Plot introduction
Set in a far future, the Earth has locked rotation with the Sun, and is attached to the now-more-distant Moon, which resides at a Trojan point, with cobwebs spun by enormous spider-like plants. The Sun is described as "paralysing half the heaven" and "always fixed and still at one point in the sky" and, with the increased light and heat, the plants are engaged in a constant frenzy of growth and decay, like a tropical forest enhanced a thousandfold. The plants – many now omnivores – have filled all the ecological niches on the land and in the air, many evolving primitive nervous systems and, in some cases, eyes; of the animals in the forest only the descendants of four species of social insects remain – tigerflies (evolved from wasps), tree-bees, plant-ants and termights (from termites) – along with small groups of humans (a fifth of the size they are now); all other land and air animals have been driven to extinction by the vegetable kingdom, apart from a few shore dwellers. The humans live on the edge of extinction, within the canopy layer of a giant banyan tree that covers the continent on the day side of the Earth.
Plot summary
Lily-yo, leader of a small, matriarchal human tribe, decides that the group should break up, as the adults are too old, and should go to the "Tips", the dangerous top levels of the forest, to go "Up". "Burnurns" – transparent seed-casings – are collected, and the adults seal themselves inside after which the young attach them to the webs of the giant spider-like plants called "Traversers", which travel into space to receive more intense sunlight and escape the parasitic tigerflies; as planned a traverser brushes against the sticky pods and carries them to the moon (which now has a breatheable atmosphere).
The unconscious adults reach their destination, where they discover they have transformed into "Flymen", mutated by space radiation into flight-capable forms. They meet others and are impressed into an expedition back to Earth to kidnap human children to increase the Flymen population. They hide inside a Traverser to make the return journey to Earth.
Back in the jungle, Toy is now the new leader. While attempting to kill a large seed-shaped "suckerbird", the tribe accidentally become passengers on the suckerbird. After a long flight, they crash on the coast at the base of a "termight" castle on a peninsula. Walking back to the forest through "Nomansland" – the lethal interface-area between land and sea – Gren is waylaid by a "morel", a sentient fungus which attaches itself to his head and forms a symbiotic relationship. After a power-struggle, Gren leaves the tribe with his girlfriend Poyly, also taken over by the morel.
On their travels, they meet Yattmur of the Herder tribe, who live in caves in a congealed lava bed. At the "Skirt of the black mouth", an unknown creature with Siren-like capabilities almost leads them to their deaths. Escaping, they meet the Tummy-belly men, some of whom they free by cutting the umbilical cords by which they are attached to a parasitic tree. All board a boat belonging to the tummy-bellies, but during the escape Poyly is killed. The boat, uncontrolled, floats downriver into the sea. After several adventures, the crew find themselves on an iceberg, the boat destroyed, after which the berg abuts a small islet. They leave by hitching a ride on a plant which propagates by using self-propelled, stilt-walking seeds, which instinctively walk to the mainland.
They find themselves at the terminator, the boundary between the day and night sides. To their horror, they realise they are being carried over it. After a long journey, the seed stops near the top of a mountain, which is tall enough to still be lit by the low sun. There, Yattmur gives birth to Gren's child; Gren, increasingly taken over by the morel, wants the baby to host it as well. They meet the Sharp-furs, tribal baboons who use speech, and then they are approached by the Sodal Ye, a highly evolved fish, and his three-human servants. In return for food, the Sodal Ye thinks of a way to remove the morel from Gren's head by coaxing it into a bowl.
They decide to accompany the Sodal Ye back to Bountiful Basin, an arm of the sea close to the terminator. On the way they witness a solar flare. The morel explains to them that the world is about to end as the Sun brightens, and the strange, green columns they begin to see beaming into space are shafts of organic material, transferring to new star systems.
Followed by sharp-furs and others, they notice a traverser has landed and blocked the passage to their destination. This is the traverser that was carrying Lily-yo and companions. The morel manages to take over the Sodal Ye and when they reach the giant spider, Gren meets Lily-yo again. They board a traverser which is going to lift off to the stars (after being taken over by the morel which has now divided) – all except Gren, Yattmur, and the baby, who decide to return to the familiar forest – for the end of the world, while soon, will not occur within any of their lifetimes.
Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.
Dying Earth is a speculative fiction series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984. Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up, perhaps all the way to novel.
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes. Some of his works were set in post-apocalyptic landscapes. His best known works include The Day of the Triffids (1951), filmed in 1962, and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), which was filmed in 1960 as Village of the Damned, in 1995 under the same title, and again in 2022 in Sky Max under its original title.
Pellucidar is a fictional Hollow Earth invented by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories. In a crossover event, Tarzan, who was also created by Burroughs, visits Pellucidar.
Eric Frank Russell was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales and non-fiction articles on Fortean topics. Up to 1955 several of his stories were published under pseudonyms, at least Duncan H. Munro and Niall(e) Wilde.
The Positronic Man is a 1992 novel by American writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette "The Bicentennial Man".
The Big Time is a short science fiction novel by American writer Fritz Leiber. Awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel or Novelette in 1958, The Big Time was published originally in two parts in Galaxy Magazine's March and April 1958 issues, illustrated by Virgil Finlay. It was subsequently reprinted in book form several times. The Big Time is a story involving only a few characters, but with a vast, cosmic backstory.
The Best of John Wyndham is a paperback collection of science fiction stories by John Wyndham, published after his death by Sphere Books, first in 1973. Michael Joseph Limited has published the book as a hardcover under the title The Man from Beyond and Other Stories in 1975. For the 1977 Sphere paperback edition it was split into two parts, both containing the full bibliography and the introduction by Leslie Flood.
The Outward Urge is a science fiction fix-up novel by British writer John Wyndham. It was originally published with four chapters in 1959. A fifth chapter, originally published in 1961 as the separate short story "The Emptiness of Space", was included in later versions.
Non-Stop is a 1958 science fiction novel by British writer Brian Aldiss. It is about problems that the inhabitants of a huge generation space ship face after an alien amino acid that they picked up on another planet triggers a pandemic. Law and order began to collapse, and knowledge of the ship and of its purpose was eventually almost entirely lost throughout the vessel.
In the Ocean of Night is a 1977 fix-up hard science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford. It is the first novel in his Galactic Center Saga. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1977, and for the Locus Award the following year. In the Ocean of Night was first published as a series of novellas and novelettes from 1973 to 1977.
The Legion of Space is a science fiction novel by the American writer Jack Williamson. It was originally serialized in Astounding Stories in 1934, then published in book form by Fantasy Press in 1947 in an edition of 2,970 copies. A magazine-sized reprint was issued by Galaxy in 1950, with a standard paperback following from Pyramid Books in 1967. The first British edition was published by Sphere Books in 1977. The Legion of Space has been translated into German, French, Italian and Japanese . It has also appeared in the omnibus Three from the Legion, which compiles the novel and all but one of its sequels.
Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 23 (1961) is an American collection of science fiction short stories, the twenty-third volume of Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories, a series of short story collections, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, which attempts to list the great science fiction stories from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. They date the Golden Age as beginning in 1939 and lasting until 1963. This volume was originally published by DAW books in July 1991.
Greybeard is a science fiction novel by British author Brian Aldiss, published in 1964.
"Old Hundredth" is a science fiction short story by British writer Brian Aldiss. It was first published in Airs of the Earth in 1963 and has been anthologised many times. It was included in The Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Gardner Dozois. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in March 2006, which also issued an ebook edition in July 2009.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2001 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Robert Silverberg. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt in April 2001.
Nebula Awards 33 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Connie Willis. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt Brace in April 1999.
Nebula Award Stories 1965 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Damon Knight. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1966, with a Science Fiction Book Club edition following in October of the same year. The first British edition was published by Gollancz in 1967. Paperback editions followed from Pocket Books in the U.S. in November 1967, and New English Library in the U.K. in April 1969. The U.K. and paperback editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories 1. The book was more recently reissued by Stealth Press in hardcover in February 2001. It has also been published in German.
Semiosis is a 2018 science fiction novel by American writer and translator Sue Burke. It is her debut novel and is the first book of her Semiosis Duology series. It was first published in February 2018 in the United States by Tor Books, and in August 2018 in the United Kingdom by HarperVoyager. The book was translated into French by Florence Bury, and published in France in September 2019 by Albin Michel.
