Childhoods End
This was one of those books that was recommended in the Science Fiction Great Courses. It was put in as the very last book and as an example of how important this book was to Science Fiction as a whole.
I bought the book via one of the many Audible deals I’ve gotten over the years and put it off reading it until this year, when my reading list grew a bit thin and because it was a relatively short book, finished it in a matter of days. And had the reaction of “that’s it??”.
I’m sure back when it was released, it was considered a seminal work of science fiction, marrying together big thoughts, big ideas, and executed quite well (its quite well written, though its pacing could use a bit of work). Its almost typical Arthur C. Clarke type science fiction, where the science fiction is mostly an excuse to expound on philosophy (see 2001, Rama etc), and there’s relatively little “action”.
In this book, the aliens come in peace, and superior technology such that resistance is basically futile. The “in peace” part isn’t a lie, and the Aliens quickly establish firm rules that better humanity as a whole, as well as the planet (they ban cruelty to animals and use a matador’s fight to inflict psychic damage to all viewers of said event). The book starts off with as much action as you are going to get within the book, a bold kidnapping of the planet’s liason to the aliens, and shows just how much technologically speaking the aliens are above the Humans. The kidnapping is allowed to continue only so that all conspirators are identified, the kidnapped victim rescused and the conspirators not harmed save that they have identified themselves as such. Basically the equivalent of taking a kitten out of the laundry to make sure it doesn’t hurt itself.
The book then spans generations and slowly but surely you see exactly what the aliens really want out of the Humans. Basically they are here to shepherd the birthing of some sort of psychic ubermensch and that not every species out in the universe is capable of.
The Childhood’s End in the title refers to the birthing of this ubermensch from normal humans and subsequently triggering the end of humanity as a whole. The last chapters of the book speaks of this event from the perspective of the last human capable of doing so, and he stays on to record for posterity (and the original aliens who came to shepherd this brith) the last few words of humanity as we know it today.
This isn’t the first type of books which goes into what the evolution of humanity could be like, and I did not find it as depressing as probably intended. The ubermensch is not recognizable as humans as we know it, and the evolution of it is ludicrously quick (from the pov of earth based evolution), but its within reason that maybe the aliens triggered a spark that caused this.
There are too many strings untied in the book that makes me feel uncomfortable finishing it, almost as if it was a whole bunch of appetizers without a main course.
Not recommended unless you’re bored. It might be a seminal work of science fiction, but I feel it really falls short of execution in the broad ideas.