Hothouse

Brian Aldiss creates an incredibly inventive world in this novel, which at times put me in mind of other New Wave legend Robert Silverberg.

However, the characters contained within Hothouse struck me as serving more as a mechanism by which the reader can explore the setting Aldiss has created; you discover its fauna and flora as the characters do, as they traverse its verdant but hazardous landscape.

The tree people - diminutive, somewhat naive humans who have devolved over time - reminded me somewhat of H.G. Wells' Eloi from his classic The Time Machine.

Aldiss' writing is rich but overall this story doesn't quite pack the punch of his other well-known work Non-Stop. With a well-realised setting, but a plot that didn't go in the direction I expected or hoped it would (and to me didn't quite take full advantage of its backdrop) Hothouse falls short for me in that regard as Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! did.