Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Childhood's End is a science fiction novel set on earth. Humans are the main characters, although quickly visited by an unknown race (they don’t show their faces until they’ve been on earth for 50 years). The book fast forwards several times, but brings everything to a conclusion, which is (SPOILER ALERT) the end of the human race, although not the way you’d think. The unknown aliens bring order amongst the human chaos, and establish what is essentially a utopia while waiting for the emergence of the next powerful race coming from the homo sapiens species. Eventually that race comes, and destroys the earth, almost nonchalantly.

The book brought up many interesting ideas. Would a utopia be good? What would we lose as humanity if another race stopped allowing us to make mistakes that “would no doubt destroy us?” There was one section of the book talking about our culture’s idolization with science and how science is ill-prepared to answer questions beyond itself. The author in many ways tried his own sort of predicting what a future in this universe would look like. I love the practice of being forward thinking, especially socially. What will society look like if X, Y, & Z happen?

A question I think is important when reading a book is: “How did reading this book make me a better person?” I think the author is right when he says the world will end. Are you prepared for that? What do you believe about the end? How will you choose to live your life in light of your beliefs about the end? These are important questions, and today, we are often so distracted by trivial things that we fail to wrestle with these necessary conversations. This is where the book has enormous value. If we began to think more about what happens after we die, I think it would greatly shape how we live our life, how we spend our precious moments here on earth, and ultimately how we interact with other people.

Overall, this was an extremely fun read, and you could read it in a day. Science fiction fans will love it, and even if you aren't a huge science fiction fan (like me), you will enjoy it as well. The ending of the book will be polarizing. Some may love it, some may hate it, but hopefully the entire book will at least encourage you to have an opinion.

-Evan