Review: Fungi edited by Orrin Grey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 I’ve said before that original anthologies are usually a mixed bag, and for the most part that remains the case. Therefore, it’s a special thing when one comes out that manages to be great throughout. Innsmouth Free Press, a Canadian “micro-publisher”, has already produced some quality anthologies. Historical Lovecraft and Future Lovecraft both have a spot on my bookshelf, and were quite satisfying. Fungi, their latest anthology, stands as their best work yet.

The brilliant cover by artist Oliver Wetter blends strangeness and beauty, and gives an idea of what’s to be found within the pages. Fungi itself is such an interesting species, and days could easily be spent reading about different types that are strange enough on their own without having to be fictionalized. Editors Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Orrin Grey wisely saw the potential of such a theme, and have compiled together a variety of tales. The stories themselves range from horror to fantasy. Some are dark, some are silly, some are chilling and some are just plain fun. The paperback edition contains twenty-two stories and a poem, while the deluxe hardcover edition includes three extra stories and ten black and white illustrations by Bernie Gonzalez.

Some (there are many) stories that I particularly enjoyed:

Hyphae, by John Langan, opens the anthology. It’s a good, solid horror story like I’ve come to expect from this author.

Lavie Tidhar is an author who writes beautiful short fiction. The White Hands reads like an excerpt from a weird encyclopedia detailing a mushroom world. Although not a typical, narrative story, it’s quite captivating.

Camille Alexander is an author that I’m not familiar with, but His Sweet Truffle of a Girl showcases her talent. The story is about a man on a “fungal submarine”, on a mission to win over his heart’s desire. It’s a weird, sad tale.

The next story, Last Bloom on The Sage by Andrew Penn Romine, is a fast-paced weird western. This could be one of the weirdest westerns I’ve read, as it seems to add steampunk, magic, and Lovecraftian creatures into the mix. Romine writes a rip-roaring train heist filled with action and strangeness, yet hinting at a much larger world. This is one of my favorite stories, and I’d love to see more stories set in the world Romine has created.

Another favorite is The Pilgrims of Parthen by Kristopher Reisz. It’s a beautiful, chilling tale of a special type of mushroom that causes shared hallucinations. Reisz manages to write a tale that could also work as a metaphor for real life drug addiction, and shows just how obsessed and dependent people can become. Parallels can be seen to Lovecraft’s A Shadow Out of Time and tales by Clark Ashton Smith. All in all, one of the best stories in the anthology.

W.H. Pugmire’s Midnight Mushrumps (my second favorite story title) is typical of Pugmire’s work. The prose is dreamy and decadent and the story is quite haunting. Any fan of weird fiction or eerily beautiful prose should mark Pugmire as a must-read.

No weird, fungal anthology would be complete without a story by Jeff Vandermeer. The author/editor is, without a doubt, the King of Fungi. Corpse Mouth and Spore Nose revisits his fictional city of Ambergris (which is explored in his previous brilliant works: The City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch). This short story involves a detective coming to the city of Ambergris on a job, but finding more than he bargained for. The story is weird at its best with some disturbing visuals and elements of body horror.

Goatsbride, by Richard Gavin, is another beautifully written story. Although I found the fungus element to play quite a small role, I loved this story. It explores primal lust in a village reminiscent of a religious, conservative settler town. Gavin is highly talented, and balances fluid prose and brilliant imagery to weave a tale that is not easily forgotten.

Molly Tanzer and Jesse Bullington show what’s possible when two impishly warped minds come together. Tubby McMungus, Fat From Fungus (favorite story title – obviously) is easily the weirdest, funniest, most memorable tale (tail?) in the anthology. Anthropomorphic animals, scheming nobles, fungus, and merkins come together in a story that will not soon be forgotten. Fungal fun for the furry in all of us.

Where Dead Men Go To Dream by A.C. Wise is a dark tale of anguish and loss. There is some beautiful imagery to be found in a tale of mushrooms and dreams.

Daniel Mills recently caught my attention with a brilliant story in A Season in Carcosa. With Dust From a Dark Flower, Mills uses fungus in a more traditional weird horror style. Mills is quickly becoming a new favorite of mine.

Nick Namatas brings us a tale of an urban housing project’s garden, and the hope it brings to the neighborhood before taking a darker turn in The Shaft Through the Middle of It All. Namatas paints a very convincing urban picture in a stand out tale.

Go Home Again showcases Simon Strantzas many talents. The melancholy story is full of beautiful, dark imagery, coming together for a hopeful ending.

And ending the anthology (for the paperback readers) is a powerful tale by Laird Barron. Gamma is a disturbing, spine-chilling tale. It works as an example of how literary, powerful, and brutal Barron’s stories can be, adding another example of how he is the Cormac McCarthy of the weird. A perfect closing story.

There are several other fun stories as well, Julio Toro San Martin spins a steampunk yarn, Lisa M. Bradley writes an intriguing environmental tale where not everything is as it seems, Polenth Blake pens a hilarious little ditty, Ian Rogers brings back his recurring paranormal investigator Felix Renn in a supernatural noir, and Chadwick Ginther brings fungus into the realm of Sword and Sorcery.

