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1960s, 1962, Brian Aldiss, British, dying earth, ecological, far flung future, fixup novel, Hugo Award winner, Open Road Media, post apocalyptic, racial memories, science fantasy, science fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Brian W. Aldiss is one of the most important figures from British science fiction’s early years, though his first novel (Non-Stop) wasn’t published until 1958. He remained a productive author throughout the 1960s and 1970s, helping influence the direction of science fiction’s New Wave and producing some unconventional works for the magazine New Worlds under editor Michael Moorcock. Aldiss did great work not just penning classics in the genre, but also as an editor and critic, working on a number of excellent anthologies and critical works on the genre (the Hugo-winning Trillion Year Spree). He’s now one of the oldest SF writers still active, having published novels as recently as 2013. Hothouse—variant title The Long Afternoon of Earth—dates back the early years of Aldiss’ career, when it was printed as five linked novelettes in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1961, and earned Aldiss a Hugo Award in the Best Short Story category.
(Note that I recieved an eARC in exchange for an open and honest review.)
Tens of thousands of years into the future, the Earth’s rotation has locked, with one face locked on a dying sun, the other side locked in orbit with a moon now encrusted with plant life. Due to high doses of solar radiation, life on Earth has devolved and mutated. Humans now occupy the lowest rank on the totem pole, shriveled and out-classed by the remaining insect life and the numerous forms of flora. For the plant world has evolved and gained sentience—it is the age of the vegetable, and humanity is in its twilight years. The webs of great spider-like plants called Traversers link the Earth to the moon. A massive banyan tree covers the sun-light face of the Earth, and in its branches a million dramas of life, death, and decay unfold… such as the plight of a small tribe of humans. Leader Lily-yo opts to disband her tribe and travel “Up,” the adults tying themselves to a traverser’s web. Abandoned by the adults, the children of the tribe must make their own fate in the Green. The story follows one of the tribe’s few man-children, Gren, and the epic voyage he undertakes. Along the way, he will encounter many strange perils, gain (and lose) companions, become the host to a parasitic morel mushroom that has evolved sentience, and uncover some of this world’s many secrets.
What’s most impressive about Hothouse is the astounding creativity of its setting—the various kinds of floral fauna that inhabit this world, the descriptions of the world-tree, and we get to see plenty of it on the characters’ journey. Aldiss’ first novel, Non-Stop, featured a number of uniquely creative if off-the-wall ideas, and Hothouse is even more off-the-wall craziness cut from the same cloth. Carnivorous plants, tiny humans, giant insects, a tree that occupies most of the rotational-locked Earth, spider-like plants whose webbing has ensnared the moon… It’s all a bit much, a jumble of crazed and hallucinogenic ideas that defy realistic science; really, it falls more under the dreaded science-fantasy label. (It reminds me of Vance’s Dying Earth, particularly the Cugel stories, and Hodgson’s The Night Land. With plants.) For sheer amazing ideas and sensawunda, the book more than delivers. Its world enthralled me, the deadly struggles of a small band of humans, insignificant in the wide expanse of killer plants. Aldiss does a magnificent job showing how wild and unpredictable the world is, making his human characters all but overwhelmed by their environment. It’s a breathtaking and visionary novel, and the main reason to read it is for that outrageous setting.
The novel’s downsides, though, are manifest. Its origin as five novelettes is very obvious, because the pacing can be pretty jerky and is full of repetition—I doubt the stories were edited much when they were combined into one fixup novel, and you can see the seams whenever key pieces of information are repeated five pages later. The plot… doesn’t really exist; the novel is a kind of picaresque journey through a hellish environment, the plot is neither engrossing or well-defined. It’s less like a novel and more like a furious struggle for survival, everyday hazards in an alien future. At times it felt like a B-movie or video game, with every paragraph featuring a new threat to overcome and with characters dying or being abandoned every other chapter—it’s great at showing how wild and unpredictable the world is, how insignificant and vulnerable the humans are, but gets to be a bit much after a while.
The characters have some issues as well. Most of them disappear in short succession—Lily-yo and the adults ascend to the moon and are left on a cliffhanger, Toy and most of the group wander off into the green, so don’t get attached to them. Instead, we’re left with Gren, the man-child, who is not very likable: he becomes something of a jerk after he gains his magic morel, gets worse when he realizes that it’s manipulating him, and by the end of the novel Gren’s stopped making inspiring speeches and is relying on physical violence and threats to get others to act. Great guy. And as if the magic morel isn’t out there enough, it digs into Gren’s mind and discovers some racial memories, which is another knock against the book’s science.
