Adrian M. Gibson

Mushroom Blues

Now I may be late to this fungal indie goodness, something that has been becoming a staple for me (I guess?), but better late than never, right? I grabbed this one of audio, and I thought Imogen Church’s narration was spot on. And of course the Felix Ortiz cover is just chef’s kiss…

Detective Henrietta Hoffman, the quintessential, down-on-her-luck, uber-jaded character, has been forcefully exiled to the worst place she could imagine—Hōppon. Just two years after the loss of The Spore War, the mushroom-lush country is being fully colonized by the victors. Coprinian forces are stationed everywhere, taking over law enforcement and more. But when a decapitated fungal child is found, Hoffman must swallow her pride and team up with the mushroom-capped NKPD native Koji Nameko. The blend of noir investigation, political intrigue, action, loss, and danger—as well as some really unique fantasy and scifi—that follows is truly pulse-pounding.

So I get the hype. The last two years for me haven’t been huge in the genre, but since I was a teenage fantasy and scifi have always been staples in my reading. So believe me when I say this is a banger of a release. It really takes multiple things I love—fantasy, science fiction, mystery and thriller—and delivers this really fresh blend of them all. I’ve read fantasy mysteries and scifi mysteries before, but what this one nailed was the feel of a police procedural that’s just been meshed into a world that feels other. They aren’t monster hunters or dragon slayers, they are everyday cops, and despite their world being different, they are just doing the job.

Speaking of the world, this novel’s worldbuilding is extreme. It’s as if the author sat and wrote out every single thing that we use in our day to day lives—even cups, concrete, and DOORS—and was like, “hmmm, yes, all of that has it’s own version that’s been fungalized.” (Not a word? It is now). The world is unique, rich, and built from the ground up. It might not be your typical fantasy/scifi, but this definitely read like something noticeably not earth. In that way it felt kind of along the lines of urban fantasy at times, even bringing to mind the film Bright…some of the context shared between the two helped as well. The minute details, like mixed children having small sprouts of mushrooms on their heads, felt like a really special showing of an author that fully knows what they’ve created.

This novel is heavy though. To not sugarcoat, it is filled with ethnocentrism, prejudice, and tons of racism. The wounds of war are still fresh, and the hate is steaming on both sides. However, with the book’s perspective, so much of the hate is coming from (often gushing from) Detective Hoffman. It can be hard to read and digest. While Hoffman was not a soldier in the war that stole their country from them, she certainly has no problem spewing the Coprinian vitriolic ignorance. With that being said, when you stick with it, the story is designed to show you how disgusting this is, how wrong, and Hoffman eventually begins her journey out of this. It’s a well done facsimile of our own world’s history of systemic racism, imperialism and hatred. There’s a fine message in there too of those feeling more aligned with Hoffman (at the beginning) needing to get their shit together too.

The mystery is written just how it should be. Approached with the reader learning as the investigators do, and with the twist being dangled right before their eyes at multiple times before it’s finally revealed. There’s complexity, there’s red herrings, and there’s definitely a lot of thread weaving and pulling by the end. If you claim to have had it figured out before the end I’ll call you a liar, this one’s well done. There are some otherworldly notes thrown in too, which really (again) cemented the genre blend for me.

Another thing I really enjoyed was drawing similarities between this and Welcome to Cemetery. While there are miles of differences, there’s still some detective and cop traits that you can’t lack in a police procedural. While my main character is young and trying to prove herself, her partner is the jaded one that struggles. In some ways Koji is reminiscent of Williams to me, he wants to do the right thing no matter the cost. While ultimately the twists are polar opposites, there is still a through-line of police corruption in both novels. And I know the author and I both review for FanFiAddict, but we had zero discussion surrounding our books together, and mine was even completed before I joined. It makes me think my novel might be a bit more noir than I thought.

Super intriguing. Thoroughly enjoyable. And easy to imagine how endless the world could be. I’m interested in their next case, and even hopeful for side stories exploring the world at large.

