Hothouse (Penguin Modern Classics)

I fondly remembered reading this book as teenager approximately 40 years ago. I remember the fantastic world described by the author, Brian W. Aldiss, a world where animals have died out, replaced by vegetable creatures, who have evolved to exploit every available niche in a world where the sun has grown old and enlarged and is pouring out energy on a world that has become a fantastic "hothouse." This was an amazing and captivating world made only more amazing and captivating by the fact that this world was our planet, two billion years in the future, in the "long afternoon" of the Earth.I particularly remembered the imagery of the Earth becoming tidally locked with the Moon so that only one side faced eternally to the sun, and that a vegetable life had evolved into immense spiders that traversed between Earth and Moon on spider silk, such that the Earth in its old age was enmeshed in cobwebs. It is an image that stayed with me for decades.Unfortunately, on my adult re-reading, I was surprised to find how shallow the book was. The first part of the book was captivating as we were shown the crazy world of evolved and highly dangerous plant life, and how the species of animals had declined to "termights" and ants and wasps and bees and humans. We are introduced to a tribe of humans who inhabit this strange world. A child of the tribe is casually killed which causes the tribe to split up, the older elements of the tribe making a trip to the Moon on the traversers to make a kind of evolution, while the other part of the tribe has its own adventure. We follow the younger element as they are carried from one strange part of this world to another, while tribe members die at an alarming rate. Gren, the oldest male member of the remaining tribe, becomes the focal point of the story and we follow him as he mostly messes up. He becomes possessed of an intelligent fungus, who plumbs his racial memories and increases his intelligence. We learn that humans have devolved to tarsier-like beings of limited intelligence, and, in fact, it was a symbiosis that led to human beings having intelligence in the first place. We follow Gren as he creates a family and is driven to the shadowy area of the Earth and learns more about the planet and the fate it will soon experience.The book in fact reads like a young adult adventure, with the romance. What was disappointing for me was the shallowness of the characterization and writing. There were some great ideas here - the evolution of plant life, the winding down of the planet - but so much was left for the willing suspension of disbelief. For example, how long would it take for the Traveler beasts to go from Earth to Moon? Too long, one would think, to allow human beings to catch a ride. What about the tidal lock that fixes one side of the Earth permanently to the Sun? Wouldn't there be constant, titanic hurricanes that would render the Earth inhabitable? Obviously, fleshing out this world with its fascinating setting is not Aldiss's interest.Likewise, there probably is only so much characterization that can be done with tarsier-level intelligence, but the characters' dialogue was wooden and stilted, and the introduction of the "tummy-belly" people - and here Aldiss seems to have predicted the "Teletubbies" forty years before the fact - was just annoying in its cuteness. Likewise, what was with the "Heckler" device discovered in a ruin. It is supposedly two billion years in the future and something that seems to come from the 21st century has survived? Another nit I found with the writing was that the dialogue shouts out the stupidity of this people, and, yet, they will casually drop in college words, such as evolution. And, finally, the nifty core of the book I remembered was that the reason for this weird world was the arms-race of evolution. All that goes out the window at the end, with hand-waiving about metaphysics.This book won the 1962 Hugo Award, so my disappointing re-read is all the more disappointing. I can see how enrapturing the setting could be, but, frankly, I found Alan Dean Foster's Mid-World to be better written with the same setting. Perhaps there was an evolution in writing during the 1960s? Since I have been critical of some of the current contenders for the Hugo Award in 2015, it is good to know that not every book written in the past was a model of writing.I am not recommending against this book. It is a Hugo winner. You should read it. Better still give it to your teen or pre-teen and kindle a sense of wonder in them.I am giving this one a four star rating - three stars for my matured appraisal and another one for what it meant to me when I was a teenager.

"Sigh" sometimes when you see novels with eye catching covers you think their gonna be good. Sometimes they are and somethings they aren't. The idea that earth has become a massive jungle with plants that feed on both bugs that have grown bigger and humans who live in this hostile world.However my problem with this novel it's hard to follow what the author is saying and scenes just feel very rushed, no prolog or intro just throws you into a random scene with the characters being shoehorned for the reader to get to know them quickly. Also are the characters suppose to be adults or teenagers? The novel said their teenagers yet the cover and Wiki states their adults. More detail on how they look and their age would have helped.

