Childhood's End

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This article is about a novel. For other uses, see Childhood's End (disambiguation).

Childhood's End
OCLC
36566890

Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion[1] of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.

Clarke's idea for the book began with his short story "Guardian Angel" (published in

Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel
in 2004.

Several attempts to adapt the novel into a film or miniseries have been made with varying levels of success. Director

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) instead. The novel's theme of transcendent evolution also appears in Clarke's Space Odyssey series. In 1997, the BBC produced a two-hour radio dramatization of Childhood's End that was adapted by Tony Mulholland. The Syfy Channel produced a three-part, four-hour television miniseries
of Childhood's End, which was broadcast on 14–16 December 2015.

Plot summary

In the late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union are competing to launch the first spacecraft into orbit when alien spaceships suddenly position themselves above Earth's principal cities. After one week, the aliens announce they are assuming supervision of international affairs, to prevent humanity's extinction. They become known as the Overlords. In general, they let humans go on conducting their affairs in their own way, although some humans are suspicious of the Overlords' benign intent, as they never allow themselves to be seen.

The Overlord Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," periodically meets with Rikki Stormgren, the

golden age of prosperity
at the expense of creativity.

The Overlords are interested in

light years
to their home planet.

Well over a century after the Overlords' arrival, human children, beginning with the Greggsons', begin to display

telekinetic powers
. Karellen reveals the Overlords' purpose: they serve the Overmind, a vast cosmic intelligence, as a kind of "bridge species", fostering other races' eventual union with it.

As Rashaverak explains, the time of humanity as a race composed of single individuals with a concrete identity is coming to an end. The children's minds reach into each other and merge into a single vast group consciousness. For the transformed children's safety, they are segregated on a continent of their own. No more human children are born and many parents die or commit suicide. When Jan Rodricks returns to Earth, he finds an unexpectedly altered planet. Humanity has effectively become extinct and he is now the last man alive.

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 departing Overlords offer to take Rodricks with them, but he chooses to stay to witness Earth's end and transmit a report of what he sees.

Publication history

Development

Barrage balloons over London during World War II. Clarke observed balloons like these floating over the city in 1941. He recalls that his earliest idea for the story may have originated with this scene, with the giant balloons becoming alien ships in the novel.[5]

The novel first took shape in July 1946, when Clarke wrote "Guardian Angel", a short story that would eventually become Part I of Childhood's End. Clarke's portrayal of the Overlords as devils was influenced by

Science Abstracts. "Guardian Angel" was submitted for publication but was rejected by several editors, including Campbell. At the request of Clarke's agent and unbeknown to Clarke, the story was edited by James Blish, who rewrote the ending. Blish's version of the story was accepted for publication in April 1950 by Famous Fantastic Mysteries magazine.[6] Clarke's original version of "Guardian Angel" was later published in the Winter 1950 issue of New Worlds magazine.[7]

After Clarke's nonfiction science book

Atlanta, Georgia, where he visited Ian Macauley, a friend who was active in the civil rights movement. Clarke finished the final chapter in Atlanta while Clarke and Macauley discussed racial issues; these conversations may have influenced the development of the last chapter, particularly Clarke's choice to make the character of Jan Rodricks – the last surviving member of the human species – a black man.[10]

Clarke arrived in Florida at the end of April. The short story, "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea", included in the Tales from the White Hart (1957) collection, was influenced by his time in Florida. While in Key Largo in late May, Clarke met Marilyn Mayfield, and after a romance lasting less than three weeks, they travelled to Manhattan and married at New York City Hall. The couple spent their honeymoon in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where Clarke proofread Childhood's End. In July, Clarke returned to England with Mayfield, but it quickly became clear that the marriage would not last as Clarke spent most of his time reading and writing, and talking about his work. Further, Clarke wanted to be a father, and Marilyn, who had a son from a previous marriage, informed Clarke after their marriage that she could no longer have children. When Childhood's End was published the following month, it appeared with a dedication: "To Marilyn, For letting me read the proofs on our honeymoon." The couple separated after a few months together, but remained married for the next decade.[11]

