Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. GibsonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is a 2-star review. I'm categorizing it as a plain "DNF" rather than a full on Dorothy Parker DNF.
This book came in second in SPFBOX. I read the winner. It was much better than this.
The premise of the book is that humans have conquered a world populated by mushroom people. They are just like humans except they have various fungi growing out of their skins including a huge mushroom on top of their heads. Everything is made of something fungal. They eat fungal foods. They build with fungal bricks and cables. They communicate partially via fungal spores. And the author reminds the reader of this fungal basis for life every other paragraph.
The book begins early on with heavy doses of racism, colonialism, and sexism. The subtext bleeds over the text pretty quickly. The native mushroom people exude a sort of language and culture that reads as "Asian" which as odd choice for people that would otherwise have no contact with an Earth Asian culture.
Within the book's narrative, there isn't any explicit reason for the humans to have conquered this planet. The impression given is that humans just love to conquer other places. There aren't any specific resources of interest nor any motivation due to expanding populations. The Terran presence on this planet is an excuse for humans to beat up on a native population...for fun?
The plot centers on a detective story. Our "hero" has a serious case of fungal-phobia and is assigned to solve the mystery of disappearing and murdered fungal children.
One feature of the story is that humans and mushroom people can make babies. How a species could evolve based on a fungal-centric biology that would be genetically compatible with humans is never explained. Do mushroom people have all the same sexual organs as human? If so, why when fungi reproduce via spores.
I made it 37% through the book before giving up. I might have lasted longer if I preferred detective stories. Belief is supposed to be suspended, not terminally broken.
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