This novel was based upon a short story by another title which I read in 1962. I remember the webs connecting earth with the moon. Odd, as I can't remember what I ate for breakfast today. The story is full of surprises, none of them so very pleasant. A rousing romp through the fading last days of Earth. The characters are as simple, smart, and unlikable as they need to be. This is made evident at the end of the story.. There was a great blueprint laid out for a sequel, but I am not aware of it ever being written. I have enjoyed reading SciFi for over 60 years, and I particularly enjoy a story lacking technobabble and space opera.

This book was so, so long and boring. It started with much promise and a fast pace and then ground almost to a halt. As the situations changed they grew more, not less, dull.

I would have enjoyed this book a lot more had it not been for the numerous typos. Clearly this was not proofread after OCR conversion to kindle format. I wish I had gotten the paperback version instead.

It was riveting from beginning to end. One of the most interesting Sci Fi books I've read, second only to Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

I picked it up as a recommendation, but had never read anything by Aldiss before. I think I might have to read more by him before judging, but this one was kind of a messy trip. It’s hard to put together what it’s about other than a vista of the world when the sun is about to go nova and plants have supplanted animals as the dominant life form on earth.

A t long and all over the place. Scarcely held my interest , will try thers by him though. Love the classics

Weird.This review contains a possible mild spoiler.Not the easiest of books to get into but I'm glad I've read it. You can see its influence on the film Avatar. (I can anyway!) Even though the central characters are one fifth the size of today's people, and green, you find yourself caring about them nonetheless. And the writing is truly beautiful at times.Slight spoiler alert: The author is a bit George R R Martinish when it comes to keeping characters alive....if you know what I mean. I was gutted about half way through.This book hasn't inspired me to read any other Brian Aldiss novels but the imagery will stay with me for as long as I live. Would make an incredible film. Like I say, I'm glad I've read it.

I stumbled across this book whilst scanning the Penguin Modern Classics catalogue. It is a tale set in the immeasurable future when predatory vegetation has taken over the world and man has reverted to a primitive, tree-dwelling existence. It is a fantastically imaginative work, which was apparently received rather sniffily in some quarters because of the improbability of certain story elements, such as the earth and moon being in stationary orbit and connected by huge webs traversed by giant vegetable spiders. As Neil Gaiman says in his Introduction, such criticism is like saying the Beatles wrote songs that are three minutes long and have repeated choruses - it misses the point. Science fiction should be fantastical. Hothouse has the disorientating other-worldliness shared by works such as William Golding's The Inheritors. If that's your thing, Hothouse is highly recommended.

Aldiss creates a completely wacky distopian / sci fi world in Hothouse; one where plants have taken over the earth, and humans have been reduced to the easiest of prey...A long but interesting read - I think Aldiss could have developed the characters more, I found I didn't much care what happened to them. I also felt the different communities they encountered along the way could have been described in more detail- particularly the tummy men.I would recommend if you like distopian novels - however, it's no handmaid's tale / 1984... perhaps this is because the world and characters are so strange I couldn't connect with them.

I cannot think when I last read a book which was so original. This is not science fiction in the sense of a book set in a more scientifically advanced World. Far from it. Society has long since collapsed, people have gone back to living in the trees and the sun will soon go super nova. But on every page there is a new idea. To list the novel concepts would give away too much of the story. I will simply say that i have never read anything remotely like this.The plot is OK, and the characters are interesting enough, but this is a book to buy for the novelty rather than anything else. It's one of a kind.

The secondhand copy arrived promptly in excellent condition. I ordered it after hearing some episodes on Radio4Extra, and read it to the children once a week, we all love it. Occasional bits not suitable for pre-teens (1/2 way I've had to skip a couple of sentences 3 times). Absolutely gripping story, great for developing kids imagination.