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A review by beaconatnight
Die Letzte Generation by Arthur C. Clarke
5.0
After my recent venture into the world of Heinlein left me feeling quite underwhelmed, Arthur C. Clarke certainly delivers. In its 250 pages Childhood's End is packed with interesting ideas and it's amazing how well everything comes together in the end. Layer by layer of revelation the reader discovers what is really going on. And all of this while being a book that is so very easy too get into.
The novel begins with an Alien race, the Overlords, arriving on Earth (right when the US and Russia having their Space Race, both being on the brink of starting their first shuttle). Technologically way more advanced (the earthlings soon have to realize that even the attempt to start war is futile), the Overlords are taking control of the planet. However, this is only for the better, since hard word, disease, war, and all the other hardships of mankind soon are relics of the past. If there is one negative side-effect, then it's only that this new utopia does stifle men's scientific and artistic ambitions. Why bother discovering things, if everything that we could hope to find had been found by our new masters a very long time ago? And isn't strife the main impetus for being creative? So with the arrival of the Overlords, human evolution seems to a halt.
I thought it was quite interesting how the story was told. No character stays with you for long, but you learn enough of them to care, especially since they pursue the same questions that you are asking yourself. What do the Overlords look like? What is their agenda, why did they come to Earth? Where are they from? And there are certain events that certainly need explanation, and I love that the novel doesn't shy away from actually giving all the answers.
Actually, I thought that the ending was quite similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey, at least in so far that the human race is about to get integrated into the community of way more powerful beings. I have to admit that at first I wasn't overly impressed by this dawn of homo superior turn of events. However, it was certainly made way more interesting by the twist that the Overlords themselves are not among the beings whose evolutionary purpose lies in joining this collective mind. I also quite liked how this moment of the plot was introduced by involvement with the occult (well, telepathy mainly).
The novel begins with an Alien race, the Overlords, arriving on Earth (right when the US and Russia having their Space Race, both being on the brink of starting their first shuttle). Technologically way more advanced (the earthlings soon have to realize that even the attempt to start war is futile), the Overlords are taking control of the planet. However, this is only for the better, since hard word, disease, war, and all the other hardships of mankind soon are relics of the past. If there is one negative side-effect, then it's only that this new utopia does stifle men's scientific and artistic ambitions. Why bother discovering things, if everything that we could hope to find had been found by our new masters a very long time ago? And isn't strife the main impetus for being creative? So with the arrival of the Overlords, human evolution seems to a halt.
I thought it was quite interesting how the story was told. No character stays with you for long, but you learn enough of them to care, especially since they pursue the same questions that you are asking yourself. What do the Overlords look like? What is their agenda, why did they come to Earth? Where are they from? And there are certain events that certainly need explanation, and I love that the novel doesn't shy away from actually giving all the answers.
Actually, I thought that the ending was quite similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey, at least in so far that the human race is about to get integrated into the community of way more powerful beings. I have to admit that at first I wasn't overly impressed by this dawn of homo superior turn of events. However, it was certainly made way more interesting by the twist that the Overlords themselves are not among the beings whose evolutionary purpose lies in joining this collective mind. I also quite liked how this moment of the plot was introduced by involvement with the occult (well, telepathy mainly).