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madeleinew's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.75
dyno8426's review against another edition
4.0
Alien Overlords ruling the Earth - with a twist that it's not apocalyptic. The double cliche of confrontation and conflict is immediately discarded here when it is seen that the Overlords are only helping Earth become the utopia that seems improbable without ever interfering or getting challenged to reveal themselves in any way. Thus, Earth beings remains in the anticipatory limbo of the dream of universal advancement of human species and the nightmare of being controlled by unknown masters who are leagues ahead compared to the puny state of human affairs.
From here rises the triangular fulcrum of narrative space which revolves around the symbols of childhood, curiosity and aliens. The story is always shrouded in the mystery of the origins and purpose of the Overlords. But the strict yet benevolent station that the Overlords hold puts all the humanity as children of their alien masters - forever in the peripheral vision of the Overlords so that they can be stopped if necessary while giving them the necessary freedom to grow and develop as children. This guardian-child relationship is not difficult to imagine upon encountering any such powerful party - if one is being offered survival and development at the cost of surveillance and freedom, then any rational group will choose the former. The rebukes and occasional pressure put by parents is all resented sometimes by children. The concerns of human beings and their almost-whimsical demands from each other lose all self-importance and appear comically childish to the Overlords. And they very well resolve it with the authority of elders solving problems among children with a resoluteness and wisdom that their presence entitles them to.
But quite soon, the same children realise the necessity and good intentions behind their strictness. Similarly, docility and even thankfulness is experienced in the time period of decades later when the Earth achieves the once far-fetched aims of collective peace and development. But there always remains that unfulfilled, paranoia of curiosity in the distant "parents" who control everything while staying so still and so far - even to the extent of staying beyond the trifles of children. This curiosity is the constant companion of earthlings who regard the Overlords with awe and fear, similar to what children are aware of from their parents. The common cause between this fear from one's parents and a hypothetically superior alien specie is the curiosity that creates this power dynamics between the intellectually developed and the one meant to follow.
The "little ones" recognise the possession of some knowledge that the guardians have acquired through their experience which puts them at an irreconcilable advantage and superiority. This basic fear of the unknown is primal in its most elemental and biological form - where even the suspicion of being in the presence of some unknown living being which can sense us and have an advantage of knowledge over us makes us afraid of our survival. We fear what we do not know and until it is conquered into submission or exterminated, there is no middle ground. The ever speculated threat of alien species is a scientific extension of that need-to-know-ahead-to-survive instinct. The Overlords in the story maintain this paranoia over the earthlings about their seemingly disinterested benevolence and the real purpose remains hidden until the plot reveals itself.
Even within this biological relationship of two generations which encodes the propagation of human species, is embedded the complication of rebellious nature and a conflict over freedom. Because like children who protest against the control exercised by their guardians, the humans under these helpful Overlords experience a same suffocation of their old masters-of-their-fate breath that reassured them. It results instances of conflicts between both parties in both cases. And then it becomes a matter of ingenuity and egotist motives to win over the other. While some accept the power and superiority of the Overlords with religious devotion and reverence, some cannot shake off the paranoia that makes them uneasy of the times to come.
Clarke has used this similar trope of the unknown, and the abruptness and disturbance that it creates, with the "monolith" that he uses in 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Sentinel. The shining, black, seamless surface of the heavy, immovable monolith represents the sheer force of the unknown with a presence that cannot be ignored, denied or challenged. It refutes any attempt at understanding, has no seams to tear open and investigate and reflects all light of knowledge glaringly away from it. It's a brilliant, an exemplary and often used symbol of how a mysterious seeming object instinctively calls out danger in our primal, biological circuitry just by being present as a possibility of what all we can lose by losing our dominance.
Childhood's End has a transcendental, almost meta-physical ending which is unforeseen due to its novelty. It gives another, more literal meaning to the title - one where the "childhood of human species" gets concluded with a bang. In the above discussed context, the baby-sitting that the Overlords performed on Earth gets its closure when human beings acquire that coveted knowledge of what the aliens wanted from them since the very beginning. The introduction in my edition points out the metaphorical link between the title and the plot as well as I could have ever managed:
"The glory of this novel is not in the plausibility of its future-extrapolation. It is in the way all its neatly fitted-together elements bear down upon its superb conclusion. That ending is about the future (that central aspect of science fiction); and more particularly about a mindblowing, unimaginable future. But Clarke does something very canny with this future-imagining. He takes the feel-good cliché about children being the future and unpacks it, pushes it to its logical, deeply unsettling conclusion."
"Clarke’s novel answers this question brilliantly, unflinchingly: what lies at the end of childhood is death … not the child’s, but ours. This novel renders as scientific fable one of the core truths about our human generations, something about which parents are aware, although a truth uncomfortable enough for many of them to suppress. Because the point of kids is that they outlive you: the point in a strictly genetic, but also in a basic, human sense: how unbearable to have your children die before you do!"
"That is what kids are: a means of making parents redundant, life passing from one dead-end generation to another full of possibility."
From here rises the triangular fulcrum of narrative space which revolves around the symbols of childhood, curiosity and aliens. The story is always shrouded in the mystery of the origins and purpose of the Overlords. But the strict yet benevolent station that the Overlords hold puts all the humanity as children of their alien masters - forever in the peripheral vision of the Overlords so that they can be stopped if necessary while giving them the necessary freedom to grow and develop as children. This guardian-child relationship is not difficult to imagine upon encountering any such powerful party - if one is being offered survival and development at the cost of surveillance and freedom, then any rational group will choose the former. The rebukes and occasional pressure put by parents is all resented sometimes by children. The concerns of human beings and their almost-whimsical demands from each other lose all self-importance and appear comically childish to the Overlords. And they very well resolve it with the authority of elders solving problems among children with a resoluteness and wisdom that their presence entitles them to.
