Writers Read – Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke

Science Fiction is not my thing (nor the site’s), but I have read some really good stuff by the likes of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the co-creator of 2001 a Space Odyssey and the Big Brain behind the communications satellite.

Long long ago in this particular galaxy, my brother gave me Childhood’s End to read because, in his opinion, I “should read something intelligent once in a while.” Older siblings tend to rate and vex younger, far livelier lifeforms with snide little observations, but in this case a person who was easily hook, line and sinkered by the “reality” of professional wrestling and remained so until a disgraceful age, had gotten it right.

Written in 1953, Clarke was at the time smitten with the possibility of ESP being real. Later, he did not quite repudiate the possibility but he found further studies to be lackluster and inconclusive at best. Still, the notion led to a book that is still with us for a lifetime, and it appears a good bet to reach a hundred before it eventually is swallowed by the mists of time.

The opening is spectacular and was later “borrowed” by Independence Day. Giant spaceships arrive and park themselves above the major cities of the world. I believe some nation took a potshot at one, to no effect, but that might have happened in another story.

Unlike the Will Smith flick, the aliens are friendly. But they are also firm: They were assigned to be caretakers of earth, for a damn good reason that cannot be specified. Nor will they show their faces until a certain amount of time goes by. Humankind was placed on guard and on a Need to Know Basis. Not everyone liked this much (I know how I would have felt about it).

The idea of not showing their faces for what turned out to be fifty years was brilliant. I bet Steve King wished he had a pay off as sense-making as the one Clarke came up with in Childhood’s End for It, but Steve is closer to being a billionaire than the rest of us, so tough luck.

The leader of the race that the humans called the Overlords was named Karellen. One of Clarke’s few weaknesses was in creating alien names. His were every bit as hokey as those on Buck Rodgers. For the first half of the book humankind was represented by the Secretary General of the UN, Rikki Stormgren, a fine three dimensional character, of the sort most science fiction writers are notoriously poor about creating. The relationship between Karellen (who appeared to be eternal, or close enough for people) and Rikki is warm and humorous and details the early years of the mystery and includes a kidnapping and some fine trickery. It is truly an effective way to hook the reader and leads perfectly to the second half of the story in which everything is eventually explained.

For the benefit of anyone who wants to read it, I will go no further. But I will say that it is possibly the only thing Clarke ever wrote (and he wrote a bunch of great things) that has been described by more than one top critic as “deeply moving.” For me that is one hell of a compliment (and I think, a fitting one) for a book that features the names Karellen and various vaguely manly alphabet soup conglomerations (interestingly, there were no female Overlords–a tell of Clarke’s time, I imagine).

Leila