Childhood’s End

by

Arthur C. Clarke

The Overlords Symbol Analysis

The Overlords Symbol Icon

The Overlords, with their vast knowledge and incomprehensible technology, are the epitome of scientific rationalism, existing in tension with any form of mysticism. They represent the potential of science to create a better future for Earth, while at the same time showing the limits of such development in the way that it diminishes one’s openness to the spiritual, supernatural, and paranormal. This resistance prevents the Overlords from achieving any form of transcendence beyond the physical world by joining the Overmind.

The Overlords also contribute heavily to the religious undertones of the story. Their physical appearance is that of the Devil of classic religious imagery—black-skinned, barb-tailed, leathery-winged, and horned. This appearance relates to their character and function in the story in a number of ways. On the one hand, it is ironic that the Overlords look like devils, since they effectively take up the role of guardian angels—they step in to stop humanity from destroying itself with nuclear weapons or latent psychic abilities, and they miraculously intervene to rescue Jeffrey from the tsunami. At the same time the descriptor is fitting—as paragons of rationalism, the Overlords bring down organized religion (though unintentionally) and usher in a materialist utopia. Due to their rationalism, they are unable to join the Overmind, who figures as both a god-like entity and a transcendent, non-religious version of heaven. The Overlords, like the Devil and his aides, are cut off from “God” and barred from entering “heaven” for eternity, doomed to die in darkness.

The Overlords, as the proverbial devils, both protect humanity from self-destruction and offer it a utopian Earth to live on, and yet, by the stagnation that comes with utopia, rob humanity of its soul. In effect, the Overlords represent a Faustian bargain: humanity can have health, wealth, and prosperity, but only at the cost of their spirit—that is, the thing that drives them to grow and progress.

The Overlords Quotes in Childhood’s End

The Childhood’s End quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Overlords. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Science and Mysticism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

He felt no regrets as the work of a lifetime was swept away. He had labored to take man to the stars, and now the stars—the aloof, indifferent stars—had come to him.

Related Symbols: The Overlords, The Overmind
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Can you deny that the Overlords have brought security, peace, and prosperity to the world?”

“That is true, but they have taken our liberty. Man does not live—”

“—by bread alone. Yes, I know—but this is the first age in which every man was sure of getting even that.”

Related Characters: Rikki Stormgren (speaker), Alexander Wainwright (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Overlords, The Freedom League
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

With the arrival of the Overlords, nations knew that they need no longer fear each other, and they guessed—even before the experiment was made—that their existing weapons were certainly impotent against a civilization that could bridge the stars. So at once the greatest single obstacle to the happiness of mankind had been removed.

Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3  Quotes

“I can understand your fear that the traditions and cultures of little countries will be overwhelmed when the world state arrives. But you are wrong: it is useless to cling to the past. Even before the Overlords came to Earth, the sovereign state was dying. They have merely hastened its end.”

Related Characters: Rikki Stormgren (speaker), The Blind Welshman
Related Symbols: The Overlords, The Freedom League
Page Number: 36-37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6  Quotes

Fifty years is ample time in which to change a world and its people almost beyond recognition. All that is required for the task are a sound knowledge of social engineering, a clear sight of the intended goal—and power.

Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8  Quotes

Man was, therefore, still a prisoner on his own planet. It was a much fairer, but a much smaller, planet than it had been a century before. When the Overlords had abolished war and hunger and disease, they had also abolished adventure.

Related Characters: Jan Rodricks
Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10  Quotes

The human race continued to bask in the long, cloudless summer afternoon of peace and prosperity. Would there ever be a winter again? It was unthinkable. The age of reason, prematurely welcomed by the leaders of the French Revolution two and a half centuries before, had now really arrived. This time, there was no mistake.

Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

Yet among all the distractions and diversions of a planet which now seemed well on the way to becoming one vast playground, there were some who still found time to repeat an ancient and never-answered question:

“Where do we go from here?”

Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

“It is a bitter thought, but you must face it. The planets you may one day possess. But the stars are not for man.”

Related Characters: Karellen (speaker), Jan Rodricks
Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Suppose, in [the Overlords’] altruistic passion for justice and order, they had determined to reform the world, but had not realized that they were destroying the soul of man?

Related Symbols: The Overlords, New Athens
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16  Quotes

The universe was vast, but that fact terrified him less than its mystery. George was not a person who thought deeply on such matters, yet it sometimes seemed to him that men were like children amusing themselves in some secluded playground, protected from the fierce realities of the outer world.

Related Characters: Jan Rodricks, George Greggson
Related Symbols: The Overlords, The Overmind, New Athens
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Twenty years ago, the Overlords had announced that they had discontinued all use of their surveillance devices, so that humanity no longer need consider itself spied upon. However, the fact that such devices still existed meant that nothing could be hidden form the Overlords if they really wanted to see it.

Related Symbols: The Overlords, New Athens
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:

Nothing in [New] Athens was done without a committee, that ultimate hallmark of the democratic method […] Because the community was not too large, everyone in it could take some part in its running and could be a citizen in the truest sense of the word.

Related Symbols: The Overlords, New Athens
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:

“Everybody on the island has one ambition, which may be summed up very simply. It is to do something, however small it may be, better than anyone else. Of course, it’s an ideal we don’t all achieve. But in this modern world, the great thing is to have an ideal. Achieving it is considerably less important.”

Related Characters: Thanthalteresco / “The Inspector”
Related Symbols: The Overlords, New Athens
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

This was a thought that had never occurred to [George]. He had subconsciously assumed that the Overlords possessed all knowledge and all power—that they understood, and were probably responsible for, the things that had been happening to Jeff.

Related Characters: George Greggson , Jean Morrel , Jeffrey Greggson, Rashaverak
Related Symbols: The Overlords
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

“All of our sojourn here has been based on a vast deception, a concealment of truths which you were not ready to face.”

Related Characters: Karellen (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Overlords, Karellen’s One-Way Screen
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

“And do you not resent being used as a tool by the Overmind?”

“The arrangement has some advantages: besides, no one of intelligence resists the inevitable.”

That proposition, Jan reflected wryly, had never been fully accepted by mankind.

Related Characters: Jan Rodricks (speaker), Rashaverak (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Overlords, The Overmind
Page Number: 200
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

For all their achievements, thought Karellen, for all their mastery of the physical universe, his people were no better than a tribe that has passed its whole existence upon some flat and dusty plain. Far off were the mountains, where power and beauty dwelt […] And they could only watch and wonder; they could never scale those heights.

Related Characters: Karellen
Related Symbols: The Overlords, The Overmind
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Overlords Symbol Timeline in Childhood’s End