Publication

Ballantine wanted to publish Childhood's End before Expedition to Earth and Prelude to Space, but Clarke wanted to wait. He felt that it was a difficult book to release. He had written two different endings for the novel and was unsure of which to use. According to biographer Neil McAleer, Clarke's uncertainty may have been because of its thematic focus on the paranormal and transcendence with the alien Overmind. While the theme was used effectively by Clarke in the novel, McAleer wrote that "it was not science fiction based on science, which he came to advocate and represent". When he wrote Childhood's End, Clarke was interested in the paranormal, and did not become a sceptic until much later in his life.[12] Ballantine convinced Clarke to let them publish Childhood's End first, and it was published in August 1953, with a cover designed by American science fiction illustrator Richard M. Powers.[13] Childhood's End first appeared in paperback and hardcover editions, with the paperback as the primary edition, an unusual approach for the 1950s. For the first time in his career, Clarke became known as a novelist.[12]

Decades later, Clarke was preparing a new edition of Childhood's End after the story had become dated. The initial chapter of the 1953 novel correctly foresees a race between the US and Soviet Union to first land men on the Moon (and the prominence of German rocket scientists in both space programs), but sets it later than it would actually happen (post-1975; the exact year is not given in the text, but 1945 is said to be more than thirty years ago). After the book was first published, the

Apollo missions landed humans on the Moon in 1969, and in 1989 US President George H. W. Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), calling for astronauts to eventually explore Mars. In 1990, Clarke added a new foreword and rewrote the first chapter, placing it in the early 21st century, changing the goal from the Moon to Mars, and implying a joint effort rather than a race.[8] Editions since have appeared with the original opening or have included both versions. "Guardian Angel" has also appeared in two short story collections: The Sentinel (1983), and The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
(2001).

On October 28, 2008,

Audible.com released a 7-hour 47 minute unabridged audiobook version of Childhood's End, narrated by Eric Michael Summerer, under its Audible Frontiers imprint. An AudioFile review commended Summerer's narration as "smoothly presented and fully credible".[14] An audio introduction and commentary is provided by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer.[15]

Reception

The novel was well received by most readers and critics.[16] Two months after publication, all 210,000 copies of the first printing had been sold.[17] The New York Times published two positive reviews of the book: Basil Davenport compared Clarke to Olaf Stapledon, C. S. Lewis, and H. G. Wells, a "very small group of writers who have used science fiction as the vehicle of philosophic ideas."[18] William DuBois called the book "a first rate tour de force that is well worth the attention of every thoughtful citizen in this age of anxiety."[19] Don Guzman of the Los Angeles Times admired the novel for its suspense, wisdom, and beauty. He compared Clarke's role as a writer to that of an artist, "a master of sonorous language, a painter of pictures in futuristic colors, a Chesley Bonestell with words".[20] Galaxy reviewer Groff Conklin called the novel "a formidably impressive job ... a continuous kaleidoscope of the unexpected."[21] While acknowledging "inexpressible unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings after reading it," Japanese author Yukio Mishima declared, "I'm not afraid to call it a masterpiece."

Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas were more skeptical, and faulted the novel's "curious imbalance between its large-scale history and a number of episodic small-scale stories." While praising Clarke's work as "Stapledonian [for] its historic concepts and also for the quality of its prose and thinking," they concluded that Childhood's End was "an awkward and imperfect book."[22] P. Schuyler Miller said the novel was "all imagination and poetry," but concluded it was "not up to some of Clarke's other writing" due to weakness in its "episodic structure."[23]

Brian W. Aldiss and David Wingrove wrote that Childhood's End rested on "a rather banal philosophical idea," but that Clarke "expressed [it] in simple but aspiring language that vaguely recalls the Psalms [and] combined [it] with a dramatized sense of loss [for] undeniable effect."[24]

In 2004 Childhood's End was nominated for a

series of UK postage stamps.[26]

Adaptations

In the 1960s, director Stanley Kubrick was interested in making a film adaptation of the novel, but blacklisted director Abraham Polonsky had already optioned it. Instead, Kubrick collaborated with Clarke on adapting the short story "The Sentinel" into what eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).[27] Months before his performance at Woodstock in 1969, folk singer and guitarist Richie Havens told Ebony magazine about his appreciation of Clarke's story and expressed his interest in working on a future film adaptation of Childhood's End.[28] Screenplays by Polonsky and Howard Koch were never made into films.[29]

David Elgood first proposed a radio adaptation of the novel in 1974, but nothing came of it in that decade.

