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Hothouse (novel)
Encyclopedia
Hothouse is a 1962 award-winning fantasy
/science fiction
novel by British
author Brian Aldiss
, composed of 5 novelettes that were originally serialized in a magazine
. In the US, an abridged version was published as The Long Afternoon of Earth; the full version was not published there until 1976. Five of the stories which make up the novel, which were published separately in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
in 1961, were collectively awarded the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction
.
, where plants have filled almost all ecological niche
s. According to Aldiss' account, the US publisher insisted on the name-change so the book wouldn't be put amongst the horticulture books in bookshops.
s – have filled all the ecological niches on the land and in the air, many evolving primitive nervous systems and, in some cases, eyes; of the animals in the forest only the descendants of four species of social insects remain (tigerflies (evolved from wasps), tree-bees, plant-ants and termights (from termites)), along with small groups of humans (a fifth of the size they are now); all other land and air animals have been driven to extinction by the vegetable kingdom, apart from a few shore dwellers. The humans live on the edge of extinction, within the canopy layer
of a giant banyan
tree that covers the continent on the day side of the earth.
human tribe, decides that the group should break up, as the adults are too old, and should go to the Tips, the dangerous top levels of the forest in order to go "Up". Burnurns – transparent seed-casings – are collected, and the adults seal themselves inside after which the young attach them to the webs of the giant spider-like plants, Traversers, which travel into space to receive more intense sunlight and escape the parasitic tigerflies; as planned a traverser brushes against the sticky pods and carries them to the moon (which now has a breatheable atmosphere).
The unconscious adults reach their destination, where they discover they have transformed into Flymen, mutated by space radiation into flight-capable forms. They meet others and they are impounded into an expedition back to Earth to kidnap human children to increase the Flymen's population. They hide inside a Traverser to make the return journey to Earth.
Back in the jungle, Toy is the new leader. While attempting to kill a large, seed-shaped
suckerbird, the tribe accidentally become passengers on the suckerbird. After a long flight, they crash on the coast at the base of a "termight" castle on a peninsula.
Walking back to the forest through "Nomansland" – the lethal interface-area between land and sea, Gren is waylaid by a "morel", a sentient fungus which attaches itself to his head and talks to, and controls him. After a power-struggle, Gren leaves the tribe with his girlfriend Poyly, also taken-over by the morel.
On their travels, they meet Yattmur of the "Herder" tribe, who live in caves in a congealed lava
bed. At the "Skirt of the black mouth", an unknown creature with Siren
-like capabilities almost leads them to their deaths. Escaping, they meet the Tummy-belly men, some of whom they free by cutting the umbilical cord
s with which they are attached to a parasitic tree. All board a boat belonging to the tummy-bellies, but during the escape Poyly is killed.
The boat, uncontrolled, floats downriver into the sea. After several adventures, the crew find themselves on an iceberg
, the boat destroyed, after which the berg abuts a small islet
. They leave by hitching a ride on a plant which propagates by using self-propelled, stilt-walking seeds, which instinctively walk to the mainland.
They find themselves at the terminator
, the boundary between the day and night sides. To their horror, they realize they are being carried over it. After a long journey, the seed stops near the top of a mountain, which is tall enough to still be lit by the low sun. There, Yattmur gives birth to Gren's child and they meet the Sharp-furs.
They meet the Sodal Ye and his three helpers. Gren, increasingly taken over by the morel, wants the baby to host it as well. In return for food, the Sodal Ye thinks of a way to remove the morel from Gren's head by coaxing it into a bowl.
They decide to accompany the Sodal Ye back to Bountiful Basin, an arm of the sea close to the terminator. On the way they witness a solar flare
, the creature explains to them that the world is about to end as the Sun brightens, and the strange, green columns they begin to see beaming into space is life itself, transferring to new stars
.
Followed by Sharp-furs and others, they notice a traverser has landed and blocked the passage to their destination. This is the traverser that was carrying Lily-yo and companions. The morel manages to take over the Sodal Ye and when they reach the giant spider, Gren meets Lily-yo again. They board a traverser which is going to lift off to the stars (after being taken over by the morel which has now divided) – all except Gren, Yattmur, and the baby, who decide to return to the familiar forest.
Author and critic James Blish
called the stories "utter nonsense" and took Aldiss to task for ignoring basic rules of physics 1. The magazine editor actually sought scientific advice about one aspect of the book. He was told that the orbit
al dynamics involved meant that it was nonsense, but the image of the earth and moon side by side in orbit, shrouded with cobwebs woven by giant vegetable spiders, was so outrageous and appealing that he published it anyway.
Galaxy
reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel as "a tour-de-force guaranteed to startle the most blase SF buff."
In 2009, IDW Publishing repackaged the novel with a new introduction by author Clifford Meth
.
