The Overlords of Humanity, and Childhood's End

Today we talk about Arthur C Clarke's masterpiece novel Childhood's End, which sees a strange race known as the Overlords move in and assume control over humanity. All that and more in today's science fiction and fantasy book discussion!

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[EckhartsLadder]

These longer videos take a lot of work, including reading the book and watching the mini-series. Your support means a lot.

[willschneider]

I'm so glad you did this video. I really hope it gets enough engagement despite the fact it's not Star Wars. There's so much science fiction in the universe to appreciate.

[the_algo_rhythm]

One of my favorites by him. Never thought you'd cover this. Thanks!

[gc]

Nice glad you’re covering this. It’s one of my favorites stories. Thanks a million Eck. ^^👍

[emf]

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” ― C.S. Lewis

[casbot]

You forgot to mention why Humanity remembered the Overlords as Devils - _it's a memory from the future._

Psychic Humans at the end of Humanity remember that the Overlords were "responsible" for the end of the Earth and Humanity, and that either echoed back in time *or* ancient Psychics had seen glimpses of the end times and the Overlords being the sheppards of it.
There had been occasional minor psychic awakenings for millennia.

That was what made the Overlords pick that time to arrive, Human parapsychic research was about to start producing verifiable results and it was about to become a science.

[ArcaneAvian]

Honestly almost all of the ideas in this story seem very ominous, unsettling, and even sinister. Like, the line about human culture and science stagnating, essentially the death of human curiosity, that's a horrifying thought. And the overmind and overlords seem sinister in a way similar to like, Mother Gothel, from Tangled

[MoonWeasel]

Stories such as this make me contemplate the exact opposite scenario, in which humans are the first one into the stars. What would we do if we found planets with life and civilizations, but they were incapable of comprehending the vastness of the universe or the means by which to explore it? I like to think that we would help them, but I feel like they would likely be wrapped into humanity’s story of tribalism and greed. However, you could argue that the characteristics which damn humanity most often, are the same things which drive us to be explorers and creators.

[shardator]

The childhood's end is one of the heaviest books I read. And it was a super strange read from Clarke.

[cinemagoose]

Reading the ending of the book was one of the few quasi-religious experiences I've ever gotten from reading a book (a reaction I tend to get more often from watching mindblowing movies and such), and I was tearing up by the end of it. That is to say, it's one of my favorite books of all time.

[mdmn-ARCA]

I read the book (and later saw the miniseries you're using for visuals) a decade ago and haven't thought about it all that much since then, so it's weird this is the second video I've come across about it in the space of a week...

[dephenistratordephenistrat]

I really enjoy your summaries of other stories, please keep doing them!

[jeffreysoreff]

Thank you. I find Karellen's last speech one of the most moving passages I've ever read - doubly so since we may be on the cusp of building our own successors within the next few years. "yet it is something wonderful, and you will have created it."

[ryussjgod]

I watched this tv mini series and enjoyed it to the end when it first aired 8 or 9 years ago. Now I need to read the books. Great job man, keep up the excellent work and the book club. Peace!!

[stanisawfraczek]

Finally :D I've read this, wonderful book :D I hope you will create more videos of this type.

[daveo]

I read this year's ago. There were several parts that got me choked up. It's hard to imagine this happening, but it's also really frightening when you think about it from the points of view that are presented by Clarke. I read this book once, and it still sticks in my head as a book I only want to read once- not because it was a bad story, quite the opposite. It's an amazing story, it created so many emotions that it stuck with me, and I can't forget it.

[GmodPlusWoW]

I actually read this book over a decade ago. It was one of the many sci-fi novels that my granddad owned, alongside Asimov's "Foundation", Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series, and a ton of others. I tend to think about the back third of Childhood's End whenever I listen to the track that plays during the final hours of the last day in Majora's Mask.

[antimatterhorn]

been a long time since i read this book, but i didn't get the impression that there was much choice in the matter of giving up individuality or keeping your humanity. the ascension to a non-physical being brought immense power (like the ability to project anywhere in the universe at will), and out of necessity, the other races that had ascended already formed a collective intelligence with infinite reach and grew extremely protective of itself. since humans were going to reach this apex anyway, they weren't really given a choice in the matter of how they'd like to do it. i have recollections of some thoughts that Jan had that the overlords were essentially indoctrinated by the overmind into thinking it was the pinnacle of existence without questioning the faustian bargain it really was.

[tonypringles]

i remember this one show on netflix called "colony" where only some cities on earth were left and under control by aliens. the show was cancelled but in the later seasons you find out the aliens are robots running from a loser war. and they are training certain humans to be soldiers and others are their labor force but in all honesty it isn't that bad. what i find funny is these robots never would have had to dominate humans, if they had just given us some of their tech i bet we would have willingly joined them in their war. especially if that alien race they were fighting would have destroyed us to.

[EksaStelmere]

I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking the story is more a tragedy than anything uplifting. When I was younger and reading this for the first time, I immediately thought of Pol Pot who basically went around killing off the old so he could have exclusive control over the young. I was not popular in my own reading club for making this comparison, but it's just how it felt to me at the time. Nowadays, I can at least see that it's Clarke being an idealistic socialist trying to make collectivism look palatable. He basically set the stage for other authors to run with the same ideas.