Childhood's End

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by Arthur C. Clarke

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Childhood's End
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	Arthur C. Clarke
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	1953
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	214 pp
ISBN	0-345-34795-1
OCLC Number	36566890

Childhood's End is a science fiction novel by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, which narrates a fictional evolution of the human race. It was first published in 1953 in book form, but had previously appeared in 1950 as a short story titled "Guardian Angel" in Famous Fantastic Mysteries magazine.^[1] The original publication is the novel after the prologue, Earth and the Overlords, with some different text in certain places. A new first chapter was substituted in 1990 when the Cold War ended, making the original version anachronistic. Editions since have appeared with the original opening or including both alternatives.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Childhood's End in other media 2.1 Movies and television 2.2 Music 2.3 Other 3 Publication history 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] Plot summary

This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2010)

Childhood's End narrates a fictional transformation of humanity, where nationalism, racial prejudice and cruelty to animals are outlawed. A utopian society eventually develops, but this is not the climax.^[2]

The story is set in the late 20th century. Americans and Soviets are competing to launch the first to voyage to the moon. This space race is halted, however, when spaceships position themselves precisely above Earth's principal cities.^[2] After one week, the aliens announce they are assuming supervision of international affairs to prevent humanity's extinction. As the Overlords, they bring peace, and they claim that interference will be limited.

Some humans are suspicious of the Overlords' benign intent, as they never appear physically. Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," speaks directly only to Stormgren, the UN Secretary-General, whom he tells that the Overlords will reveal themselves physically in 50 years. Stormgren smuggles a device onto Karellen's ship to see behind the screen separating them; years later he tells a reporter that the device failed. Humankind enters a golden age of prosperity, at the expense of creativity. As promised, the Overlords appear in person; they resemble the traditional human folk image of demons — large bipeds with leathery wings, horns and tails.^[3] This is generally attributed to some racial memory of an earlier, unsuccessful encounter. This positive encounter leads humanity to accept them with little fear.

The Overlords are interested in psychic research; humans suppose this is part of their anthropological study. Rupert Boyce, a prolific collector of books on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study them at his home. To impress his friends with Rashaverak's presence, Boyce holds a party, during which an astrophysicist, Jan Rodricks, asks the identity of the Overlords' home star; a Ouija board reveals a star-catalog number. Its position agrees with the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear.

Although humanity and the Overlords develop peaceful relations, some believe human innovation is being suppressed and that culture is becoming stagnant. These groups establish "New Athens," an island colony devoted to creative arts. One colonist is George Greggson, whose wife Jean had fainted during the seance at Boyce's party. The Overlords develop an interest in the Greggson children, Jeffrey and Jennifer Anne, even intervening to save Jeffrey's life when a tsunami strikes the island. Sixty years after the Overlords' arrival, human children, including the Greggsons, begin to display telekinetic powers. Karellen reveals the Overlords' purpose: They serve the Overmind, a cosmic intelligence freed from matter's limits. The Overlords, who cannot join the Overmind, are charged with fostering other species' eventual merger with it. Because of this, Karellen expresses envy of humanity. For the transformed children's safety, they are segregated on a continent of their own. As no more human children are born, many parents find their lives stripped of meaning, and die or commit suicide. New Athens is destroyed by its members.

Jan Rodricks, having stowed away on an Overlord supply ship, arrives on their planet, 40 light-years from Earth. While on the planet, the Overlords permit him a glimpse of how the Overmind communicates with them. When Rodricks returns to Earth, he finds an unexpectedly altered planet. Humanity as he had known it has died; he is now the last man alive. About 300 million naked young beings, physically human but otherwise having nothing in common with them, remain on the quarantined continent. They are the final, physical form of human evolution before merger with the Overmind.

Some Overlords remain on Earth to study the children from a safe distance. When the evolved children mentally alter the Moon's rotation and make other planetary manipulations, it becomes too dangerous to remain; the Overlords offer Rodricks the option of leaving with them, but he chooses to stay, witness Earth's end and transmit a report of what he sees. Rodricks describes a burning column of energy ascending from the planet, and a sense of profound emptiness as "They" depart for their unknown future. Material objects seem to dissolve as Rodricks reports no fear but a sense of accomplishment, then a flash of light as the Earth evaporates. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System, which shows no hint that one of its planets has disappeared. He gives a final salute to the individual humans he has known and to humanity as a whole. He ponders whether guiding them through their passage has edged his own species any nearer a similar advance, then turns away to await the Overmind's next order.

