RIP Arthur C. Clarke [View All]

[crikkett]

Arthur died today -- well he died tomorrow, in Sri Lanka.
http://www.deadnotforgotten.com


One of my favorite Arthur C. Clarke stories was "Childhood's End". Here's the Cliff Notes from Wikipedia:


This article is about a novel. For other uses, see Childhood's End (disambiguation).
Childhood's End


Childhood's End is a science fiction novel by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1953, and a version with a new first chapter was released in 1990 due to the anachronistic nature of the opening chapter (the first attempts to launch rockets into orbit by both the Americans and Russians are in progress but aborted suddenly when aliens arrive, with a sense of the death of a dream). This story was originally a short story dubbed Guardian Angel which Clarke first published in 1950 for the Famous Fantastic Mysteries magazine. It is basically the novel's section after the prologue, Earth and the Overlords but with some different text in certain places.

Plot summary

Childhood's End is about humanity's transformation and integration to an interstellar hive mind, the Occult, man's inability to live in a utopian society, cruelty to animals, and the idea of being "The Last Man on Earth".

The 1953 edition of the story begins when enormous alien spaceships one day appear above all of the Earth's major cities. The aliens, who become known as the Overlords, quickly communicate by radio, announcing benign intention and desire to help mankind. They quickly end the arms race and colonialism. They also arrange personal, though not face-to-face, meetings between Secretary General of the United Nations Rikki Stormgren and Karellen, the Overlord leader, albeit via one-way mirror, so that the earthman cannot see the extraterrestrial alien. Karellen has a special relationship with Stormgren, though short of traditional friendship. The Overlords promise to reveal themselves in fifty years, after which time mankind will have lost their prejudice, becoming comfortable with their presence.

Mankind enters a golden age of the greatest peace and prosperity ever known, but at the expense of some creativity and freedom; not every Earthling is content with the bargain, nor accepts the beneficence of the Overlords' long-term intentions. Although Stormgren, with Karellen's help, survives kidnap by subversive humans suspicious of the Overlords, he secretly harbours lingering curiosity about the real Overlord nature and smuggles a device aboard Karellen's spaceship to see behind the screen. Yet, he later tells questioners the device failed; the novel strongly hints that Stormgren agrees with the Overlords that mankind is unready for what he saw revealed.

True to their word, fifty years after arrival, the Overlords appear in person. They are beings resembling the traditional human folklore image of demons: bipeds with large wings, horned heads, and tails. The Overlords are taller than humans and of proportionally more massive bodies covered with a hard, black armour shell. They are greatly photosensitive to yellow sunlight, because they are from a planet with a dimmer light spectrum, and, though they can breathe Earth air, they prefer their own specific atmosphere gas. Mankind accept them with open arms, and with their help, create an utopian world.