Hothouse

It was a very long time ago that I first read Hothouse. I remembered a little about the world that the children initially find themselves in. The dumblers and running along the branches of the great banyan. I remembered Lily-yo and Gren, but beyond that I had forgotten much of the adventure.

This book is a science fiction classic and because it is such a good imaginative story set me reading science fiction for years. The story is set millions of years in the future when the rotation of the moon has slowed the earth to almost a standstill. The earth now has one face to the sun and one face from it (the dark side), just as the moon does with the earth. Vegetation has taken over, although a few insects and animals still exist - man included, the humans then are not like the humans now they have evolved to live in the new environment, and de-evolved in some senses too. Gren is an intelligent child and this attribute causes problems, and that is what makes the adventure so fascinating. Gren leaves the forest through various (mainly poor) decisions, but it is nor entirely his fault. This plot line give the opportunity to bring in new species of plant and animal. There are new dangers to overcome and new opportunities to be exploited. Eventually, through some tragedies (which are not greatly dwelt on) and through some comic scenes he makes it back to the forest.

Only one thing in the book did not work for me. They find what would not be described as a talking drone. Quite how that is supposed to have survived, power supply in tact, for thousands of millennia is not explained and for me the scene ruined the timeline that had been so carefully constructed and explained. It is only a small criticism of what is rightly a masterpiece.

The plot is a simple adventure story but the world it is set in is amazing.