“When the Hindu says the world is Maya, at once people get the idea that the world is an illusion.” - Vivekananda

Childhood’s End

Why I Chose It

It’s been a long time since I have posted anything. Grad school hit and my goals that I had thought that I would diligently stick with throughout this journey suddenly became side thoughts. Who knew grad school would be so exhausting. However, I have come across the second, albeit, smaller break after Winter break. Only, unlike the latter, I do not have anything extremely pressing to accomplish. Therefore, I decided I should start up this blog again, and start reading again. So many books to read and yet such little time. When researching for books to read more fantasy books to read, many sources had assured of novels by Arthur C Clarke. His most famous work is A Space Odyssey. This was my first choice, but after learning it’s a series, and knowing my inexorable curiosity for the ending of a story, I thought it would be best to read a stand alone novel. Many people were giving good reviews for it and it was also awarded the Hugo Award in 1954 Therefore, I decided to read it.

The Childhood’s End Book Cover

Summary - Spoilers!

Earth and the Overlords

The first chapter opens up with the Space Race between the United States and Russia (then the Soviet Union). They are going head to head to see who can launch a spacecraft that will reach mars. However, both their intentions are founded in military use, not scientific. Just before it started, however, UFOs were found to be above major cities around the world. The first chapters concluded with an eerie sentiment: humans were no longer alone. Rikki Stormgren, the secretary general of the United Nations discusses with his assistant Pieter Van Ryberg about the UFO’s. These vast spaceships are controlled by aliens, but nobody can see who they are. However, Stormgren makes first contact with an alien. He enters a room on the ship where there is a division between him and the alien, and therefore he still cannot see them. The alien introduces himself as Karellen. Stormgren is eager to understand what his intentions are. On the sixth day of his arrival Karellen sends out an uniformed message to all of earth. He essentially claims that he will supervise all of earth’s affairs to prevent humanity’s extinction. Different nations take different approaches to Karellen and his spaceship’s arrivals. One nation tries to nuke his spaceships, and when South Africa does not stop its apartheid, Karellen blocks out the sun until they do end it. After some time, humanity names Karellen and his race as “Overlords”, many people treating them as religious figures. With many people wanting to see the aliens’ true form, and Karellen claiming he will only reveal himself after 50 years, Stormgren’s curiosity becomes unbearable. One day he brings a flashlight and attempts to see Karellen’s form. He manages to be able to see a bit of his form, but whatever he sees shocks him. He decides to keep quite about what he found.

An artistic rendition of the Overlords ship

The Golden Age

The Overlord Karellen depicted in the miniseries developed by Matthew Graham

After 50 years, Karellen is finally ready to reveal his form. Before descending he asks two children to come up to the ship. The ships sucks them in. He then emerges. With the two children on his shoulders. What everybody sees shocks them. He looks just like how Christianity described the Devil to be. Soon Earth turns into an utopia. There is a huge advancement in technology, taxes are gone (truly an utopia!), crime rates are at an all time low, and religion is no longer a prominent part of humanity. Since 50 years have passed, we move away from the perspective of Stormgen to another set of characters. After the Overlords give humanity the “golden age of prosperity”, they ask for something in return. They want to be able to further their knowledge in psychic research. One Overlord, Rashaverak, is particularly interested in a book collection owned by Rupert Boyce. Boyce, excited of having Rashaverak in his home, invites his friends: Jan Rodricks, George, Jean, his wife, and the Shoenbergers. Boyce also brings a Ouijia board to the party where everybody participates. While asking a question, Rodricks asks for the identity of the Overlords’ home star. The ouija board spells out NGS 549672. Jan, although a skeptic of the occult, realizes this is a logical answer. He knows this is a star-catalog number, found in the constellation Carina and is consistent with the direction in which Overlord supply ships come from.

Constellation Carina

While Jan mulls over this new information, the author talks about how everyone on earth is now truly equal. There is no need to work, earn money etc. Everyone is happily content and devote their time to simple entertainment. On the other hand, Jan decides that he wants to learn more about the Overlord and their intentions. He decides to stow away on their ship before they are set to leave. With the help of his friend Sullivan, he is able to hibernate on the ship using a drug called narcosamine. The trip is 40 light years and using time dilation and special relativity, the ship only needs a few weeks to reach their destination. Therefore, Jan is able to endure the journey and will wake up once the Overlord each their planet. Karellen learns about Jan, but because the ship has already left, he cannot do anything about it. He condemns his actions, stating that humanity should not explore space for their own protection, but also because humanity could not prove they could not find peace amongst themselves, and therefore “The stars are not for man”.

