Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“He felt no regrets as the work of a lifetime was swept away. He had labored to take man to the stars, and, in the moment of success, the stars — the aloof, indifferent stars — had come to him.”
Having grown up with books and movies like “War of the Worlds”, “Independence Day” and “Star Gate” I expected the next “evil alien invasion and mankind fights back” book when I started reading “Childhood’s End”, but nothing of that kind happened. Arthur Clarke begins his novel with a peaceful arrival of Earth’s new residents – the Overlords. The new species lives a secluded life but showcases their power whenever doubts considering their strength are featured. It seems that their only goal on earth is to be something like a guard and lead all humans to a better world without war, hunger, homelessness, exhaustion and so on. Instead they unite all countries and support every individual (person) in achieving in whatever kind of field they are interested.
The book is divided in three periods of time. The first period includes the arrival of the Overlords and their first years on Earth and their initial arrangements with the “locals”.
Approximately 50 years later begins the main part of the book also referred to as “the golden age”. It seems as if all planned goals are accomplished and mankind has moved on from all evil. This is the point where a few book characters start to wonder what else there can be and what else is to do if one has nothing to improve or solve. But not only the protagonists where wondering about this – I asked myself the same question.
Well, the answer was disturbing and presented in the last part of the book. I won’t divulge too much, but this was an ending I never even considered as a possibility. Most of all it was shocking that the end in its finiteness was actually meant to be positive.
The author’s writing style was easy to read. He added a few passages where he utilized a narrator which gave me the impression that I was reading more of an overview of complex happenings. This effect was also provided by a superficial description of the main characters. In the end I wished he had provided me with a deeper insight into his characters.
Overall I liked Arthur Clarke’s “Childhood’s End” and his refreshing idea of a peaceful and good alien invasion. Until the very end I couldn’t believe that there really is no revolve, striking back or any bad interaction between the terrestrials and the Overlords.
Something to chuckle about:
(keep in mind the book was first published in 1953)
Arthur Clarke describes in his future vision lots of things like Submarines that can swim in five kilometers deep waters or the fact that every human has its own “flying car” – just to name a few. But there is one part in the book where a scientist asks the other one if he is prepared for his journey and the answer is: “I’ve got a four millimetre camera and thousands of metres of film.”
In the last third of the book one character is reconsidering the past und looking on the present with regret because mankind has lost all its creativity and lives only for television in his spare time (the author sets the average time in front of the TV with approximately three hours).
What the author considered as a bad possibility of a future is today normality – so the average German is watching 223 minutes a day in 2011.