Childhood's End

Childhood's End

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

Author Arthur C. Clarke Published 1953-??-?? Type Fiction Genre Science fiction Themes Politics, Pseudoscience, Science fiction, Speculative fiction Age Group Adult

Childhood's End is a novel written by Arthur C. Clarke and published in 1953. Clarke initially wrote the general idea as a short story called Guardian Angel which was published in 1950, and then expanded it into a full novel. While 2001: A Space Odyssey is Clarke's most well-known book, his fans typically regard Childhood's End as his best.

In 1997 the novel was adapted to an audio drama, and, in 2015, it was adapted to a TV miniseries. In film, the book inspired Stargate SG-1, Xenogears, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and, in music, the book inspired the cover art of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, the Pink Floyd song, Childhood's End, and the Genesis song, Watcher of the Skies.

The story is about an alien race coming to Earth with vastly superior technology and forcing Earthlings to abide according to their morality in a manner similar to how Western cultures colonized the Americas, Africa, and the Orient.

Personal

Own?	No.
Read?	Audiobook read by Eric Michael Summerer.
Finished	2023-06-05.

I had read 2001: A Space Odyssey, but had almost no memory of it, so I wanted to see if Clarke's best-loved book was more memorable. It had some decent moments, but I found the ending to be painful.

Review

Overall:

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• There is nice irony in all the world's super powers being colonized to let them see how they would like it. I like how the Overlords are quite confident that they are helping the people of Earth, while Earthlings resent being ruled.
• Keeping the appearance of the aliens hidden for so long was a fun mystery and finally revealing them as looking like the Christian depiction of Satan, was a nice dig at the religion. However, historians have a pretty good idea where the appearance of the Christian devil comes from and it's not ancient aliens, but rather perversion of fauns, satyrs, and Pan.

Bad

• Because the Overlords are vastly superior to Earthlings in both technology and morality, they are able to quickly bring the Earth in line without the usual problems that arise in the process of colonization. Because of this, the book can inadvertently serve as propaganda in favor of colonization.
• Clarke has the Overlords force humanity to adhere to their vastly superior morality, but it turns out their morality isn't much better than what you would expect from a progressive author of the 1950s. Sexism is still pretty strong with the men rolling their eyes at swooning women, and even the Overlords don't call the human race "people," "humans," or even "Homo sapiens," but rather, "man." The Overlords also have a very strict prohibition on cruelty toward animals, but are still cool with killing them for food, somehow failing to grasp the moral superiority of vegetarianism.
• Clarke says that nearly all of the world's religions evaporated very quickly once the Overlords gave historians access to the history of when the religions were founded, but I think Clarke has greatly underestimated the credulity of religious believers, as they would simply disbelieve the Overlords. But, even if they did accept their history as truth, I still don't think it would eliminate religion. In fact, many religions, like the Seventh Day Adventists, actually saw their membership increase after their prophecies were proven wrong. Religious beliefs are based on faith and indoctrination, not evidence, so simply demonstrating their failures isn't enough to end them.
• I wish Clarke would have at least attempted to explain how or why humans suddenly ascended into a godlike being. It just seems to start without any catalyst.

Ugly

• Suggesting that all racism would quickly be forgotten and that the n-word stop being a slur and instead become commonplace shows Clarke's inability to grasp just how deeply rooted racism is in human culture. The fact that his post-racism characters still use phrases like "Polynesian savages" demonstrates his lack of understanding.
• Making the story all about how various forms of pseudoscience throughout history are legit ruined the ending for me. I appreciate that Clarke pointed out that most of the self-professed "psychics" and ghost sightings were frauds, but to then chastise empiricists for not recognizing the 0.01% of the pseudoscience that scientists couldn't actively disprove was therefore real supernatural phenomena is just stupid. Claiming that scientists would never be able to accept supernatural phenomena is also stupid, as they would be the only ones capable of separating the fact from the fiction.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	Jean is almost strong, but she's really just a vehicle for the plot.
Bechdel test?	Fail	Possibly a pass with Jean and Maia, but I don't think so.
Strong person of color character?	Pass	Jan risks his life and defies the Overlords to uncover their home planet.
Queer character?	Fail	None of the characters appear to be queer.

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