Philip DeGuere, whose credits include the TV series Alias Smith and Jones, developed a script in the late 1970s for Universal, who planned to film it initially as a six-hour mini-series for CBS Television, and later as a two- or three-hour telemovie for ABC. However, Universal discovered that its contracts with Arthur C. Clarke - some of which dated back to 1957 - were out of date. These contractual difficulties were resolved in 1979 and DeGuere worked with legendary comic book artist Neal Adams on preproduction drawings and other material. The project had Clarke's approval. However Universal decided that the budget required would be nearly $40 million and they were only prepared to spend $10 million, so the movie was not made.[30]

Director Brian Lighthill revisited the radio adaptation proposal and obtained the rights in 1995. After Lighthill received a go-ahead from BBC Radio in 1996, he commissioned a script from Tony Mulholland, resulting in a new, two-part adaptation. The BBC produced the two-hour radio dramatization of the novel, and broadcast it on BBC Radio 4 in November 1997. The recording was released on cassette by BBC Audiobooks in 1998 and on CD in 2007.[31]

As of 2002, film rights to the novel were held by Universal Pictures, with director Kimberly Peirce attached to a project.[32]

On April 10, 2013, the

Syfy Channel announced its plans to develop a Childhood's End TV miniseries.[33] The three-episode, four-hour production premiered December 14, 2015. Charles Dance
portrays the Supervisor Karellen.

An illustration of an Overlord was depicted by artist Wayne Barlowe in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.[34]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Booker & Thomas 2009, pp. 31–32.
  2. ^ a b McAleer 1992, p. 88.
  3. ^ Dick 2001, pp. 127–129.
  4. ^ Cordeiro 2008, pp. 47–50.
  5. ^ Childhood's End, pp. vii–viii.
  6. ^ Clarke 2000, p. 203. See also: ACC Photographic reproduction of the first pages of the original tale, Guardian Angel, from "FANTASTIC Mysteries", 1950 April – Vol. 11 #4 – pages 98–112,127–129.
  7. ^ Samuelson 1973.
  8. ^ a b Childhood's End, p. v.
  9. ^ McAleer 1992, p. 89-91.
  10. ^ McAleer 1992, pp. 91–92.
  11. ^ McAleer 1992, pp. 92–100.
  12. ^ a b McAlleer 1992, pp. 90–91.
  13. ^ "Publication Listing". isfdb.org. Internet Speculative Fiction Database. 2009-03-20.
  14. ^ McCarty 2009.
  15. Audible.com
    .
  16. ^ Howes 1977; McAleer 1992, pp. 98–99.
  17. ^ McAleer 1992, p. 99.
  18. ^ Davenport 1953, p. BR19.
  19. ^ Du Bois 1953.
  20. ^ Guzman 1953, p. D5.
  21. ^ "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1954, p.129
  22. ^ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, October 1953, p. 72.
  23. Astounding Science Fiction
    , February 1954, pp.151
  24. Trillion Year Spree, Victor Gollancz Ltd
    , 1986 p.308
  25. ^ 1954 Retro-Hugo Awards Archived 2011-05-07 at the Wayback Machine at thehugoawards.org (retrieved 24 April 2016).
  26. ^ "Stamps to feature original artworks celebrating classic science fiction novels". Yorkpress.co.uk. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  27. ^ Baxter 1997, pp. 199–230. See also: Buhle & Wagner 2002.
  28. ^ Bogle 1969, pp. 107-108.
  29. ISSN 0362-4331
    .
  30. ^ "A Difficult Childhood: The Unmanifested Destiny of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End'" in David Hughes, The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made. Chicago IL: A Capella Books, 2001, pp. 18-23.
  31. ^ Pixley 2007.
  32. ^ Elder & Hart 2008, p. 9.
  33. ^ Syfy to Adapt Childhood's End, Ringworld, The Lotus Caves and More!
  34. ^ Barlowe, Wayne (1987). Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. New York: Workman Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89480-500-2.

References

Further reading

External links

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