Hothouse by Brian Aldiss

(Book Review)

Why I Read This Book

          This book came to my attention because of a conversation in a bar.  I was talking to a friend about books, and he said, “The best book I ever read is called Hothouse.  Have you ever heard of it?”

            I had not.

            “Well, it’s very hard to get a hold of.  I had a copy once when I was a teenager, and I lost it, and I’ve never been able to find it since.  But it’s got the most amazing story ever.  It takes place millions of years in the future, when the earth has stopped spinning, so that one side is covered in darkness, and one side is always facing the sun.  On the side that is facing the sun, plant life has just exploded.  There’s one big Banyan tree that’s gotten so big that it’s taken over the entire earth.  And the humans and every thing else live on the branches of this tree.  And there are all these carnivorous plants that chase the humans around.  And there are these giant spiders that have built webs connecting the earth and the moon.  And one of the characters climbs on the spider and rides to the moon, and when he gets to the moon, he sprouts wings and can fly.  And there’s this fungus which drops onto another character, and it makes him really intelligent.”

            I suppose a certain type of person (most people?) would have heard that, and disregarded the book as completely ridiculous.  But another type of person is intrigued by the incredible amount of imagination that appears to be in this book.  Even if it is completely fantastical, it sounded fantastical in the most wonderful way.

            Added to that was the incredible enthusiasm my friend had when he talked about this book (something I’ve not fully captured in my quotation of him, but there was a real passion in his voice and his eyes.  It was clear he really did think this was the best book he had ever read.)

            So, I decided to try to get my hands on a copy.

How I Got My Hands on a Copy

          Despite my friend’s lament that he’d never been able to find this book again after he’d lost his first copy, in this day and age it is incredibly easy to track down just about any book either through ordering on Amazon.com or through e-readers like the Kindle.

            In my particular case, however, I don’t have a Kindle, and the post service in Cambodia is not reliable. 

            So, after dutifully checking all the used bookstores in town, I decided on a whim to just search the Internet to see if there were any copies posted online. 

            Sure enough, the book, in its entirety, has been posted online as a PDF.  (I doubt it’s legal, but as someone who’s read through the whole thing, I can attest that it is at least a complete copy and a good copy—LINK HERE).  In Cambodia, it’s very cheap to get books printed and copied, so I just copied the PDF onto a USB stick, brought it down to the printers, and had them print it out and put it in a book binding.  I made a copy for my friend as well.

Background

          Although I never heard of this book until my friend mentioned it, it apparently does enjoy something of a cult following in science fiction circles, and its author, Brian Aldiss, is apparently pretty well known in science fiction literature. 

            The book was first published in serial form way back in 1962.  It is, as my friend indicated, somewhat hard to get a hold of, but it has still managed to go through several printings over the years, so the fact that it has survived for 60 odd years probably means it can now be considered something of a classic.

The Review

          Well, whatever else you may say about it, this is truly a unique book.

            Everything my friend told me about it was true—from the earth being overrun by carnivorous plants, to the spiders in the sky, to humans spontaneously sprouting wings on the moon, to a fungus that increases a character’s intelligence.

            And actually, my friend didn’t even get to half of the stuff in here—giant stinging wasps, intelligent termites who build elaborate castles, a talking dolphin who commands its human slaves to carry it around on the land, a huge volcano with a monster inside who attracts its dinner by singing an irresistible siren song, flymen who steal human children, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  There is just about a new and fantastic creature on every single page of this book—I exaggerate not.

            The narration style is very minimalist.  There are no long descriptions of anything, but instead each new creature is described in only a few sentences.  The author gives just enough description to give you a rough idea, and then the reader has to fill in the rest with their own imagination.

            The action of the book is written up in the same minimalist style.  Unlike some other authors, Brian Aldiss wastes very few words, and if you miss one sentence, you miss a lot. 

            I perhaps have gotten used to reading different authors who write a lot more slowly and describe things a lot more.  When I first started reading this book, it was a bit of an adjustment for my brain to realize how much action was packed into every single sentence.  I found this jarring at the beginning, but got used to it as the story went on.

            The style reminds me somewhat of Edgar Rice Burrough’s stories in the sense that the protagonists are constantly running from one danger right into another, in a way that allows neither the main characters nor the reader much of a chance of catching their breath.

            This makes reading the book feel a bit exhausting at times, but this also I eventually became used to and adjusted myself to it after a while.

            The effect of this non-stop action is that the reader gets a very clear sense of just how overcrowded and packed with dangers this new earth is, and in that sense Brian Aldiss manages to convey the intended atmosphere of his new world very effectively.  (Although arguably, the science fiction trope There’s always a bigger fish [Explanation Here] gets a bit over-used.  The protagonists are saved from danger more often than they defeat the danger by themselves.)

            The action slows down a bit in the second half of the book, when some of the characters leave the overcrowded forest and journey out to explore other areas of the Earth.  But the strange and new creatures are just as inventive during this odyssey section as in the forest battle sections.

            Doubtless, books like this appeal to a niche market.  Some people hate fantastical stories, and some people like them.  If you hate these kind of stories, best to stay away from this book.  If you think you might enjoy a story that includes (among other things) giant spiders crawling back and forth between the earth and the moon, then I give this a recommendation.

Science Fiction—Fantasy Controversy

            This book has been criticized by some science fiction purists for being too fantastical (W). 

            At first glance, this seems like a dumb controversy.  Hasn’t most of what is termed science fiction always been fantasy in disguise?  Why single out this book?

            But perhaps the ire is drawn because Brian Aldiss is constantly referencing evolution to explain the plants and animals of the future, thus giving the book a pseudo-scientific feel.

            But there is, of course, very little real science in the book, and despite the word “evolution” being evoked multiple times, it is purely fantastical from beginning to end. 

            I didn’t mind that, but I suppose the reader should be warned ahead of time.  Don’t go into this book expecting serious science fiction.

Notes

* If you follow the above link to the on-line PDF, the introduction by Joseph Milicia does a much better job than me of examining the different themes and messages of the book, particularly the interaction between Gren the human, and Morel the intelligent fungus that takes possession of his mind.

Link of the Day

Noam Chomsky on the postwar period in the eyes of leftist intellectuals