Hothouse’s core themes are some that Aldiss explored in many of his novels and short stories—the balance of fecundity to entropy, the interrelation between order and chaos, and the stark contrast between an explosive growth of life and the inevitable silence of death and decay. The forest is a microcosm of these themes; each creature—plant, human, or insect—exists to eat and procreate, gathering energy and spreading its offspring, attempting to spread their genetic material wide. (Take the traversers, which are drawn by the pull of solar radiation, taking them to the moon and the silence of space.). At the end, all creatures fall back down to the green, to become compost for more forms of life—the plants exist in a cyclical life of death and rebirth, with each death contributing to another’s growth. The humans, meanwhile, are stuck on the death end; unlike the tangled jungles of the hothouse world, they don’t benefit much from the death of one of their adversaries. At best it is food, or a moment’s respite before the onslaught of another predator. Life is a tangled mess of interlocking cycles, a mass of chaos from first glance that hides the structure and order of the kill-or-be-killed jungle.
Hothouse all but requires its readers to suspend disbelief, and if you’re more into Hard SF or less into science-fantasy, it’s probably best to give it a skip. But for sheer creativity and uniqueness, it is unparalleled. Hothouse is a tour-de-force of world-building, a detailed and perilous journey through a bizarre and unsettling future. I very much enjoyed it, though I can understand why others might not.
Book Details
Title: Hothouse (aka The Long Afternoon of Earth)
Author: Brian Aldiss
Publisher: OpenRoadMedia
Release Date: 2015
What I Read: ebook
Price I Paid: $0 (e-ARC via Netgalley)
ISBN/ASIN: 0586049908 (oop) / B00V7I1AU8
First published: 1961-62 (short stories), 1962 (novel)
Richard Fahey said:
I have to say,”Hothouse” I found to be a jumbled mismash.It simply wasn’t intellectually or conceptually entertaining.To make a comparison,you only have to look at a novel like J.G.Ballard’s “The Drowned World” that was published about the same time and is similarly themed,to realise the difference between what makes that one great and this one an inferior piece.Aldiss’s later novel,”Greybeard”,was much better.
I have great respect and admiration for Aldiss though,and glad you mentioned his contribution to sf criticism,which was and is invaluble.
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admiral.ironbombs said:
It certainly doesn’t have the structure of a true novel—the plot reminded me somewhat of a nature documentary, and the chaotic, almost random structure evoked a wild “man against nature” feel… not a cerebral read, no, but conceptually I found it very entertaining.
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Richard Fahey said:
No,it wasn’t well put together.I wouldn’t have minded,but I didn’t find it all that entertaining.To be honest,it really did ramble chronically I thought.It was never fully realized.
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marzaat said:
I suppose Non-Stop may be a better novel, but I found this one more enjoyable and memorable.
I first read it when it showed up on Baird Searles’ list of classic sf works.
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admiral.ironbombs said:
I agree—Non-Stop has more structure as a novel, and I really enjoyed some of its crazy-brilliant setting elements… but Hothouse is an entire novel full of crazy-brilliant setting.
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realthog said:
This was the first Aldiss novel I ever read, and I’ve always adored it — so reading your great writeup has had my eyes moist with nostalgia.
It’s worth comparing this with Alan Dean Foster’s, er, similarly themed Midworld (1975).
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admiral.ironbombs said:
🙂 What an excellent first Aldiss—brilliantly memorable.
Funny you should mention Midworld, I’ve pulled it off my shelf to read in a few weeks… curious to see how they compare!
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fromcouchtomoon said:
This sounds fascinating. I know I’ve got Aldiss on my list, but not for a long while. I’m also very interested in reading his criticism. Trillion Year Spree is referenced everywhere. I need to snag a copy.
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Richard Fahey said:
“Trillion Year Spree” is an excellent history of sf.It was published in 1986.I’m not sure if it’s in print currently,at least not in Britain.
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fromcouchtomoon said:
I just snagged a used copy!
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admiral.ironbombs said:
Nice, that was quick. Enjoy!
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Richard Fahey said:
Good.It’s probably one of the most informed accounts of sf history probably still around.
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nikki @ book punks said:
I need to look into Trillion Year Spree. I have been hankering for some SF nonfiction lately.
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Richard Fahey said:
“Trillion Year Spree” was probably the best guide at the time it was first published to sf history,and probably still is.Aldiss had the benefit of seeing sf from the inside being an author,and had witnessed much of the modern development and history of it happening before his very eyes.
