It´s a novel for crying out loud

I read Arthur C Clarke's fascinating novel “Childhood's End” during very peculiar circumstances, which I shan't disclose here. The novel, held to be one of Clark's best, deals with alien/UFO interference in human affairs. For once, I will resist revealing the plot, except to say that it has virtually nothing in common with the editorial reviews on Amazon! The intentions of the alien Overlords (lead by one Karellen) and the eventual fate of humanity, turn out to be very, very strange. Yet, the storyline is almost believable. Indeed, Clarke's novel affected the readers so much that he had to write a preface to later editions, protesting that the ideas in it weren't his own: “It's a NOVEL, for crying out loud!”. And, dare I add, a damn good one…