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Arthur Charles Clarke. Childhood’s End. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1953. |
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ARTHUR C. CLARKE Set on the eve of a Russian-United States space race, the novel opens with giant silver space ships appearing above every major city in the world. Earth’s Overlords promote a world federation through computers, without violence or coercion. Peace and prosperity ensue. But “no Utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time. As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights and become disconcerted with power and possessions. . . . There still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.” A transcendent power, the Overmind, which lies beyond the grasp of human thinking, brings an end to the golden age and jolts humankind into an evolved state which leads to man’s fulfillment—or to extinction. |
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