The Book of Spores is an anthology with sixteen stories by different authors, with a connecting thread that runs through all of them. The Book of Spores is also a possibly sentient character that appears in each story to a lesser or greater degree. I found this connectivity a fantastic, really engaging idea. Each story has research notes written by Fia, an archivist, herself trying to discover more about the Book and its history. Normally, I find footnotes off-putting, but in this case, they did a good job of keeping all the disparate stories connected.
The stories within The Book of Spores are widely varied in style and genre, and as with all anthologies, some of them stood out for me more than others. I love reading collections that include both stories by authors whose work I already know and those I am unfamiliar with, as it often introduces me to new favourite authors, and this one delivered on that front.
Krystle Matar’s compelling bank heist, A Serious Track was my favorite. I loved the detailed world-building that felt to me like a distant cousin to Peaky Blinders, mixed together with a background of street rats and thieves to rival Oliver Twist. The narrator’s voice felt less street rat and more Gatsby-esque as he looked back over his youth. Maybe he bought himself an education with his ill-gotten, mushroom-moonshine gains.
“That’s when I learned how much wealth weighs, how urgently it drags at the arm, how it pushes at the seams of the bag that tries to contain it, as if it’s trying to escape. Maybe that’s why people who find wealth in their hands covet it so viciously, like starving dogs.”
I do love Matar’s narrative prose!!
In (Cal)Amity, Connor M. Caplan has once again created a madcap world, this time containing witches and gods. The witch who is the PoV character is traveling through time and space via the fungal network in pursuit of a matchbook version of The Book of Spores. Trust Connor to take a concept and turn it completely on its head, stretching it to the furthest bounds of possibility. What a ride!!
Adrian Gibson is the Fungal King, who is known in the indie world for mushroom mayhem from his debut novel, Mushroom Blues. I had high expectations for his story and was not disappointed. The Stemcutter’s Daughter reads like folklore, and the fungal worldbuilding is wonderfully rich.
I also thoroughly enjoyed AJ Calvin’s imaginative science fiction story, Not All Books Are Worth Reading and would like to read more about this close-knit crew of Botanaari and human cyborgs. This is one of those “new to me” authors I might not have become aware of without this anthology.
Greta Kelly is another such author whose story of the righteous revenge of a wronged woman, The Toadstool Witch, I devoured and am still thinking about now. Stories of mythical beings and legends are my favourite genre of fantasy, and I loved the immersive, lyrical prose of this one. The hopeless dread filling the main character at the beginning of the story was all too real.
“Juliote felt the ravening darkness seep through the branches, slithering betwixt blades of grass with tongues tipped in poison.”
Kelly’s books have been added to my TBR list.
Emma L Adams’ story A Dangerous Donation was intriguing and enjoyable, but I felt that I needed to understand more about the “otherkin” who were mentioned a few times and were central to this mystery. The monkey-like creature reminded me of Mrs. Coulter’s daemon in Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”.
These were my favourites, but all of the stories were enjoyable, with plenty of food for thought, and each had its own individual mushroomy flavour. There is something to be found in this unusual anthology to keep every reader’s taste buds sated.
Kudos to the team that pulled this anthology together and organised the Kickstarter campaign for it!
Great review! I’m definitely looking forward to reading this one.