Hothouse

I read a lot of books during 2010. On my main blog I have announced that the best book I read all year was The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith. That volume is a collection of linked stories. But the best novel I read in 2010 was Hothouse by the superb Brian Aldiss, one of my favourite writers. Hothouse is one of his finest early novels, set on a future Earth where tropical carnivorous plants rule supreme and where the moon is attached to our planet by the giant cobwebs of mile-wide vegetable spiders. Notice the irony of such a book being photographed in the snow? But in fact some of the action takes place in the chilly regions of Eternal Twilight. I thoroughly recommend Hothouse to anyone who appreciates truly great literature: it's imaginative, inventive, magical, troubling and enthralling.