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Overlords appears in Childhood’s End. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
Science and Mysticism Theme Icon
Benevolent Dictatorship and Freedom Theme Icon
Individuality, Globalization, and Progress Theme Icon
...the air, protesting the aliens who arrived in the ships, whom humanity has christened the Overlords. Stormgren imagines that Karellen, the leader of the Overlords, must be looking down in amusement,... (full context)
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Utopia and Creative Apathy Theme Icon
Individuality, Globalization, and Progress Theme Icon
Wainwright arrives, and he and Stormgren discuss the lodging of his formal protest against the Overlords’ plan to create a global federation, a single world-government. Stormgren points out that the idea... (full context)
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...trusts Karellen while the Freedom League does not. He challenges Wainwright to deny that the Overlords have made everyone on Earth safer, wealthier, and happier through their governance. Wainwright admits that... (full context)
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...anything. Wainwright adds one final thought: more than their control, the Freedom League detests the Overlords’ secrecy, since not even Stormgren, the only human to speak with Karellen at all in... (full context)
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The narrator recalls the day that the Overlords came to Earth. Though it was a small operation to the Overlords, it was the... (full context)
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Resistance was futile, though some did try. When one government shot a missile at an Overlord ship, the missile simply vanished. When the South African government refused to give its citizens... (full context)
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Stormgren gathers his briefcase and walks out to a field, where a small Overlord transport ship arrives to take him to his weekly meeting with Karellen. He arrives in... (full context)
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...is. Stormgren reiterates that it is difficult for the people of Earth to trust the Overlords when they have never even seen them. (full context)
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...out that the real source of the Freedom League’s distrust is the fear that the Overlords’ presence will make religion obsolete, even though Karellen states that they have no desire to... (full context)
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The narrator recalls how, in the first year of their arrival, the Overlords seemed almost completely unobtrusive, except for when humanity paused to consider how their swiftly-rising standard... (full context)
Chapter 3 
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...in the sky. He realizes that he, too, is starting to become obsessed with the Overlords’ secrecy. His obsession was not only due to the resistance that the Freedom League and... (full context)
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...disappeared. Van Ryberg becomes the acting Secretary-General. The intermittent protests around the world against the Overlords suddenly cease, as humanity realizes it has lost its only spokesperson. The Freedom League declares... (full context)
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...any information he could give could actually harm Karellen. When they ask him what the Overlords truly are, he tells them he does not know, but he does explain how the... (full context)
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...defy them but at the same time hoping that they may help him discover the Overlords’ secrets. The Welshman is frustrated by their lack of progress, so he offers a course... (full context)
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...humanity and he has no intention of interfering with that work. As proof of the Overlords’ benevolence, he recalls the way that they put an end to cruelty to animals by... (full context)
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The Welshman concedes that the Overlords may be benevolent, but states that the problem is that they came uninvited and robbed... (full context)
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Stormgren asks Karellen if his superiors have given an answer on whether the Overlords are allowed to reveal themselves. Karellen responds that he has received no answer, but he... (full context)
Chapter 4 
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...announces that he has received word from his superiors—to ease some of the tension, the Overlords will announce that they will emerge from their ship and let humanity see them in... (full context)
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The Fate of Humanity Theme Icon
...to the fact that, in the past, other races have reacted negatively to seeing the Overlords, revealing that Earth is not the only planet the Overlords have supervised. Stormgren pushes Karellen... (full context)
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...disappointed and bitter, knowing that in fifty years, anyone who can remember life without the Overlords will be gone, but even so, it is better than nothing. Stormgren hopes that time... (full context)
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...to find a new liaison. His plan is proceeding as it should and when the Overlords reveal themselves to the humans, their “real work” will begin, though, sadly, Stormgren will have... (full context)
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...him he did not, understanding now that mankind still is not ready to see the Overlords. However, he thinks back to his final meeting with Karellen, where he did catch a... (full context)
Chapter 5
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Twenty years later, the day has arrived for the Overlords to emerge from their ships. The whole world waits in anticipation. Humans discovered the day... (full context)
Chapter 6 
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In fifty years, the world and its people have been entirely transformed through the Overlords’ vast knowledge, social engineering, and intelligent use of power. Karellen had once explained this to... (full context)
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The Overlords rarely left their single ship. Few people had ever seen one in person and it... (full context)