The Last Generation

It has been over a century since the arrival of the Overlords. And now, the book shifts towards George and Jean, now married with two children: Jeffery and Jennifer Anne. They have moved to an island called New Athens. This colony was created due to the fact that many humans believed that after the Overlords came there was no more innovation and advancement in human culture. This colony was devoted to changing that. The Overlords were gathered here as well, but their interests lie within George and Jean’s kids, even going as far as saving Jeffrey when he is almost caught up in a tsunami. Soon, human children start to show signs of clairvoyance and telekinesis. It is now where Karellen reveals the purpose of his arrival. The Overlords have been serving an entity called the Overmind. The overmind is described as a “cosmic intelligence” one without physical form. Unlike the Overlords species, who consider themselves as a “dead-end” race as they will never be able to join the Overmind, humanity will be amalgamated with the Overmind. The Overmind is not a single civilization, rather a combination of former ancient civilizations who were freed from the “limitations of material existence”. New Athens was a symbol of humanity’s last cling to its singularity. However, now humanity will be combined into a single group of consciousness, which will be with the next generation of children. The children start to physically transform into something else. The Overlords, knowing how painful it is for parents to see their children transform into this new entity, and knowing the energy that comes from it, ship their children to a different continent. Humanity, knowing there is no more future, either tries to find some purpose in the little time they have left or the end up taking their own life. New Athens, with George and Jean still living there, agree to mass suicide with an Uranimum bomb.

An artistic rendition of the children combing with the Overmind

The novel then brings the reader back to Jan Rodricks. He has just emerged from his hibernation on the Overlord ship just as it reaches their planet. The Overlords, not surprised by his appearance, show him how the Overmind communicates with them. Jan returns back to Earth 80 years later, only to learn he is the last man alive on the planet. The children have already combined into a single consciousness and are ready to join the Overmind. They even start altering the Moon’s rotation and other actions at an astronomical level. The Overlords know now that it is not safe to remain on Earth. They depart and even offer to take Rodrick with them. However, Jan refuses, instead wishing to stay on Earth, offering to transmit a report of what he sees. Rodrick asks one final question, asking how humans were able to know about their form beforehand, having religious text and art depict them before. Rashaverak explains that they never had contact with humans before, and it was not their fear of seeing their “demonic” form but due to a racial premonition of the Overlords role in their change. As the end draws near, the Overlords are eager to leave and are grateful for Jan’s last report. Over radio, Jan describes a fiery demise. The children are gone and the rocks of the earth dissolve. Rodrick, instead of fear, feels fulfillment, and soon the earth evaporates into a flash of light. Karellen looks back at the milky way and bids humanity a bittersweet farewell.

Review

Maya

This book had a very interesting tone, as if there was an impending sense of doom. Humanity has disappeared, and there is no more future. Although Clarke makes many analogies with Christianity, I think there is a concept that also works here too which is Maya. Maya is a concept that states that all of the material world is an illusion, and that there is only a single truth: everything dies. While this might seem like a morbid idea, I think it is stating that physically, we are not able to infinitize it, and that it is important to create things that are lasting, not our own bodies. This is paralleled in the novel with humanity combining the Overmind, and the Overlords want to join them in consciousness as well.

Utopia and Innovation

This was an interesting topic to look at as well. When the Overlords came and gave humans new technology and medicine, humanities innovation came to a sudden halt. It was strange to think that if humanity suddenly gained an utopia, humanity would not invent more things. If anything, creating an utopia with more advanced technology would fuel their desire to invent more. There would be some people who would not want to pursue further endeavors, but I do not believe that would represent everyone. If we take a look at New Athens, we can see that people were still discovering new things about humanity itself, and I do not think there would be a short supply of people who would want to learn more about STEM. It was also very strange to see the Overlords quell the curiosity of humans with anything related with space, with Karellen stating that “The stars are not for man”. If anything, it would have been wise to ask humans for their help in understanding the Overmind.

Quotes that stuck with me

“Science is the only religion of mankind”

“Man’s beliefs were his own affair, so long as they did not interfere with the liberty of others”

“The stars are not for man.”

“The world’s now cold, featureless, and culturally dead; nothing really new has been created since the Overlords came … there’s nothing left to struggle for, and there are too many distractions and entertainments.”

Future

I am thinking of expanding this blog to not only be about book reviews, but also clarifying work and concepts I learned throughout grad school and break these topics down. Recently, I accepted an internship as a Software engineer at Ford. While preparing for it, I had been furiously working through Leetcode. I realized what everyone had been telling me, how to study for Leetcode, had been false. Until I started studying Advanced Algorithms, I realized what I had been missing. I want to break down what I learned in class, and how to actually tackle Leetcode like questions. This will also help me study for the future.

Citations

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood%27s_End_(miniseries)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood%27s_End

[3]https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/childhoods-end