Books: Childhood's End By Arthur C. Clarke (1953)

 

“The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city—intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began. But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind . . . or the beginning?”

I made a few attempts over the decades to read this book –but it’s probably close to 30 + years since my last attempt.

The themes of a peaceful alien invasion of Earth by these mysterious Overlords, is an interesting take on the genre, and while their arrival begins decades of apparent utopia, under the indirect alien rule, the cost of it is our human identity and culture. I can see why a lot of science fiction shows –like Star Trek- lifted some ideas Clarke came up with, even while he would further use this novels subject of transcendent evolution in his later work, in particular 2001: A Space Odyssey and their sequels.

It also goes against every other sci-fi novel of the era, where humans are forbidden to leave Earth because the there is really nothing there for them – but death, I guess. But there seems to be a lot of symbolism here, both philosophical and religious –not sure I clearly got them. Also, while dubbed the Overlords, the aliens see themselves more as Guardians of Earth, which should’ve been the first clue as to where the tale was going.

I was further intrigued by the utopian ideals postulated here, where robotics and computers are advanced to the point that humans are only need to work about twenty hours a week. This enabled people to continue their education (sometimes going back several times just to learn something new),  develop new hobbies and skills, if only because ”The existence of so much leisure would have created tremendous problems a century before. Education had overcome most of these, for a well-stocked mind is safe from boredom.”

Now that I could get into. Like a lot of hard sci-fi of the era, it’s a bit dry, but I found I enjoyed the novel, even if Clarke’s vision of mid-twenty-first century America sort of resembled 1950s America.