"A deep and cerebral read that leaves the reader thinking about it long after the novel has finished." 5 Stars
Pros: Clarke is a master of suspense, he never lets the reader know what's going on exactly and the end, though frightening, is darkly perfect.
Cons: The strange arc in the third part of the novel seemed a bit strange but when it was explained, it more or less made sense. It just kind of felt like Clarke had run out of ideas and wanted to end the story.
Full Review: ***Spoiler Alert.
They come without warning, no fanfare, no parades, no hysterical radio broadcast that sends the world into panic. The space ships of the Overlords, an extraterrestrial race that comes to Earth apparently of their own volition, simply appear over all the major cities of the world one day and that's where it starts. There are some world governments that resist but any violence shown towards the ships is as ineffective as a band-aid over a bullet wound and there is never any retaliation. For all that humans can tell, the Overlords are simply here to usher in a golden age of peace and prosperity on Earth.
And that's exactly what they do. The first part of the book is spent trying to figure out what kind of creatures the Overlords really are and exactly what they look like. The voice of the race, The Earth's "Supervisor" Karellen, meets weekly with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Rikki Stormgren, to discuss the goings on of the World. And as Stormgren term comes to a close he devises a scheme to try and discover what Karellen looks like but it fails. He simply has to accept the terms that Karellen gives him, that in Fifty years time the Overlords will descend to Earth and reveal themselves to the world.
And they keep to their word. Karellen descends to Earth and reveals himself and the Overlords physical appearance is both shocking and confusing. They appear to closely resemble the stereotypical depiction of the Devil, leathery wings, horns, forked tail and all but their treatment of Earth never changes. They are always benevolent and the Golden Age comes.
The second part of the book, the Golden Age, shows a world that is perfect. No one has to work unless they want to, food is abundant. There is no more crime, no more killing. Everything is peace. This part of the novel begins with a wealthy Veterinarian named Rupert Boyce, throwing a part to welcome his new wife into his social circle. And as two of his guests, George and Jean are exploring Rupert's elaborate house they are startled to find an actual Overlord sitting in the library, reading.
Apparently, Rupert has had dealing with the Overlords and has come to an interesting agreement. In order for Rupert to use one of their more sophisticated "projectors" wherein he can be anywhere in the world at any time and aid animals without fear of being wounded, he has agreed to let the Overlords study his unique and vast collection of parapsychology literature. This is why the Overlord is there, to glean all that he can from Rupert's diverse collection. He introduces himself as Rashaverak and seems almost shy.
He goes down with George and Jean to join the party and as the festivities are coming to a close, George takes a step outside onto the deck for some fresh air. He runs into Rupert's new brother in law, a man named Jan Rodricks. They exchange a few words but it's obvious that Jon wants to be left alone, so George goes back inside. There's an air of sadness around Jan that can't quite be explained but it will come to fruition as the novel progresses.
Eventually as the party winds down Rupert decides to hold a good old fashioned Seance with a Ouija board, one of the more esoteric pieces of his collection. The explanation for Jan's sadness is that he wants to learn more about the Overlords, where their home planet is, where they come from and what their purpose here on Earth really is. And as the Seance progresses, on a spur of the moment, Jan asks the "spirits" what are the coordinates of the Overlords sun. The spirits answer and Jan begins to plan. Jean also faints at the same time that the answer is given though no one knows why as of yet.
Rashi, the Overlord, sees all of this and reports it all back to Karellen, who says that the woman Jean must be watched more closely as she appears to be some sort of portal. But they don't seem to pay much mind to Jan and what he's discovered. He goes on to find a way to sneak onboard a ship that takes taxidermied specimens of animals to the Overlords planet. If his plan works, he will be given a glimpse of the home world of this strange alien species. Needless to say the reader is just as eager as Jan to find out what their home world is really like.
The story takes an extremely odd turn in the third part, called the Last Generation. George and Jean, who are now married with children, have moved to a small island where the arts, plays, music, theater and cinema are the principal purpose and for awhile they seem happy. It's not until one day that a tidal wave hits the island and their son Jeffrey miraculously survives by following directions given to him by a voice in his head that things start to get really weird.
It turns out that this generation, the children of Jean and Greg etc, are different. Rashaverak's study of the paranormal had a purpose. The Overlords, in all the planets that they have studied have seen this happen before. This generation of children is becoming one with the Overlords master, something they call the Overmind. And as Jan return to Earth after his rather anti-climactic adventures on the Overlords home planet, he finds himself returning to a very different planet.
These children can bend space and time to their will and as they age their strength will only increase. It's when they begin to alter the Earth's actual gravitational pull that the Overlords inform Jan that they must leave. They are eternally in service to the Overmind and are tasked with the study of its children and how they change the planets they once inhabited.
Jane's final job, since he chooses to stay on Earth, even though he knows what will happen, are to record his last moments. And as he does so, the reader is left with a stunning, heavy, but beautiful mage of everything, absolutely everything losing its mass, becoming transparent and disappearing like so much dust. The Earth collapses in on itself and winks out of existence like a shooting start across the night sky, insignificant but beautiful all at once. And the final scene of Karellen watching all this unfold fills the reader both with terror at the prospect that this has happened before and will happen again, all across the multitudinous galaxies, but also sadness as everything man has ever worked for is gone and lost so quickly. But in the end it's more sympathy for the Overlords that the reader feels. Their race has no children, their only means of survival is to study and document the life and death of other cultures and as Karellen turns his back on our dying world, the reader is left to think of their lonely, plodding existence, tasked with observing and never knowing what it's like to see their own generation of children grow and flourish.
This was a surprisingly quick, thought provoking and in the end, a very heavy, deep and cerebral read. I would recommend this book to any fan of Science Fiction or anyone who's ever wondered why it is we're here. What is the meaning of life, what is our purpose? Are we really just ants in an ant farm ushered along at the whim of a child? You find yourself sitting with the ending for a long time afterwards, just thinking and wondering and to me, that si the sign of a truly great novel. The ones that stay with you, those are the ones to keep.
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