....
-
-
Ethical, thought provoking sci fi
- By I Asimov on 29-09-15
-
The Martian Chronicles
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.
-
-
Not what I expected... so much more!
- By Samm on 23-09-15
-
Imperial Earth
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in 2276, Imperial Earth is the fascinating odyssey of Duncan Makenzie, travelling from Titan, a moon of Saturn, to Earth, as a diplomatic guest of the United States. Duncan’s initial challenge is to prepare for the 500-million-mile trip to Earth. Once there, he is caught up in a sweep of new experiences - including the social whirl of Washington, a strange visit to a carefully preserved ancient city, and a search for the woman he loves.
-
-
Classic Sci Fi - even predicts the Ipad!
- By S on 09-11-14
-
Terminus
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Murdoch’s past has finally come crashing down on him. His former girlfriend. His Family. He’s been happily avoiding them for ages, trying to live something close to a normal life. But now he’s been drawn back into another one of their ludicrous attempts to bring about the end of all things. Anne is tired of living in the past. She’s finally looking to the future and embracing her destiny. She’s going to lead the Family forward on their greatest, final crusade to destroy the hated Machine of their long-time adversary.
-
-
Welcome return of familiar characters
- By Clare Hill on 05-02-20
-
The Doors of Eden
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee and Mal went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor four years ago, and only Lee came back. She thought she’d lost Mal forever, now miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has Mal been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 either, and their officers also have questions. Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power – and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.
-
-
I gave up after Ch3
- By Barrymx5 on 22-10-20
-
The Android's Dream
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most unusual way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: A type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinaire.
-
-
A fun romp, with some room for improvement
- By SystemState on 03-12-19
Summary
When the silent spacecraft arrived and took the light from the world, no one knew what to expect. When the Overlords finally showed themselves it was a shock but one that humankind could now cope with, and an era of peace, prosperity and endless leisure began. But the children of this utopia dream strange dreams of distant suns and alien planets, and soon they will be ready to join the Overmind...and, in a grand and thrilling metaphysical climax, leave Earth behind.
Critic reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about Childhood's End
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ed Scott
- 13-07-18
Perfect example of how a bad narrator can ruin a great book.
The story is great; it’s one of the sci-fi classics. However Greg Wagland is awful. His narration sounds very similar to computer dictation software and his attempts at an American accent fall well short of the mark. In fact any differentiation between characters’ voices is slight, at best, and regularly makes it difficult to know who is talking. I’d recommend buying the audio book of Childhood’s End with another narrator.
52 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darren
- 05-08-16
Brilliant Story
This is my first Arthur C. Clarke book, I became interested after watching the mini series on Sky as with the book it was brilliant, and for one that normally believes the book is better I downloaded this one and wasn't disappointed.
The old references to technology are funny in this day and age but the fact it was written in the 50s I glossed over these details.
I would recommend this book to every Si-Fi fan I know.
36 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Del
- 30-03-20
Gave up - The narration is terrible
I have always been interested in Arthur C Clarke's science fiction. However, I have had to give up on listening to this
audiobook, the narration is so bad I just can't follow the story. His voice just sounds like a droning, monotone of robotic software.
The story may well be great, but it is no good if the narration destroys being able to listen. I guess I will read the book instead.
This is the first time I have been unable to finish an audiobook.
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 13-07-20
Childhood's end
Wonderful story from Arthur C Clarke, really drives home the term "clarke-tech" (technology so advanced it might as well be magic), with his wonderfully crafted endings which is neither good or bad. The only mediocre thing in this book is the naration, it's not so bad as to be distracting, you can go through the book and Greg portrays the overseers decently but sometimes his monotone speech seems like he's reading a script for the role of an accountant. Overall the story is a solod 5/5 with a 2/5 naration. Recomended.
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Richard
- 11-07-16
incredible classic sci fi - brilliantly read!
fantastic story which will keep you guessing until the very end.
somewhere between HP Lovecraft in story and content, more like Asimov in terms of epic Sci Fi...
highly recommended!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr Jeremy J Osborn
- 18-09-16
What a film this would make!
Combining the physical wonder of aliens and technology with the physycological mystery of the mind, where do we come from and where will we go this book hits the spot. A blockbuster in waiting.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Al
- 17-02-17
Amazing story. Respect for the mind behind this.
What a great story. amazed at the scale. when I thought I understood the direction it surprised me again.
astounded that this was written over 60 years ago and apart from a few tell tale signs (camera .. ), this could have been written today
what an amazing mind Arthur C Clarke has. Big respect.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steve
- 22-10-18
Great story ruined by awful narration.
This is a great book. I've read it before, listened to the radio play, and now the audiobook. It will always remain one of my favourites.
However (and isn't there always a 'however'?), the narration is terrible. The reader has no story telling ability whatsoever. There were moments when two or more people are speaking and you can't tell when one is finished and another ends. There's no real drama in his voice and his pronunciation is difficult to behold. He seems to be trying to come over all RP (Queen's English) but that's not what is called for here.
By all means, listen to this because the book is outstanding. Just don't judge it based on the reader.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Basho
- 20-04-16
Masterpiece
I have read so many books. So many. That such a book evaded me all these years is a great pleasure.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- spencerhudson
- 05-04-16
Amazing ...
For saying this book was written at almost the beginning of science fiction it is a ultimately a chilling tail. It provides a new insight into one scenario , taking use thought c. 100 years ... And leaves so many open questions ...
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Joao Reis
- 23-10-19
Best Sci Fi Ever
I really enjoyed this masterpiece! The deep reflections following a curious enough storytelling were mind blowing.
I will not reveal the story itself, but for me it was all about life purpose, and how small we are.
I will now read all Clarke’s books until the last word!
1 person found this helpful