Book Review: The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight (1985)
Though the structure of this novel is confusing and some of
the story-telling strategies distracting, the science (IE mycology) is
surprisingly well-informed for a story reminiscent of 1950s pulp sf.
The many species of fungi featured are described and named
correctly as far as I can tell. Fungal processes such as mycelial growth are up
to date (to 1985) and for the sake of those surprises, The Fungus is quite an interesting read.
The first four chapters are pure pulp, describing the spread
of a mysterious fungal plague in lurid detail, with each chapter following an
unfortunate human to his or her end.
Chapter five is the beginning proper, and skips back in time
to before the spread of the plague described previously, leaving a reader to
wonder how these previous chapters are involved.
Jane Wilson, mycologist, cradles the result of her
experimentation, a giant Agaricus
bisporus. Quote: “For one thing its pileus, or cap – which was resting
against her left breast – was over a foot in diameter, and the stipe, or stalk
was over two feet long and seven inches long. Altogether it weighed nearly four
pounds.”
She is disappointed to discover that there are no spores, no
sexual reproduction.
Towards the end of nearly every chapter, the author finds it
necessary to step out of the character’s viewpoint to explain something that
happens outside the knowledge of the chapter’s character. Reader, in this case
me, trips out of the story every time. In this chapter: Quote: “Unknown to her,
several thousand microscopic mushroom cells still remained in the cut and under
her fingernail.”
The next chapter continues with the effects of the
unstoppable spread of the fungal plague, this time as related by a medical
doctor, Bruce Carter, the strategy I feel to seed in that character for his
role at the end of the story.
Part II, titled the Journey, concerns Jane Wilson’s ex-partner
living and writing in Ireland who, after being forced to volunteer to travel to
London to find Jane’s notes about her experiments, is sent on a violent journey
accompanied by an obstreperous soldier to protect him and to get him there, and
a sexually hungry doctor to administer anti-fungal drugs to herself and them.
After many of the sort of adventures we have become familiar
with in modern filmic adventure/thrillers, Wilson succeeds in discovering the
tower where Jane is working around the clock to find the processes needed to
promote spore production.
Wilson, accompanied now by Dr Carter, cuts a swath through
the women guarding Jane with his flame-thrower after overcoming his earlier
horror at using the device. It’s a matter of survival after all.
Since Jane has also used their children as guinea pigs for
her research, and they are both consumed by fungi, Wilson feels justified
burning Jane. The fungus infecting her makes it easy. He and Doctor Carter, who
happens to be a radio geek, manage to broadcast Jane’s research to enable
scientists outside the area of infection to control the outbreak.
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