It gave him a unique place to write on the subject.
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Cavershamragu said:
I really must get into Aldiss – thanks Chris, great review.
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nikki @ book punks said:
I agree: the fun in this book is all about the setting. Otherwise I found it pretty meh, for the reasons you mention. I enjoyed Non-Stop far more. At the very least though, Hothouse is a great showing of what Aldiss’ imagination is capable of. That weird thing they find that tells them about the past totally pissed me off. I mean, it is hard enough to suspend belief in some of the stuff happening here (wish I had thought to think of it as science fantasy, then I would have had an easier time accepting it) but that that thing was still around and working to tell them about the past. Yeah fucking right.
I read this right around the time that I was going to be going to World Fantasy in Brighton where he would be. I had some old yellowed copy of Non-Stop (that I had been reading on the way there as well), and I asked him to sign it. His response: “What, just one? You only brought one for me to sign?” Then he shook his head and started talking to someone sitting next to him. Guess he’s used to people bringing their entire collections of his work along. Anyway, Nikki’s Moment With Brian Aldiss, Revealed! Ha.
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Richard Fahey said:
I don’t remember the thing that told people about their past,but I don’t recall much about this jumbled,chaotic mishmash of a novel.That’s the trouble with it,not that the concepts such as this one are too fantastic,but it’s so tedious,not being done in an artful,literary or ingenious manner that would have made it believeable and concrete.
The very best sf will tackle any theme,no matter how fabular I think,with ingenuity and insight,and make it tangible intellectually or imaginably.
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admiral.ironbombs said:
That weird thing they find that tells them about the past totally pissed me off.
The Magic Morel and its genetic-memories shit? That irked me too… very easily the low-point of the novel IMO. I don’t really gel with “racial memories” kinda stuff, and so I could only swallow it by assuming the mushroom was being a manipulative jerk who was making stuff up. (Though, really, I’m not a fan of said sentient mushroom to begin with… a little too crazy for me.)
Anyway, Nikki’s Moment With Brian Aldiss, Revealed! Ha.
Haha, that’s kind of a bummer moment—you didn’t bring enough books so he talks to someone else? 😛
I would probably also bring Non-Stop to a signing, one of my favorite 1950s SF novels… Maybe Greybeard as well, which I really enjoyed. You should look into that one if you haven’t already, since it fits your post-apocalyptic theme.
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booksbrainsandbeer said:
As you’re aware, I’m not familiar with, and somewhat constitutionally averse to, older sci-fi. I find the setting here fascinating. Too bad it has some structural weaknesses.
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AH said:
Someone (maybe you?) has taken this review, changed a couple of the words, and put it on Amazon’s page for this book’s Kindle version. I figured you should know in case it wasn’t you.
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admiral.ironbombs said:
Nope, that one was probably me. I don’t put all of my reviews on Amazon, but if the book I read was an arc, or if only a few (<10) people have reviewed it, I'll post a version of my review there.
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admiral.ironbombs said:
Thanks though!
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ivana split said:
I rather liked this one even if it there was a little character development…we reallly never got the chance to bond with the characters…but the novel is so widly imaginitive that it is hard not to remember it.
great review!
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admiral.ironbombs said:
I agree… I wanted some more character development, but the world was so vivid and imaginative that the novel is hard to forget. Thanks!
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Pingback: In Memoriam – Brian Aldiss | Battered, Tattered, Yellowed, & Creased
Michael said:
My father used to a be a big SciFi fan.
When I was very young he used to read these book’s and then recount them back to me. Hothouse was one of those stories. In my opinion, far out and thought provoking.
Stick’s in my mind to this very day.
This particular Brian Aldiss has certainly been copied for various Comic book’s, (2000AD, Starlord). “The Damned” springs to mind. An Airliner gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Ends up crash landing on an alternative Earth. Various weird plant life, Ab-humans,
that look like monsters and spit acid. Rain that melts you away. Man eating Bugs. A Hero that looks like Conan, ends up leading the stricken passengers. Germans with a Uboat, and just about every other lost human from various time periods. God I was hooked. I think that Hothouse got stuck in many people’s memories. Certainly many Video games designer’s too. In my opinion. Bonkers, in a good way.
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Teresa Woodcock said:
Hothouse kind of reminds me of jaberwocky. Not much sense or storyline but rollicking read….I read hothouse in my late teens along with other sci fantasy and science…..I had really forgotten about it until the last few years with looming evidence of climate change..?.Prophetic me thinks.
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