Synopsis
ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. Blade Runner, True Detective, and District 9 meld with the weird worlds of Jeff VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick, and China Miéville in Adrian M. Gibson’s award-winning fungalpunk noir debut, now with a foreword from acclaimed author Nicholas Eames and six pieces of original interior artwork.
Two years after a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty, and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, hounding the native population.
As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD homicide detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division, and moral decay.
In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?
SPFBO X 2nd place. Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer. Winner of the FanFiAddict Award for Best Indie Debut, the Literary Titan Gold Book Award, and the Next Generation Indie Book Award.
Review
MUSHROOM BLUES is a book that has been reviewed many times on this site for various reasons but we’ll go with the fact that it’s just a damn awesome indie book and those who prefer to read outside the “Big Six” of traditional publishing have been passing it around among themselves for some time. Still, you might want to assume this review is biased. If so, TO THE CORNFIELD WITH YOU! My review below will be entirely objective and honest with the only bias being that I am a huge fan of indie books, cyberpunk, and quirky premises. Which this is all three.
The premise is the human race has conquered a planet full of human-like toadstool aliens that are capable of breeding with mankind. These aliens are called fungals and are both Asian coded as well as the victim of immense racism at the hands of the white-coded human ruling class. We don’t get much insight into the justification for the war but it seems pretty clear that mankind doesn’t really treat them as the equals they claim but as a barely tolerated cheap labor force.
Henrietta Hofmann is the protagonist of the story and a bigoted alcoholic cop that may have gotten her daughter killed. Modesty Blaise she is not in terms of likability. The police barely tolerate her and have assigned her a fungal partner, Koji Nameko, despite her passionate hatred of fungals. Some people may be so off-put by Henrietta that they might not be able to enjoy the book. If you think the story will be about Henrietta getting over her prejudices and showing herself better than “other” racists then, yes, you are correct. The author does an excellent job of doing it, though.
The two detectives are brought together with a series of child murders. Henrietta has many problems with fungals but draws the line at child murder. Which I don’t think is really that laudable but I suppose is better than not being okay with child murder. Henrietta is also forced to confront the fact that she doesn’t have much in the way of contacts among the fungal community and the power dynamic shifts between her and Koji.
Overall, I really enjoyed Mushroom Blues. It is a book with lots of twists and turns with a noir detective feel that is supplemented by a cyberpunk dystopia. I’m pretty sure we’ll discover the fungals are lost human colonists from the past but that is a guess on my part versus something confirmed. While Henrietta’s racism was hard to tolerate, she does eat some humble pie and Koji has enough of a role to be considered the deuteragonist. If you like cyberpunk and sci-fi detective novels then this is one I strongly recommend.
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