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Religion has also fallen; the world has become entirely secularized. The Overlords possess an observation tool that allows its user to look back at any point in... (full context)
Chapter 7 
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...12-foot hologram of Rupert appears next to their vehicle (imaging technology that normally only the Overlords possess) and asks what they want to drink. George and Jean, ill-humored, walk to Rupert’s... (full context)
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...but they are unable to place it. Jean gasps as she realizes it is an Overlord, sitting in Rupert’s library and reading his books incredibly quickly. (full context)
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The Overlord introduces himself as Rashaverak and continues reading, making small talk with George as he does... (full context)
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...most of whom are celebrities of some sort. George accosts Rupert, questioning him about the Overlord. Rupert explains that Rashaverak has come to see his library of paranormal writings, odd though... (full context)
Chapter 8 
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Jan is also frustrated at the Overlords for limiting his own ambitions. Jan dreams of traveling to the stars, but the Overlords’... (full context)
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...Jan should ask it. Jan already knew what he would ask: “Which star is the Overlords’ sun?” Rashaverak leans forward to see the Ouija boards response. It spells out NGS 549672,... (full context)
Chapter 9
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On the Overlords’ ship, Rashaverak reports what he has seen to Karellen, as well as an analysis of... (full context)
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...investigate what he has heard. Karellen opts to closely watch him as well, since the Overlords, as a matter of policy, never reveal where they have travelled from. Rashaverak does not... (full context)
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...it should be for ten years instead. Jean confesses to George that she fears the Overlords, not because she thinks they are evil, but because she cannot imagine what their plans... (full context)
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...finds a star in precisely the right place, in the direction he had seen the Overlord supply ship launch when he was standing on Rupert’s roof. Although Jan is conflicted about... (full context)
Chapter 11
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...elephant he has just hunted. He has had it taxidermized as a specimen for the Overlords to send back to their homeworld museums. Rupert has sent many of these animals. Jan... (full context)
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...was looking for in Rupert’s library of the paranormal, since it seemed odd that the Overlords should take interest in the “occult.” Rupert tells him that, as anthropologists, the Overlords merely... (full context)
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...the delivery is made, and Rupert explains that it will be as simple as an Overlord ship landing, opening its hatch, and bringing the display aboard. (full context)
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...come to make of Sullivan, beginning by asking him what he would do if the Overlords had barred him from the ocean, but he saw an opportunity to explore it anyway.... (full context)
Chapter 12 
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...came from the Ouija board at Rupert’s party, he has discovered the location of the Overlords’ homeworld. He will conceal himself in a secret compartment inside Sullivan’s sperm whale and stow... (full context)
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...himself to sleep for the duration of the voyage, and when he wakes up, the Overlords may do with him what they decide is best, though he expects they will send... (full context)
Chapter 13
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...the frame of the sperm whale and Sullivan reveals that they are not giving the Overlords a real whale at all, only a convincing replica, since it is much easier to... (full context)
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...high honor; Karellen is coming to see the display before it is delivered to the Overlords and shipped off. (full context)
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...but cannot tell if Karellen suspects anything or not. Karellen explains to Sullivan that the Overlords’ home does not have any creatures so large because their planet does not have any... (full context)
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...later, while he is unconscious, the whale and its stowaway passenger are loaded into the Overlords’ ship. The ship rises from Earth’s atmosphere, sets its course, and engages its interstellar engine. (full context)
Chapter 14
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...briefly with the doyen of the Press Club. Karellen announces to the reporters that the Overlords have just discovered that a stowaway named Jan Rodricks made it onto an Overlord supply... (full context)
Chapter 15
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Individuality, Globalization, and Progress Theme Icon
...something of humanity’s independence, its artistic traditions,” not as an act of rebellion against the Overlords, but just to be able to set their own course. New Athens is an attempt... (full context)
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...social engineering by highly-intelligent men. Initially, it was an act of open resistance against the Overlords and their methods, and they expected Karellen to interfere. He did not, which made the... (full context)
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...old enough to just barely remember what life was like before the arrival of the Overlords, and who had died three years before the colony was established. Though Salomon never desired... (full context)
Chapter 16 
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...spare an occasional thought for Jan, now somewhere in the vastness of space aboard an Overlord ship. For his own part, George has no interest in comprehending the vastness of the... (full context)
Chapter 17
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Karellen requests that New Athens allow an Overlord to come and inspect the work that they have been doing, throwing the whole island... (full context)