C. J. Daley 

Now I may be late to this fungal indie goodness, something that has been becoming a staple for me (I guess?), but better late than never, right? I grabbed this one of audio, and I thought Imogen Church’s narration was spot on. And of course the Felix Ortiz cover is just chef’s kiss…

Detective Henrietta Hoffman, the quintessential, down-on-her-luck, uber-jaded character, has been forcefully exiled to the worst place she could imagine—Hōppon. Just two years after the loss of The Spore War, the mushroom-lush country is being fully colonized by the victors. Coprinian forces are stationed everywhere, taking over law enforcement and more. But when a decapitated fungal child is found, Hoffman must swallow her pride and team up with the mushroom-capped NKPD native Koji Nameko. The blend of noir investigation, political intrigue, action, loss, and danger—as well as some really unique fantasy and scifi—that follows is truly pulse-pounding.

So I get the hype. The last two years for me haven’t been huge in the genre, but since I was a teenage fantasy and scifi have always been staples in my reading. So believe me when I say this is a banger of a release. It really takes multiple things I love—fantasy, science fiction, mystery and thriller—and delivers this really fresh blend of them all. I’ve read fantasy mysteries and scifi mysteries before, but what this one nailed was the feel of a police procedural that’s just been meshed into a world that feels other. They aren’t monster hunters or dragon slayers, they are everyday cops, and despite their world being different, they are just doing the job.

Speaking of the world, this novel’s worldbuilding is extreme. It’s as if the author sat and wrote out every single thing that we use in our day to day lives—even cups, concrete, and DOORS—and was like, “hmmm, yes, all of that has it’s own version that’s been fungalized.” (Not a word? It is now). The world is unique, rich, and built from the ground up. It might not be your typical fantasy/scifi, but this definitely read like something noticeably not earth. In that way it felt kind of along the lines of urban fantasy at times, even bringing to mind the film Bright…some of the context shared between the two helped as well. The minute details, like mixed children having small sprouts of mushrooms on their heads, felt like a really special showing of an author that fully knows what they’ve created.

This novel is heavy though. To not sugarcoat, it is filled with ethnocentrism, prejudice, and tons of racism. The wounds of war are still fresh, and the hate is steaming on both sides. However, with the book’s perspective, so much of the hate is coming from (often gushing from) Detective Hoffman. It can be hard to read and digest. While Hoffman was not a soldier in the war that stole their country from them, she certainly has no problem spewing the Coprinian vitriolic ignorance. With that being said, when you stick with it, the story is designed to show you how disgusting this is, how wrong, and Hoffman eventually begins her journey out of this. It’s a well done facsimile of our own world’s history of systemic racism, imperialism and hatred. There’s a fine message in there too of those feeling more aligned with Hoffman (at the beginning) needing to get their shit together too.

The mystery is written just how it should be. Approached with the reader learning as the investigators do, and with the twist being dangled right before their eyes at multiple times before it’s finally revealed. There’s complexity, there’s red herrings, and there’s definitely a lot of thread weaving and pulling by the end. If you claim to have had it figured out before the end I’ll call you a liar, this one’s well done. There are some otherworldly notes thrown in too, which really (again) cemented the genre blend for me.

Another thing I really enjoyed was drawing similarities between this and Welcome to Cemetery. While there are miles of differences, there’s still some detective and cop traits that you can’t lack in a police procedural. While my main character is young and trying to prove herself, her partner is the jaded one that struggles. In some ways Koji is reminiscent of Williams to me, he wants to do the right thing no matter the cost. While ultimately the twists are polar opposites, there is still a through-line of police corruption in both novels. And I know the author and I both review for FanFiAddict, but we had zero discussion surrounding our books together, and mine was even completed before I joined. It makes me think my novel might be a bit more noir than I thought.

