Mushroom Blues By Adrian M. Gibson

Bjørn reviews Mushroom Blues, Adrian M. Gibson‘s debut novel, the first book in the fungalpunk noir series, The Hofmann Report.

Series:	The Hofmann Report #1
Genre:	Fungalpunk noir, Grimdark mystery
Publisher:	Self-published
Date of Publishing:	March 19, 2024
Trigger Warnings:	just about all of them
Page count:	398

ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. BEAT THE WINTER BLUES.

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 dark, hallucinatory, fungalpunk noir debut.

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?

“The man’s slur wouldn’t leave my mind: Shimin. It taunted me, festering. I wasn’t some foreigner here to colonise, like so many of my countrymen.”

Sporer – Reawaken pt. 1 (official soundtrack)

The author assured me that it wasn’t really a very dark book, and one of his big influences is Sir Terry Pratchett. I’ve been avoiding dark books and of course if you say ‘Pratchett’ I’ll ask ‘how high’ so I jumped at that. Well, the first chapter’s title is ‘Mold & Mutilation’ and despite the promising title, it’s nothing like Jane Austen. Instead, a police detective is examining a mutilated body of a child. This sort of funny. It should also give you an idea of the triggers I didn’t bother listing, since it’s easier to list things that are not trigger warnings.

Detective Hofmann is not a likeable protagonist. To quote an interview I did with the author, and have been about to edit and finish for, um, a while, “Yes, readers need to make the distinction that characters are not complete reflections of the authors. I’m not a racist, especially toward my dear fungal people, but to make the main character unlikeable, discriminatory, and xenophobic was important for the story’s larger themes.” I hope the readers are capable of making this distinction, because Gibson is not afraid at rugby-tackling police racism (as the author calls it, mycophobia, but I’ll stay with a word most people know). With names such as Noriyoshi and Nameko vs Hofmann and MacArthur, it’s not extremely difficult to guess the, let’s say, coding behind Hōppon and Coprinia. Maybe rugby-tackling is a wrong word. Let’s go with realism. Because – sadly – Mushroom Blues does not exaggerate. (Additional content warning: anyone who says things like “nobody’s that racist, this is unrealistic” might also go and read something else.)

Mushroom Blues describes a world that’s been conquered, colonised, and its culture nearly eradicated. “It was barbaric,” Hofmann insists when a particularly non-human thing happens. “This is a deeply rooted function of our biology and culture,” a fungal answers. “What is ironic is a [human] Coprinian criticising anyone or anything for being barbaric, especially in a land your people invaded and conquered.” The colonisers despise the colonised and blame them for having had a world that won’t adapt to its new rulers. “Nowhere in this Godforsaken country was safe from the creeping contamination of fungi,” Hofmann complains. “Colonised and infected by spores and mold and whatever other repellant shit these fungals found to be normal.” She can’t believe that the fungals used to walk, or perhaps take a horse cart, before humans came and ‘civilised’ them. The fungals are empaths. The humans don’t believe the ‘gillies’ can even have emotions, ‘subhuman’ as literal as it gets.

Mushroom Blues is not mild, gentle, and doesn’t tiptoe around. The characters are – there is no way to phrase realism mildly – racist AF. Hofmann has to battle the police sexism herself, which means either taking the police sexism in silence, or being named the problem – from “why can’t she take a joke?” to “why is she introducing unrest among my men?” But then, Hofmann doesn’t want to work with the ‘gillie’ herself, although if you were to ask her, she’d definitely insist she isn’t racist. Same as the men are not sexist.

I had a few problems with Mushroom Blues. Too many gangsters freely give the protagonist information before killing her, Bad Boss-style in James Bond. (This is, obviously, followed by Hofmann not getting killed.) Rarely, the book becomes too self-aware. A rather cliché overworked captain inserts “I doubt it’ll do anything to lessen our hatred for one another” into his tirade before following that with “why not just give them some bags of Goddamned rice?” (Hofmann is disgusted to see ‘mushroom people eating mushrooms’ until during a protest, one of the desperate fungals screams “we are forced to eat mushrooms, because there’s nothing else.”) I have questions about certain medication Hofmann impulsively decides to stop using, which makes me wonder what the medication’s point was. I noticed literally one continuity issue, which everyone who doesn’t have my continuity obsession will never find. That’s it. That’s all my problems. The rest of the book, as much as I promised myself to stay away from grimdark, is – ugh, why does this word have to work so well? – unputdownable.

Mushroom Blues is an incredibly good debut novel. The characters are, well, morally grey, but Hofmann grows and learns – in a way that never feels forced. Easter eggs galore (I love Easter eggs in books). And I would be amiss if I neglected to mention how beautiful this book is. Felix Ortiz’s illustration on the front, coupled with Gibson’s own design abilities, created one of the best covers I have seen this year. There are inside illustrations, too – I recommend a dead tree rather than an e-book. AND, in case there are not enough things that make this release special, there isn’t just a Spotify playlist (song per chapter) but an actual official soundtrack.

Adrian M. Gibson has created something truly special. And it’s a labour of love, too. Both for Japan and mushrooms. How deep is his love? As documented on his social media, Gibson grew fungi on a copy of the book.

Then ate it.

The second book in this series is going to be either completely bjørnkers, or even more unputdownable, or both.