Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss
"Hothouse" is a speculative fiction narrative set in a future where Earth has become a "Hothouse" due to the cessation of its rotation, leading to a split environment with lush, sun-drenched regions and barren twilight areas. The story follows the journey of a character named Gren and his companions as they navigate a world dominated by mobile and carnivorous plant life. In this transformed ecosystem, humans have devolved into small tribal groups, living amidst gigantic trees.
The plot centers around themes of survival, transformation, and the struggle for autonomy as characters face challenges such as the influence of a parasitic intelligent fungus called a morel, which merges with Gren and seeks to dominate the planet. The narrative explores the dynamics within tribes, including matriarchal traditions and the concept of "Going Up," which involves elders ascending to the treetops for a form of afterlife on the Moon. As Gren and his companions encounter various life forms and face personal and external conflicts, the story articulates their quest for identity and the search for a viable future. The setting is rich with imaginative elements, including evolved humans with leathery wings and enigmatic creatures that blur the lines between plant and animal life.
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Subject Terms
Hothouse
First published: 1962 (serial form, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, April, July, September, and December, 1961; shortened American edition, also 1962, titled The Long Afternoon of Earth)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—future history
Time of work: About 2 billion c.e.
Locale: Various locations on Earth, and briefly the Moon
The Plot
After Earth ceases to rotate, plant life—much of it mobile and carnivorous—flourishes on the sunny side. Humans have devolved and live in small tribes amid gigantic forest branches. Hothouse follows the adventures of Gren and others as they cross land and sea from the fecund tropics to the barren twilight region.
When Lily-yo, the leader of young Grens matriarchal tribe, comes to believe that she is past her prime, she makes the traditional choice to “Go Up,” along with the other elders. On the topmost leaves of the jungle, mammoth spiderlike plants spin webs between Earth and the Moon. Attached to such “traversers,” the elders are carried like pollen spores off to an “afterlife” that is in fact on the Moon, which now has an atmosphere and transplanted life-forms. The humans, exposed to radiation, develop leathery wings and become flymen who go back to Earth to bring younger humans to the “True World.”
Tribal youths have trouble developing the discipline and wisdom for survival. The rebellious Gren is banished and is joined by Poyly, who loves him. An intelligent fungus called a morel falls on Grens head, merges its brain with his, and decides that it can use humans to conquer the planet for its own kind. Gren remains at the mercy of the clinging morel, which can torture him and make him threaten others.
Joined by Yattmur, a young woman from another tribe, Gren and Poyly escape the Siren-like Black Mouth and meet a tribe of half-humans, called Fishers or tummy-bellies, who are attached umbilically to large plants. Prodded by the morel, Gren cuts the cords of several, though they neither want freedom nor can flourish independently, and he seizes a fishing boat. Eventually Poyly is killed, Gren mates with Yattmur, and the boat takes them to an island where the cliffs literally have eyes. A cave tempts Gren toward mystic oblivion.
After further adventures, the voyagers find themselves in a cold twilight world inhabited by baboonlike sharp-furs. Yattmur bears Grens child but rightly fears that the morel wants to attach itself to the baby, Laren. Into their midst comes an intelligent dolphin, the Sodal Ye, borne by a male slave and guided by two “Arabler” women. Vain and full of apocalyptic warnings about the suns coming nova, the sodal tells Yattmur how to free Gren from the morel and offers to lead the group to a warmer climate. The tummy-bellies stay with the sharp-furs, who kill them. The morel manages to seize the sodal, and Lily-yo once again encounters Gren. As the novel ends, the morel plans to pilot a traverser to the stars, with Lily-yos group, while Gren, Yattmur, and Laren return to the forest.