Also of note are the three additional stories available in the hardcover edition. Catherine Tobler writes a poetic, gloomy tale of a ruined earth, while J.T. Glover and Claude Lalumière bring light-hearted, funny tales to the table. The three stories together are totally worth the extra money.

Fungi is definitely an anthology any fan of the weird should get ahold of. There is just so much offered in terms of content that it is entertaining throughout. Also, the hardcover is worth dishing out the extra dollars for. Not only would I dub this anthology “highly recommended”, I would even go so far as to say it’s my pick for best original anthology of the year. 

The book can be bought straight from the publisher HERE.

Review: Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie is one of the finest fantasy authors currently writing. He is at the forefront of a current trend in fantasy to write gritty, cynical novels that take place in a world of grays as opposed to the traditional black and white. In his novels you will not find a farm-boy meeting his destiny as world-savior. You will not find noble knights, or even much nobility at all. What you will find is conflicted characters, highly flawed but well meaning individuals, and outright scum. As opposed to the typical black/white morality of typical epic fantasy, Abercrombie's world is grey leaning towards black.

With that being said, Abercrombie has managed to find success, and has so far provided readers with his First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings), followed by three stand-alone novels (Best Served Cold, The Heroes, and Red Country) all set in the same world and even featuring some of the same characters. I discovered him in late 2010, when I read his short story “The Fool Jobs” featured in Swords & Dark Magic, a sword and sorcery anthology released that summer. It was short, featured an interesting motley of characters, and had some of the best written action I've ever read. It left me hungering for more, and right before The Heroes was published in February 2011, I sat down and read straight through all of his books, unable to put them down.

Red Country is his latest novel, following the revenge themed Best Served Cold, and the war themed The Heroes. Red Country follows the similar pattern of mashing together fantasy and another genre, in this case a favorite of mine; the Western. Here's the official blurb:

"They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. 

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried. 

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust…"

Fans of Joe Abercrombie will find much to like here. The title perfectly describes the setting, a lawless frontier where violence is commonplace. Violence means that Abercrombie's smoothly written action scenes will abound. The sharp and witty dialogue he is known for writing is also pasted on every page, this time delivered with a Western twang.

The characters are all quite interesting as well. Several characters from previous novels appear, some better and some worse off than before. Nicomo Cosca manages to be the scene-stealer he always was, although his character is definitely at a low point, and at times not nearly as likeable as before. It is apparent that with age he has only sunken lower towards the selfish, mercenary scum he can be. Logen makes his long-awaited return and seems very much like an older version of the Logen readers fell in love with: a man trying to escape from his violent past. The theft of the kids forces Logen to abandon the life he has previously been living, and revert back to the Logen of the past. Although not a POV character, Logen remains as interesting a character as before, and is a perfect picture of a man at conflict with himself. His return is everything it should be. Eyes should be kept open for several other cameos throughout the novel.

The new characters are also wonderfully written. Shy South is a leather-tough younger woman with a past she is ashamed of. She is willing to do whatever it takes to recover her siblings, although she takes no joy in any of the violence, revenge not being as important as the recovery of the children. She is very likeable, and despite the shady past she seems to mostly be cut from good cloth. Temple starts as Cosca's lawyer, and is perhaps the most interesting of the new characters. He is yet another character with a shameful past, but his past is mostly regrets as opposed to the violent past of many of the other characters. He has a low opinion of himself, a quick wit, and seems to always take the easy way, although as of late his conscience seems to bother him. He wants to do right, but is not confident in himself enough. He is the one who truly finds himself on the journey across the Far Country. Also of note is a mysterious man they travel with, named Savian. His description as a grizzled, wiry-older man with squinty eyes, a calm and quiet demeanor, and a rough voice all point towards this character being Clint Eastwood himself making a cameo.

As for the mash-up, a lot of fans were wondering what to expect from a fantasy-western. Red Country definitely is more akin to a Western, in it's tone, language, and themes. Instead of six-shooter's however, we get knives and swords. When it comes to the sources that Joe drew inspiration from, I think it's rather apparent. Deadwood, Unforgiven, The Wild Bunch, and every spaghetti Western by Leone can all be seen as influences, as it was definitely these gritty, violent outings that gave the most inspiration. There are carriage chases, battles with savages, crime-ridden frontier towns, an abundance of outlaw scum, double-crosses, a duel with a description that would make it feel at home in any Leone film, and characters that ride off into the sunset. All together, that makes this book about as Western as Western gets. 

The book's plot is pretty straightforward: Shy and Lamb have their family stolen, so set across the country to retrieve them, gaining allies and enemies along the way. Cosca and his mercenary company are also traipsing across the land, employed by the Inquisition to hunt down rebels. Mix this dubious job with a mercenary's lust for treasure, and it's not hard to imagine the trouble that follows these men. This is a book where even the "good folk" are scoundrels, so a reader who desires an innocent and righteous protagonist is sure to be disappointed. 

Fans of Abercrombie's previous works should scoop this up immediately. Fans of both fantasy and Westerns might find a lot to love here, although it's vastly more rewarding to read all of his books in sequence as opposed to jumping in this late in the game. Overall, this book is highly recommended, and any fan of fantasy who has not already done so, should put down the book they're reading now, go to the bookstore, and scoop up every Abercrombie title. You can thank me later.