Published : 1958Pages : 241
Overall Mark : 6/10
Curiousity was discouraged in the Green tribe. Its members lived out their lives in cramped Quarters, hacking away at the encroaching ponics. As to where they were - that was forgotten. Roy Complain decides to find out. With the renegade priest Marapper, he moves into unmapped territory, where they make a series of discoveries which turn their universe upside-down...
BRIAN ALDISS (1925-)
Aldiss served in the Far East during the Second World War, and later worked as a bookseller. He published his first SF story in 1954, and has been a leading figure in British SF ever since. His many other novels include Hothouse and the Helliconia trilogy; his Trillion Year Spree (1987, with David Wingrove), which won a Hugo award, remains the best history of SF.
VERDICT
Where some sci-fi books might be more well known, this starts off as a pretty impressive book about a society finally (yet slowly) discovering the truth about themselves. Aldiss does a good job on the whole (considering this was his first published book), but some of the writing is awkward at points and the ending feels far too abrupt for my liking.