But quite soon, the same children realise the necessity and good intentions behind their strictness. Similarly, docility and even thankfulness is experienced in the time period of decades later when the Earth achieves the once far-fetched aims of collective peace and development. But there always remains that unfulfilled, paranoia of curiosity in the distant "parents" who control everything while staying so still and so far - even to the extent of staying beyond the trifles of children. This curiosity is the constant companion of earthlings who regard the Overlords with awe and fear, similar to what children are aware of from their parents. The common cause between this fear from one's parents and a hypothetically superior alien specie is the curiosity that creates this power dynamics between the intellectually developed and the one meant to follow.
The "little ones" recognise the possession of some knowledge that the guardians have acquired through their experience which puts them at an irreconcilable advantage and superiority. This basic fear of the unknown is primal in its most elemental and biological form - where even the suspicion of being in the presence of some unknown living being which can sense us and have an advantage of knowledge over us makes us afraid of our survival. We fear what we do not know and until it is conquered into submission or exterminated, there is no middle ground. The ever speculated threat of alien species is a scientific extension of that need-to-know-ahead-to-survive instinct. The Overlords in the story maintain this paranoia over the earthlings about their seemingly disinterested benevolence and the real purpose remains hidden until the plot reveals itself.
Even within this biological relationship of two generations which encodes the propagation of human species, is embedded the complication of rebellious nature and a conflict over freedom. Because like children who protest against the control exercised by their guardians, the humans under these helpful Overlords experience a same suffocation of their old masters-of-their-fate breath that reassured them. It results instances of conflicts between both parties in both cases. And then it becomes a matter of ingenuity and egotist motives to win over the other. While some accept the power and superiority of the Overlords with religious devotion and reverence, some cannot shake off the paranoia that makes them uneasy of the times to come.
Clarke has used this similar trope of the unknown, and the abruptness and disturbance that it creates, with the "monolith" that he uses in 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Sentinel. The shining, black, seamless surface of the heavy, immovable monolith represents the sheer force of the unknown with a presence that cannot be ignored, denied or challenged. It refutes any attempt at understanding, has no seams to tear open and investigate and reflects all light of knowledge glaringly away from it. It's a brilliant, an exemplary and often used symbol of how a mysterious seeming object instinctively calls out danger in our primal, biological circuitry just by being present as a possibility of what all we can lose by losing our dominance.
Childhood's End has a transcendental, almost meta-physical ending which is unforeseen due to its novelty. It gives another, more literal meaning to the title - one where the "childhood of human species" gets concluded with a bang. In the above discussed context, the baby-sitting that the Overlords performed on Earth gets its closure when human beings acquire that coveted knowledge of what the aliens wanted from them since the very beginning. The introduction in my edition points out the metaphorical link between the title and the plot as well as I could have ever managed:
"The glory of this novel is not in the plausibility of its future-extrapolation. It is in the way all its neatly fitted-together elements bear down upon its superb conclusion. That ending is about the future (that central aspect of science fiction); and more particularly about a mindblowing, unimaginable future. But Clarke does something very canny with this future-imagining. He takes the feel-good cliché about children being the future and unpacks it, pushes it to its logical, deeply unsettling conclusion."
"Clarke’s novel answers this question brilliantly, unflinchingly: what lies at the end of childhood is death … not the child’s, but ours. This novel renders as scientific fable one of the core truths about our human generations, something about which parents are aware, although a truth uncomfortable enough for many of them to suppress. Because the point of kids is that they outlive you: the point in a strictly genetic, but also in a basic, human sense: how unbearable to have your children die before you do!"
"That is what kids are: a means of making parents redundant, life passing from one dead-end generation to another full of possibility."
geofisch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
esko's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.5
My first impression is that the book was average.
It has some captivating moments,but it was so casual for me.
Expected more from Overlords seriously...Even the start was weird how they were introduced.
A lot of jumps on side stories,and the Overlords are just casually there...
Not much descriptions and reactions from humans.
Expected a lot more....
It has some captivating moments,but it was so casual for me.
Expected more from Overlords seriously...Even the start was weird how they were introduced.
A lot of jumps on side stories,and the Overlords are just casually there...
Not much descriptions and reactions from humans.
Expected a lot more....
tddrdfrd's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
ladolcedana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0
tylawrencium's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
getyourghosts's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.25
Nitpicking and analyzing the sci-fi and plot aspects of the book made it enjoyable, not the plot itself. The pacing was a bit slow for my taste and I found myself wondering why some of the scenes Clarke set up were important. I found the most enjoyable parts of the book to only be found in the last ~40 pages. I have to admit, the ending does make me want to read more about the Overlords as it’s left very open-ended.
Overall, I found some of the reactions of humans to the Overlords to be unrealistic. though at least Clarke was consistent if nothing else. I found it easy to forget that the majority of the book was set in the 21st century due to the writing style which is a product of its time. As are the racist sentences throughout
Overall, I found some of the reactions of humans to the Overlords to be unrealistic. though at least Clarke was consistent if nothing else. I found it easy to forget that the majority of the book was set in the 21st century due to the writing style which is a product of its time. As are the racist sentences throughout
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism and Racial slurs