Arthur C Clarke - Childhood's End
A fleet of highly advanced aliens come to earth in peace. They allow the people of earth to mostly continue on the paths they have chosen, with a few exceptions. All war ceases. Scientific inquiry is allowed to flourish with the exception of space travel, religions slowly peter out. After a couple of decades, the human race has mostly been pacified and domesticated. The overlords are essentially benevolent non-dictators and their presence is mostly a positive one. Society seems almost Utopian. And then the damn humans have to go and mess it all up, because people can’t stand Utopian societies. They always go wrong.
Childhood’s End is a really fun book. The alien overlords seem nice and mostly harmless, and even though the plot isn’t exceptionally shocking, it flows at a nice pace and keeps one interested. I like how there was a Trojan giant squid that didn’t really seem to further the plot line at all, and how a Ouija board played a central part in the major turn in the plot. It was good.
This book was my first Arthur C. Clarke, and from it, I would definitely read more.