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
/science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Brian Aldiss
Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
, composed of 5 novelettes that were originally serialized in a magazine
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
. In the US, an abridged version was published as The Long Afternoon of Earth; the full version was not published there until 1976. Five of the stories which make up the novel, which were published separately in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
in 1961, were collectively awarded the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction
Hugo Award for Best Short Story
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
.
Title
In the novel, Earth now has one side constantly facing the sun (which is larger and hotter than it is at present) so it has become a veritable hothouseGreenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
, where plants have filled almost all ecological niche
Ecological niche
In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food...
s. According to Aldiss' account, the US publisher insisted on the name-change so the book wouldn't be put amongst the horticulture books in bookshops.
Plot introduction
Set in a far future, the earth has locked rotation with the Sun, and is attached to the now-more-distant Moon, which resides at a Trojan point, with cobwebs spun by enormous spider-like plants. The Sun has swollen to fill half the sky and, with the increased light and heat, the plants are engaged in a constant frenzy of growth and decay, like a tropical forest enhanced a thousandfold. The plants – many now omnivoreOmnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
s – have filled all the ecological niches on the land and in the air, many evolving primitive nervous systems and, in some cases, eyes; of the animals in the forest only the descendants of four species of social insects remain (tigerflies (evolved from wasps), tree-bees, plant-ants and termights (from termites)), along with small groups of humans (a fifth of the size they are now); all other land and air animals have been driven to extinction by the vegetable kingdom, apart from a few shore dwellers. The humans live on the edge of extinction, within the canopy layer
Canopy (forest)
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by plant crowns.For forests, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms .Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent...
of a giant banyan
Banyan
A banyan is a fig that starts its life as an epiphyte when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree...
tree that covers the continent on the day side of the earth.
Plot summary
Lily-yo, leader of a small, matriarchalMatriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
human tribe, decides that the group should break up, as the adults are too old, and should go to the Tips, the dangerous top levels of the forest in order to go "Up". Burnurns – transparent seed-casings – are collected, and the adults seal themselves inside after which the young attach them to the webs of the giant spider-like plants, Traversers, which travel into space to receive more intense sunlight and escape the parasitic tigerflies; as planned a traverser brushes against the sticky pods and carries them to the moon (which now has a breatheable atmosphere).
The unconscious adults reach their destination, where they discover they have transformed into Flymen, mutated by space radiation into flight-capable forms. They meet others and they are impounded into an expedition back to Earth to kidnap human children to increase the Flymen's population. They hide inside a Traverser to make the return journey to Earth.
Back in the jungle, Toy is the new leader. While attempting to kill a large, seed-shaped
Samara (fruit)
A samara is a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit and indehiscent . It is a winged achene...
suckerbird, the tribe accidentally become passengers on the suckerbird. After a long flight, they crash on the coast at the base of a "termight" castle on a peninsula.
Walking back to the forest through "Nomansland" – the lethal interface-area between land and sea, Gren is waylaid by a "morel", a sentient fungus which attaches itself to his head and talks to, and controls him. After a power-struggle, Gren leaves the tribe with his girlfriend Poyly, also taken-over by the morel.
On their travels, they meet Yattmur of the "Herder" tribe, who live in caves in a congealed lava
Lava
Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...
bed. At the "Skirt of the black mouth", an unknown creature with Siren
Siren
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...
-like capabilities almost leads them to their deaths. Escaping, they meet the Tummy-belly men, some of whom they free by cutting the umbilical cord
Umbilical cord
In placental mammals, the umbilical cord is the connecting cord from the developing embryo or fetus to the placenta...
s with which they are attached to a parasitic tree. All board a boat belonging to the tummy-bellies, but during the escape Poyly is killed.
The boat, uncontrolled, floats downriver into the sea. After several adventures, the crew find themselves on an iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
, the boat destroyed, after which the berg abuts a small islet
Islet
An islet is a very small island.- Types :As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability....
. They leave by hitching a ride on a plant which propagates by using self-propelled, stilt-walking seeds, which instinctively walk to the mainland.
They find themselves at the terminator
Terminator (solar)
A terminator, twilight zone or "grey line" is a moving line that separates the illuminated day side and the dark night side of a planetary body...
, the boundary between the day and night sides. To their horror, they realize they are being carried over it. After a long journey, the seed stops near the top of a mountain, which is tall enough to still be lit by the low sun. There, Yattmur gives birth to Gren's child and they meet the Sharp-furs.
They meet the Sodal Ye and his three helpers. Gren, increasingly taken over by the morel, wants the baby to host it as well. In return for food, the Sodal Ye thinks of a way to remove the morel from Gren's head by coaxing it into a bowl.
They decide to accompany the Sodal Ye back to Bountiful Basin, an arm of the sea close to the terminator. On the way they witness a solar flare
Solar flare
A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...
, the creature explains to them that the world is about to end as the Sun brightens, and the strange, green columns they begin to see beaming into space is life itself, transferring to new stars
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
.