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...to ensure that he is a part of the reception. Although he understands that the Overlords are coming to study the humans, he sees it as an opportunity to also study... (full context)
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The Overlord arrives and introduces himself as Thanthalteresco, though the islanders just call him “the Inspector.” He... (full context)
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...does not get his chance to speak with the Inspector at length, and after the Overlord’s departure from the island, the missed opportunity leaves George in a bitter mood for two... (full context)
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...at least Jeffrey is being protected. Jean wonders if it is only Jeffrey that the Overlords are interested in, or if there are more people they watch and protect. It is... (full context)
Chapter 18
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On the Overlord ship, Karellen and Rashaverak are discussing Jeffrey’s dream. Rashaverak is sure he knows which planet... (full context)
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...irregular orbit. Rashaverak states that this planet is new, beyond the reaches even of the Overlords. Jeffrey has departed their galaxy, and they suspect there may not be much time left. (full context)
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...happening just as George and Jean are, which shocks George, as he had assumed that Overlords were practically omniscient. George goes on to say that he is guessing that Jeffrey’s dreams... (full context)
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...through this same process and are waiting for humanity to join them. As for the Overlords, they are only there to aid the process. As Rashaverak explains it, “We are the... (full context)
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George also understands why the Overlords have been watching and protecting Jeffrey. He is a subject of study, something from which... (full context)
Chapter 20
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...seen many worlds similar to Earth develop technology and then destroy themselves with it, the Overlords had to step in when they did to preserve humanity. (full context)
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...a threat not only to itself but also to the rest of the galaxy. The Overlords were sent to disrupt human development and stall any research into the paranormal, even though... (full context)
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...that all of the psychic powers he alludes to are beyond the grasp of the Overlords—they have evolved in a different direction than humanity, and thus cut themselves off from ever... (full context)
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...lost children will transcend the physical world live on for millennia, far outliving even the Overlords. (full context)
Chapter 21
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The colonists of New Athens are gathered to watch their children board the Overlords’ ship and be taken away from them. The children themselves walk silently, some carrying the... (full context)
Chapter 22
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Jan Rodricks, aboard another Overlord ship, is on his way back to Earth. He stands behind the three Overlord pilots... (full context)
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An Overlord named Vindarten had warned Jan that Earth might be unrecognizable by the time he returns,... (full context)
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...first two days in the building they landed in, realizing quickly that none of the Overlords knew English and communication was “practically impossible.” However, Vindarten, who spoke bad English but quickly... (full context)
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...time he had done so. Jan had a clue, for the first time, that “the Overlords had masters too.” (full context)
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Jan is returning home. Though he had the opportunity to stay with the Overlords, Vindarten convinced him it was better to leave quickly and return to his native environment.... (full context)
Chapter 23
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...moving together in coordinated patterns. He explains that it is not even safe for the Overlords to be among the children anymore, which is fine since the children no longer have... (full context)
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...shape of the earth, but nothing with an observable purpose. And they have ignored the Overlords completely. Karellen explains that the Overlords only remain to observe for as long as it... (full context)
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...ready to enter the cosmos. Evolutionarily, there are only two options: either become like the Overlords (powerfully intelligent and independent, yet powerless to move on to something greater), or join the... (full context)
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Jan had once asked why the Overmind should need the Overlords’ help. Rashaverak explained that, vast as it is, the Overmind has difficulty interacting with races... (full context)
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Rashaverak also explained to Jan that the memory of the Overlords, as the legendary devils, was not actually a memory but a premonition of the future. (full context)
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...suicide or suicidal hobbies until there was no one left. Jan keeps company with the Overlords, goes for walks, and plays piano. (full context)
Chapter 24
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Rashaverak gives Jan the news: the time of the Overlords’ departure is approaching. Jan wakes with a start one night, walks outside, looks at the... (full context)
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It is dangerous for the Overlords to remain, Rashaverak tells Jan. The moon is trivial, but the children could begin playing... (full context)
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Jan watches as the Overlord ship disappears into the vastness of space. They have left him their base and some... (full context)
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...Earth. His mission is complete, and he is going home. He is sorrowful for the Overlord race, for they will never unite with the Overmind, never transcend what they already are.... (full context)