In many, many years, the Earth will stop spinning around its axis, and with the passage of time the sun will warm it up more and more. It is then that the plants will triumph and rule the Earth almost completely, as well as the Moon. Then the remnants of humanity will fight to survive in a world where flora will be more aggressive than modern fauna.
Stunning world
The great thing about the Brian Aldiss Greenhouse is the represented world. The author’s imagination filled him with all possible (and impossible) plants. Humans live in a huge tree that has swallowed an entire continent and has become home to hundreds or even thousands of other species. However, the flora of the Greenhouse differs significantly from what we know. Plants do not sit still – they can move and hunt efficiently. The techniques of obtaining food are very similar to those we know from the modern animal world. Humans (and other species) need to watch out for traps, mimicry, predator speed, and more.
In a world dominated by plants, few animal species remain, and those that survive have changed significantly. Humanity has dwarfed, and some insects, incl. the wasps grew significantly. From the top of the food pyramid, Homo sapiens has fallen much lower and must fight fiercely for its life.
Good average beginnings
The novel begins really amazing. We meet a human tribe that somehow cope with the Jungle Greenhouse . At the very beginning, we do not fully understand the world and getting to know it through the adventures of heroes is an amazing entertainment, and the observation of such a culture different from ours is fascinating. Unfortunately, the book is not so good in the rest of the story. As the narrative focuses on Grena in the following pages, the story becomes less interesting. We continue to explore the world created by Aldiss, but the events are much less intriguing.
As the chapters follow, we begin to understand that the Earth in the Greenhouse is not as uniform as it initially seemed, and that humanity has found various niches to survive. Unfortunately, neither the peoples encountered by Gren nor his adventures are as fascinating as the beginning of the novel.
Suspension of disbelief
In many places it is difficult to suspend unbelief while reading it. It is not just that the author’s ideas seem scientifically impossible – after all, this is the domain of a great many fantastic books. The bigger problem is that the author doesn’t convey his ideas quite convincingly.
However, it cannot be said that the Greenhouse is entirely unconvincing. While reading, we want to believe many things, and even believe a lot, but there are regular motives that break us out of the belief that this is a world that could be real.
Summary
At the Greenhouse, Brian Aldiss gave a real show of his unbridled imagination. The novel impresses with the world it presents, unfortunately the plot is the weaker side of this position. Nevertheless, it is worth reaching for this book to appreciate the ideas of the British writer.