Super intriguing. Thoroughly enjoyable. And easy to imagine how endless the world could be. I’m interested in their next case, and even hopeful for side stories exploring the world at large.

Mushroom Blues is an indie published urban fantasy dipped in weird sauce and sprinkled with cyberpunk vibes. The name says it all: the setting is quite emotionally blue and everything is fungi. The setting is a fungal town, where people are essentially anthropomorphic mushrooms and most things are fungi related, which was defeated in a war and is now colonized by humans.

The story is told through the narration of the main character, a human detective that has to investigate the murder of a fungal child and is forced to work with a fungal policeman. The mystery gets more complicated and connected in a predictably grand strategy with how the human/fungal relations, peace and colonialism will tread on - or not.

I must say that the idea of this book is really good and thought out. Adrian M. Gibson gives the reader a good complex setting, filled with racism and colonialism themes, differences and both within and between cultures and a believable post-war status quo, and a main character that starts with an uncontrollable aversion to fungi and a personal trauma that is forced to engage with the world and her self beyond her guardrails. The mystery itself is what one would expect, good to get the story going, never really surprising in the long run.

- The overwhelming need to transmit the setting to the reader. Everything in this book is a mycothis, a polyporethat, a fruiting body here, a lot of spores there. In the beginning, and considering the main character's reaction, it makes real sense, but we could do with a lot less reminders that all is fungal, half way across the read we already see it before he writes it. The fungal culture is, on the other hand, heavily Japanese inspired, to a point where I might have liked it to be less obvious, as it got me "out" of the story at times.

- The resolution to the main character's fungal aversion mixed with racism. These things are never easy and it would always be hard to "explain" how someone changes their mind and even their physical reaction to something or someone in one novel that isn't solely focused on that, and I felt it was too quick and clear to be believable.

All in all, a nice read - I can see how the SPFBO judges wanted to highlight it - and I must say that, even if I am unsure if I'll dive into so much mushroom again (I eat quite enough as it is) I would be interested to read other things written by Adrian M. Gibson in the future.

André Nóbrega

Mushroom Blues is an indie published urban fantasy dipped in weird sauce and sprinkled with cyberpunk vibes. The name says it all: the setting is quite emotionally blue and everything is fungi. The setting is a fungal town, where people are essentially anthropomorphic mushrooms and most things are fungi related, which was defeated in a war and is now colonized by humans.
The story is told through the narration of the main character, a human detective that has to investigate the murder of a fungal child and is forced to work with a fungal policeman. The mystery gets more complicated and connected in a predictably grand strategy with how the human/fungal relations, peace and colonialism will tread on - or not.
I must say that the idea of this book is really good and thought out. Adrian M. Gibson gives the reader a good complex setting, filled with racism and colonialism themes, differences and both within and between cultures and a believable post-war status quo, and a main character that starts with an uncontrollable aversion to fungi and a personal trauma that is forced to engage with the world and her self beyond her guardrails. The mystery itself is what one would expect, good to get the story going, never really surprising in the long run.
Two points that I did not enjoy:
- The overwhelming need to transmit the setting to the reader. Everything in this book is a mycothis, a polyporethat, a fruiting body here, a lot of spores there. In the beginning, and considering the main character's reaction, it makes real sense, but we could do with a lot less reminders that all is fungal, half way across the read we already see it before he writes it. The fungal culture is, on the other hand, heavily Japanese inspired, to a point where I might have liked it to be less obvious, as it got me "out" of the story at times.
- The resolution to the main character's fungal aversion mixed with racism. These things are never easy and it would always be hard to "explain" how someone changes their mind and even their physical reaction to something or someone in one novel that isn't solely focused on that, and I felt it was too quick and clear to be believable.

All in all, a nice read - I can see how the SPFBO judges wanted to highlight it - and I must say that, even if I am unsure if I'll dive into so much mushroom again (I eat quite enough as it is) I would be interested to read other things written by Adrian M. Gibson in the future.

Mushroom Blues

Reviews