Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, is a prototypical alien invasion story. It is safe to assume that just about every book or movie featuring such a scenario made after Clarke's Hugo award winning novel owes some deal of debt to it.
Humongous spaceships appear in the skies over the Earth's major cities, and throughout the course of many generations the seemingly benevolent alien Overlords solve all of humankind's problems. They create a so-called “Utopia,” in which crime, hunger, homelessness, and other undesirable things vanish completely.
But at what cost? For every good thing that the Overlords give to mankind, for every problem they help to solve, what are they taking away? And why won't they let us explore the heavens? Why have they declared that “the stars are not for man?” What are the Overlords hiding from the people of Earth?
Clarke's book is, for the most part, an enjoyable read. There are many remarkable moments peppered throughout the short, two-hundred page volume. The book possesses more than a handful of sequences that are truly gripping: I recall a few times when I simply could not read fast enough to discover the outcome of a particularly suspenseful situation.
However, also sprinkled throughout are a few passages of highly questionable quality. It is quite strange, really. Taken as a whole, the book is well written, engaging, thought provoking, and endearing. But, during some of the long-winded exposition, in which there is too much “telling” and not enough “showing,” Clarke lapses into territory that can only be called amateurish, and makes some baffling continuity errors.
Most of these ill-conceived passages occur when Clarke is describing the Utopian society mankind enjoys, one that doesn't sound all that appealing to me. We do not get to experience the Utopia, but, rather, it is simply and drably detailed in an unengaging manner. Sure, some of the ideas are neat, but how did the Overlords orchestrate their master plan?
I get the impression that Clarke didn't really know how or why, either, and so he just came up with the final outcome; these passages feel empty because they skip past the most interesting aspects of the notions. Clarke does not reveal the subtle societal changes through the actions of his characters, but rather he just comes out and tells us that religion no longer exists, or that mankind has grown lazy and no longer creates stuff, or that scientific discover has been halted.
He also seems to contradict himself from time to time. During one passage, he tells of how mankind has grown apathetic towards the arts, and has lost its creative edge because of the over abundance of entertainment and television. But, then, who is creating the entertainment and the programming the people are spending all of their time watching?
These moments are rare, but they are baffling enough to stand out because the majority of the stuff surrounding these missteps is interesting and entertaining. Like most of the books I've been reading lately, Childhood's End is divided into three distinct parts. The first part focuses on the initial “invasion” and the discovery of mankind's chosen emissary, Rikki Stormgren. Stromgren is the only human to which the Overlords directly speak, and he finds himself in a no win situation being pitted between a group of human malcontents and the plans of the Earth's new rulers.
The second portion of the book introduces the ideas of Utopia and a surprising paranormal twist. It begins with the aliens finally revealing themselves to their human subjects; this part is incredibly awesome. I won't spoil what the Overlords look like, but rest assured Clarke delivers an interesting glimpse into human-born mythology, psychology and religion.
The final third of the book takes a detailed look at a colony of outsiders, whose goal it is to preserve the arts, through which the Overlords' reveal their end game. Here, the book takes a remarkable turn, and ends up going in a direction that I never expected. During the final pages of Clarke's book, I was constantly being reminded of Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human, and I'll simply leave it at that.
To give anything more away would rob future readers of a fantastic conclusion. The closing chapters are quite powerful and poetically written, and I couldn't help but feel a little wistful about all of things that had come to fruition. This is clearly an example of powerful science fiction, and I will remember the closing moments for some time to come.
While the book is far from perfect, it still comes highly recommended. It covers a ton of ground, spanning hundreds of years, and offers up some wildly imaginative plot points in its engaging narrative. It's just too bad that much of the exposition is simplistically told rather than shown, as the effects of the societal changes are rarely discussed in terms of individual impact.
I would have preferred a heavier does of characterization to accompany the lofty ideas, but I do realize that these problems, as they are, are due more to the style of this classic era of science fiction than they are to Clarke's abilities as an author. Childhood's End feels more like a collection of short stories than it does an epic narrative, but this is, by no means, a warning to stay clear, because when it is all said and done, Clarke's classic deserves all of the praise it has been given.
