Greenhouse Summer

by Norman Spinrad

Book Overview

About a hundred years from now, pollution, overpopulation, and ecological disasters have left the rich nations still rich, and the poor nations--the Lands of the Lost--slowly strangling in drought and pollution. New York City is below sea level, surrounded by a seawall. The climate in Paris is much like the twentieth-century climate of long-drowned New Orleans. And Siberia, Golden Siberia, is the crop-land of the world. Still, for the international...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812566564
• ISBN13: 9780812566567
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Clever vision of an all-too-possible future

I've been an SF fan for more than 40 years, but find it all too difficult to find stuff worth reading these days. Spinrad's novel wasn't the most literary I've ever read -- the characters were a bit two-dimensional -- but his construction of the post-global warming future was well rounded and convincing. (At least to me. I don't know enough about climatary physics to comment on how technically plausible it might be.) Details: alligators in the canals of Paris, dikes protecting New York City from the elevated sea water, the Sahara Desert so hot as to be (really) lifeless. And the non-climatary details, like making "disney" a non-proper noun representing any technologically produced fake. I also liked the denouement, and the way it revolved around "meatware" computers and the strangely psychotic scientist from California. The politics was interesting, too, although maybe, like the characters, a little overblown to be believable. In all, though, well worth reading.

Greenhouse Summer is HOT! HOT! HOT!

Out of all the S.F. I have read that I found innocently standing on my local library shelf, this has got to be the most erotic novel I have ever found.Explicit language coupled with the change that time will effect on language made this book an interesting thirty hours.The only drawback for me was confusion early on. I will pick up another of Norman Spinrad's novels,this being my first.

Greenhouse Bummer ...

I truly thought the world was gonna' end in this one ... Alas ...HOT DAYS: Dealing with our current situation of global warming, what I thought to have been an "End of the World" type saga, I found to be a fanciful cat and mousebrain type thriller. "Mousebrain," refers to the *polymerized* rat brains known as "meat-ware" used as processors for Spinrad's computers of the future. While not necessarily SF, Greenhouse Summer weaves a tale surrounding our future Earth so very disturbing, yet mystically enchanting the reader gets a true sense of what might yet happen on our homeworld. We get a glimpse of the "Lands of the Lost:" areas already overtaken by flood waters due to the shifting of our polar ice caps, and 21st century Paris, in the summer. In Spinrad's telling, it's always summer in Paris. The dark side is the world hangs terribly close to the brink of "Condition Venus," the point at which we can no longer reverse the global warming effects we, ourselves, have created. Spinrad's humor dampens the final blow as Earth teeters precariously close to the proverbial "end is near." The United Nations had been trying to warn the Earth for years and now it may be too late.EVEN HOTTER NIGHTS: Spinrad's comical style proves there are no real heroes in a work like this, only a form of disney--a term Spinrad uses throughout the work--meat puppet could react openly to the goings on throughout his endless descriptions of room decor, sexual liaisons and alligators in the Seine. Cardboard mockups of stereotypical displays of only the brackish type inhabit Spinrad's universe. In a world no longer "governed," Syndics seem to go on about their business with alarming effrontery, mostly, as every character in Greenhouse Summer works for one Syndic or another. So, what's the point? I thought, maybe, the world might come to an end. It may yet end due to global warming, however, I had fun getting myself right back to where I started. Greenhouse Summer was an enjoyable read. The originality of the humor kept a smile on my face throughout. Almost every overdescriptive point in the book, including a long arduous sexcapade aboard the "Queen of the River," has a punch line. I recommend this work to SF/Pulp aficionados and most anyone with a sense of humor.-ras ;)

Spinrad at the height of his considerable powers!

Norman has finally returned with an utterly fantastic novel eagerly awaited by Spinrad enthusiasts worldwide! This one has everything Norman's readers have come to love,including a plot concerning the looming crisis of global warming,fully realized characters,funky technology,and lots of sex! Spinrad's singular style of rhythmic rhyming prose has never been better.His artistry with the English language, among others,continues to grow. Readers should pay close attention to the deft handling of the sensitive environmental issues that are the central focus of the plot,as well as the hopeful syndicalist system offered as a replacement for conventional outmoded capitalism. Truly,Norman Spinrad is at the height of his considerable powers! A must read for the serious lover of speculative fiction!