Evolution and Extinction

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953/This revised edition 1990): Arthur C. Clarke's most famous novel still seems impressive more than 60 years after its initial publication. It's a novel about guided evolution, and evolution as a 'progressive' system, that yields a conclusion that's simultaneously depressing as all Hell and lyrically triumphant.

It's an early image in the novel that stays with people, and has been intentionally or unintentionally copied in such TV and movie works as the original V miniseries, Independence Day, and Skyline. Absolutely enormous alien spacecraft show up one day over the major cities of the Earth. And then the aliens start to talk to us, though they refuse to show themselves to anyone.

The aliens are soon known as the Overlords. With their guidance and technological expertise, Earth soon enters a Golden Age of peace and prosperity, though there are a few growing pains. The first section of the book explores these early stages through the person of the United Nations President who becomes the only liaison with the Overlords allowed to enter their ships. But even he doesn't know what an Overlord looks like. When he finds out, he keeps the secret. But even that secret will turn out not to be what it seems.

Once the Overlords finally start mingling with humanity, 50 years after their arrival, they continue to help run the Earth. And while they're at it, they keep humanity from pursuing anything like a space program. Why? Are the stars really not meant for Man, as one character opines? And why are the Overlords so curious about tales of psychic phenomena?

Well, eventually we'll learn. Some very cold winds begin to blow as the novel approaches its end. One of the oddities of the original publication, Clarke notes in his afterword to this revised 1990 version, was that Clarke put a disclaimer at the front to note that he didn't agree with one of the book's central tenets (The stars are not meant for man). And he also notes that by 1990 he no longer really believed that evolution would feature some of the paranormal powers shown here. Clarke had been hoaxed by that great hoaxing spoon-bender Uri Geller in the interim, and subsequently learned how he had been hoaxed.

When people talk of cosmic science fiction, this novel would be one of those things they'd be talking about. It's a novel about the fate of humanity and the fate of the Earth. It's also a novel about evolution and extinction -- including the extinction of the individual consciousness. And watching over it all, those enigmatic Overlords, who have become by the end peculiarly sympathetic and perhaps even heroic in the face of their own insignificance. Highly recommended.

Savage Dragon

Savage Dragon Archives Volume 1: written and illustrated by Erik Larsen (1992-94; collected 2006): Savage Dragon continues to run as a monthly today, more than twenty years after it was one of the first books from fledgling comics line Image, formed by artists who'd left Marvel because they wanted to own their own characters. Indeed, it's the only one of those first books that has maintained continuous publication, which is quite a testament to creator/writer/artist Erik Larsen.

Savage Dragon follows the adventures of a green-skinned, amnesiac, super-powered fellow with a foot-tall fin on his head. Recruited to help Chicago police deal with an overabundance of super-powered criminals, Officer Dragon soon becomes sought after across the U.S. as a reliable bulwark against super-criminals.

It's fun to watch Larsen grow as a writer and an artist over the first two years of the book collected here. The black-and-white reprint format makes an early tendency towards over-rendering quite clear -- a number of early one- and two-page splashes are nearly incomprehensible in black-and-white thanks to a plethora of lines.

Larsen has already self-corrected by the end of the run, though, as his art gets pleasingly more cartoony (Dragon looks less and less over-muscledly realistic and more and more like something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon). The influences of artists like Frank Miller, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, and perhaps Alex Toth start to show in an art style that more effectively uses fewer lines, suggestiveness, and solid blacks.

The writing develops as well, the story becoming twistier and more capable of surprise the further along one goes. There are some nice plot twists, some effective characterization, and an increasingly effective ability to make fights scenes seem necessary to the storyline, and not simply de rigeur. A good time. Recommended.