Followed by Sharp-furs and others, they notice a traverser has landed and blocked the passage to their destination. This is the traverser that was carrying Lily-yo and companions. The morel manages to take over the Sodal Ye and when they reach the giant spider, Gren meets Lily-yo again. They board a traverser which is going to lift off to the stars (after being taken over by the morel which has now divided) – all except Gren, Yattmur, and the baby, who decide to return to the familiar forest.
Characters
- Gren – Young male tribesman. Later, hosts a morel.
- Lily-yo – Leader of Gren's tribe.
- Band Appa Bondi – Flyman; stolen from Earth as a child.
- Poyly – Gren's tribal girlfriend.
- The morel – Sentient fungus; forms symbioticSymbiosisSymbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
relationships with other lifeforms and enhances their intelligence. - Yattmur – Gren's girlfriend from the Herder tribe.
- Laren – Gren and Yattmur's son.
- The Tummy-belly men (fishers) – Humans who have become symbionts with the Tummy Trees.
- Sodal Ye – Prophet of the Nightside mountains; sodals are descended from dolphinDolphinDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s, and now the most intelligent of all life on Earth. The only species that realises the Earth is doomed.
Species
- Flymen – Human sub-species; able to glide and fly. Principally moon-dwellers.
- Sharp-furs – Denizens of the Nightside, descended from baboonBaboonBaboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...
s. - Traversers – Giant spider-like vegetables, they spin webs that stretch between the Earth and Moon, and a few have travelled to nearby stars. Their ten-thousand year infancy is now spent on the Moon, away from the worst of the parasitic tigerflies (their only enemies). When mature they live on the solar radiation in space, returning to the Earth to feed and mate, and the Moon to bud.
Literary significance & criticism
The novel appears on the Top 100 list of the greatest science fiction novels post 1945.Author and critic James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
called the stories "utter nonsense" and took Aldiss to task for ignoring basic rules of physics 1. The magazine editor actually sought scientific advice about one aspect of the book. He was told that the orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
al dynamics involved meant that it was nonsense, but the image of the earth and moon side by side in orbit, shrouded with cobwebs woven by giant vegetable spiders, was so outrageous and appealing that he published it anyway.
Galaxy
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel as "a tour-de-force guaranteed to startle the most blase SF buff."
In 2009, IDW Publishing repackaged the novel with a new introduction by author Clifford Meth
Clifford Meth
Clifford Lawrence Meth is an American writer and editor best known for his dark fiction. He has said that his work is often "self-consciously Jewish."-Early life:...
.
The magazine stories
| Story | Issue Date | Issue # |
|---|---|---|
| Hothouse | February 1961 | 117 |
| Nomansland | April 1961 | 119 |
| Undergrowth | July 1961 | 122 |
| Timberline | September 1961 | 124 |
| Evergreen | December 1961 | 127 |
Versions and adaptations
- Gamma WorldGamma WorldGamma World is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from James M. Ward's earlier product, Metamorphosis Alpha.-Setting:...
, a science fantasyScience fantasyScience fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
role-playing gameRole-playing gameA role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
, first published by TSRTSR, Inc.Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
in 1978, was partly inspired by the novel, as noted in the Foreword to the game's first edition rulebook. - The story was later loosely adapted into a four-part comic entitled "Hom", by Carlos GiménezCarlos GimenezCarlos Eduardo Giménez Colmenares is a Venezuelan politician and was the governor of Yaracuy from 2004 to 2008. He was impeached in June 2008 by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, and replaced by Álex Sánchez.-Biography:...
in Continuity ComicsContinuity ComicsContinuity Publishing, also known as Continuity Comics, was an American independent comic book company formed by Neal Adams in 1984, publishing comics until 1994....
' Echo of Futurepast anthology.
Release details
- FIRST EDITION: 1962 (PB) Signet Books, ISBN 0-451-08575-2, (HB) Faber and Faber
- November 1967 : HB, ISBN 0-571-08664-0 (UK edition), Faber and Faber
- June 1976 : HB, ISBN 0-8398-2325-8 (USA edition), Gregg P, US
- April 1984 : HB, ISBN 0-86391-023-8 (UK edition), John Goodchild
- December 1969 : PB, ISBN 0-7221-1090-1 (UK edition), Sphere
- ? 1977 : PB, ISBN 0-7221-1103-7 (UK edition), Sphere
- June 1980 : PB, ISBN 0-586-04990-8 (UK edition), Panther
- December 1984 : PB, ISBN 0-671-55930-3 (USA edition), Baen
- February 1990 : PB, ISBN 0-575-04735-6 (UK edition), Gollancz
- October 2000 : PB, ISBN 0-7551-0060-3 (UK edition), House of Stratus
- 7 August 2008 : PB, ISBN 9780141189550 (UK edition), Penguin Classic
Sources, references, external links, quotations
- Brian W. Aldiss - his official site
- SF Site review
- Lost Book Archives review