Omnipotent aliens arrive to save humanity from self-destruction. Under their benign gaze, war, famine and injustice become things of the past. But a small group of people are beginning to question whether this Golden Age of Man comes at a secret and terrible price. And when the Supervisor for Earth, Karellen, finally reveals his true form to the world, the sight is as profound as it is disturbing. Written by Arthur C. Clarke and hailed as a revolutionary work of science fiction since first being published in 1953, Childhoods End follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.