Review by Marian Powell   —   June 1, 2002

There's a phrase used for a certain kind of book. It's "a guilty pleasure". Usually it refers to a romance novel or the kind of novel you take to the beach. That is, it's a book that's quick and fun to read but has no subtext, no deep statement to make about society. One of my guilty pleasures is The Long Afternoon of Earth by Brian Aldiss. Brian Aldiss was a fine writer who is falling into the category of lost and that's a shame. He wrote a number of good novels and if you read Hothouse or The Long Afternoon of Earth, you will be immersed in one of the wierdest, most imaginative worlds ever created.

The time is the far, far distant future, but time is running out for the sun is expanding and will soon go nova. The earth's rotation has slowly come to a halt and now the side facing the sun is baking in the heat. It is truly the afternoon of earth, an endlessly steamy hot afternoon. Almost all animal life has died. Plants have taken over the earth. The world is literally a jungle, a nightmare world done in shades of green. Man is the only animal species left and man is barely hanging on. Man is literally hanging on in the trees. Sunk to one fifth his size, man is surviving without a past or a future and with barely a language.

In this world, the plants have become predators, in endless pursuit of prey. The humans face constant attack. A boy, Gren, makes a mistake, is seized by a giant flying plant and barely escapes. The plant has carried him out of the jungle to shores of the sea and here his life begins to change. He meets new people, new ways of living and wierder and wierder plant creatures. The whole appeal of the book lies in the absolute, hallucinatory bizarreness of the world. Everytime you think the author has done all he can do with his setting, he introduces a newer, stranger creature or situation until you're caught up on the ride, waiting for the next curve. In one of the strangest leaps of imagination in the book, some humans ride a flying plant that leaves the earth and casually flies to the moon. Having given us this wonderfully bizarre image, he then returns to the main plot on earth. One would like to spend far more time with the humans on the moon. It is a weakness of the novel that it is so short, but it's typical of science fiction of that time. Novels, unlike today, were expected to be short. I suspect it's why so many fine works from that time are being forgotten. They begin with a clever idea but not enough time is taken to really flesh it out and a great idea remains merely clever.

That explains why this story has two titles. Hothouse was published in England in 1962. It was also published in the US in 1962 under the wonderfully evocative title, The Long Afternoon of Earth. However, this American version was somewhat shorter than the original. Some chapters were cut out.

Do these lost chapters matter? I read the original Hothouse when it first came out and my most vivid memories are of the missing chapters. When I read The Long Afternoon of Earth a few weeks ago, I had the disconcerting experience of remembering something that wasn't there. It's a bizarre feeling, to say the least. Fortunately, a little research turned up the truth and also turned up a copy of Hothouse and I was relieved to find that I wasn't losing my mind after all. The missing chapters explain not only the catastrophe that destroyed most species on earth, but also takes a side trip to explain how man really evolved. In a few paragraphs, the author gives an explanation of the history of man's intelligence that should disturb both creationists and evolutionists. That's a wonderful trick. It enriches the story for now it creates a vast circle taking man from the dawn of his existence to his last days on earth.

After all that imagination, the ending of both versions feels a little rushed. I wonder if the author was planning a sequel for he wraps it up rather quickly. However, that's a minor flaw in a thoroughly enjoyable work.

The novel was first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and won the Hugo Award in 1961. That was the year before it was published as a novel and the award was given to "The Hothouse Series published as The Long Afternoon of Earth."