[edit] Childhood's End in other media

[edit] Movies and television

• The BBC produced a two-hour radio dramatization of the novel, which was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1997.
• A screenplay of the novel has for years been sold and traded in the movie business, but has not been produced yet. Director Kimberly Peirce and actress Hilary Swank have been attached to the project.^{[citation needed]}
• Hideaki Anno, main designer and director of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, has stated that Childhood's End was one of his principal influences.^{[citation needed]} The end of the novel seems to have directly inspired the Human Instrumentality Project. The final scene of his theatrical climax to the series, The End of Evangelion, also mirrors that of the book.
• The anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 00 featured several elements from the story, including the evolution of the human race to a species with powerful mental abilities, non-physical states, and the manipulation of mankind's evolution by a group possessing technology far in advance of human technology.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Music

• The final scenes of the book, in which Earth's children gather and become an entity of the Overmind, inspired the cover of the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy.^{[citation needed]}
• The novel also inspired a song of the same name by Pink Floyd on the album Obscured by Clouds.^{[citation needed]}
• The Genesis song "Watcher of the Skies" was inspired by the novel,^{[citation needed]} as was Peter Gabriel's bat-winged stage costume.^{[citation needed]}
• The song "A Childlike Faith in Childhood's End" by Van der Graaf Generator was inspired by the novel.^{[citation needed]}
• The song "El Fin de la Infancia" by Mexican rock band Café Tacvba from their 1994 album Re is named after Childhood's End.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Other

• An Overlord is illustrated in Wayne Douglas Barlowe's bestiary, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. The Overlord is also on the cover, in the upper left position.^[3]

[edit] Publication history

This is a partial list of English editions.

• First published in 1953 by Harcourt.
• Pan Science Fiction (1954)
• Pan New Edition edition (7 Dec 1990) Paperback ISBN 0330316613
• Ballantine Books Inc. (29 Mar 1994) Paperback ISBN 0345347951
• Gollancz (21 Jan 2010) ISBN 0575082356

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Childhood's End

• Clark, Stephen R. L. (1995). "Childhood end". How to Live Forever: Science Fiction and Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 154–156. ISBN 0415126266. http://books.google.com/?id=VH2EB3FSupAC&pg=PA153&dq=childhoods+end+clarke. 
• Hillegas, Mark R. (1967). The Future as Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians. Oxford University Press. pp. 153–154 17. ISBN 080930676X. http://books.google.com/?id=HnBbAAAAMAAJ&q=Hillegas,+The+Future+as+Nightmare&dq=Hillegas,+The+Future+as+Nightmare. 
• Olander, Joseph D; Martin Harry Greenberg (1977). Arthur C. Clarke. P. Harris. ISBN 0904505413. http://books.google.com/?id=DHlaAAAAMAAJ&q=childhoods+end+clarke+review&dq=childhoods+end+clarke+review. 
• Samuelson, David N. (Spring 1973). "Childhood's End: A Median Stage of Adolescence?". Science Fiction Studies (DePauw University) 1, Part 1. http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/1/samuelson1art.htm. 
• University Course Notes. "A.C. Clarke: Childhood's End". University of Wales. http://www.newi.ac.uk/rdover/other/ac_clark.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-23. 
• Westfahl, Gary; George Edgar Slusser (1999). Nursery Realms. University of Georgia Press. pp. 15–17. ISBN 0820321443. http://books.google.com/?id=lrdhYWzpSDkC&pg=PA16&dq=childhoods+end+clarke. 

v • d • e Arthur C. Clarke Novels Prelude to Space • The Sands of Mars • Islands in the Sky • Childhood's End • Earthlight • The Deep Range • A Fall of Moondust • Dolphin Island • Glide Path • Imperial Earth • The Fountains of Paradise • The Songs of Distant Earth • Cradle • The Ghost from the Grand Banks • The Hammer of God • Richter 10 (with Mike McQuay) • The Trigger (with Michael Kube-McDowell) • The Light of Other Days (with Stephen Baxter) • The Last Theorem (with Frederik Pohl) Novel series Space Odyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey • 2010: Odyssey Two • 2061: Odyssey Three • 3001: The Final Odyssey • The Lost Worlds of 2001 Rama series Rendezvous with Rama • Rama II • The Garden of Rama • Rama Revealed A Time Odyssey Time's Eye • Sunstorm • Firstborn Vanamonde series Against the Fall of Night • The City and the Stars • Beyond the Fall of Night Short Story Collections Expedition to Earth • Reach for Tomorrow • Tales from the White Hart • The Other Side of the Sky • Tales of Ten Worlds • The Nine Billion Names of God • Of Time and Stars • The Wind from the Sun • The Best of Arthur C. Clarke • The Sentinel • Tales From Planet Earth • More Than One Universe • The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke Non-fiction Interplanetary Flight: an introduction to astronautics • The Lost Worlds of 2001 • The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010 • How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village • An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural Adaptations 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) • 2001: A Space Odyssey (comics) • 2010 (film) • Rendezvous with Rama (video game) • The Songs of Distant Earth (album) • Rama (video game) Related Mnematron • Serendipaceratops • Sir Arthur Clarke Award • Geostationary orbit • Clarke's three laws • Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World • Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers • Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe List of works

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