Karellen

Did you guys expect Karellen to be what he is? What did you think he was? Speculate on what his and the Overlords' motives may be.

I thought they were going to be giant, talking onions - I was speculating that maybe they were too afraid to show themselves at first for fear of being boiled alive and served in humongous stew pots.

But now that we have a more concrete picture of what they resemble, it seems weird to me that Clarke deliberately wants us, as readers, to subconsciously hold their motives in suspicion. Our emotional reactions are inevitable considering he chose the Overlords to physically resemble devils.

I never thought that he would look similar to a devil. It is a perfect fit and it makes sense why the overlords waited so long to reveal themselves. Maybe the last time they tried, they tried to force the humans into doing what they wanted, and thats why they failed. That is why humans already had the image of the devil. And maybe in past angels saved them, I guess we'll see.

...I didn't expect the devil resemblance... I mean, I originally was skeptical that the Overlords wanted to just help and that's it. I thought they had an ulterior motive, but even then I saw in my head a more typical green alien type creature, not something as dramatic as a devil. hahah.

I definately expected something less ominous for sure. I thought of him as being very non threatening most likely something fuzzy...boy was I off haha.

The idea of a devil like creature came completely out of the blue for me. I was thinking along the lines that there was no physical body to the overlords and they were just computers, so of course they couldn't show themselves. Now that we've seen them, I have even stronger doubts about their motives. Apparently humans have already been in contact with them and it didn't turn out so well. Why? Perhaps the overlords didn't disguise their motives well enough and humans figured out what they were trying to do. There's got to be some reason for humans' fear and hate of devils, if they really interacted with them, right? So maybe the devils are smarter now, but just as evil in the end and we don't know it yet.

I didn't suspect he'd look like a great big devil either. It is surprising. I just hope Clark doesn't take this developement and turn it into something way far out there. The story is either going to be really good, or horrible at this point.

It's funny because I had read the foreword and the part about how Clarke had based Childhood's End on his short story entitled "Guardian Angel." And up until the part about the horns and black skin/wings I was almost convinced that the Overlords were angels because the first aspect of Karellen to be described were his wings.

So yeah, I either thought Karellen was an Angel (which was the complete opposite!)... or a Dinosaur (because the overlords had once walked the Earth before) lol.

Of course, Satan is a fallen angel, so you are not far off.

John Edlund

Nice one.

I thought the Overloards would me something small and innocent looking, like some kind of a bug or small animal. I like that Clarke made them look like the devil because it kind of added something more to the story and made it more interesting.

I thought that they were dragons or angels at first, because of the past failure they talked about. But what was really interesting was the twist that the book took at the end. Telling us that Karellen and his people are not as great as us because of their limitations of their minds. Even though they have so much, they can never be apart of the greater being. if that is a good thing or not is not known to me.
All in all, it was a good book. 4/5 points

AH! Spoilers!

But it's my fault for not having it finished yet.

>=(

Stephen wrote:

I was thinking along the lines that there was no physical body to the overlords and they were just computers, so of course they couldn't show themselves.

I thought so, too. Either that or maybe they were invisible or something. But then I realized later what Clarke was talking about in his prologue about the supernatural or paranormal when he described the Overlords. I was like, "Ooohh. I get it."

The explanations in this book frustrate me, because they don't straight out tell you what you are confused on. They make you think, which is their purpose, I guess, and probably the reason I liked this book. "its a gift, and a curse" oh well.

But anyways, one thing I was confused on was their final explanation of why humans throughout history feard them. Their "fear not being bound by time" theory seemed a bit too much of a leap, but after some thought, it works with the story. But was that the only explanation, or were the overloards on earth before. Did the book actually say something about them being on earth before, or did we just assume that since the image of the devil is shown throughout our history?

I have read this book many times and I don't think that Clarke is clear on this point. However, the themes of this book are similar to Clarke's other work. 2001, after all, is also about advanced aliens we never see interfering with the course of human development.

John Edlund

Yes it did actually. Not straight forward but Karellen did say that there were several failures before and he stressed that they couldn't reveal themselfs so one can assume that they showed themselfs before and it didn't work out because humans feared them.