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nellasbookplanet · 3 months

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Book recs: the evil fungi did it

We all know of The Last of Us, but that franchise isn't the only example of fungal invasions. We've got zombies and apocalypses, we've got gothic horror, we've got fantasy, we've got romance, we've got space - no genre is safe from having their characters become the home of fungal organisms.

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!

The Girl with all the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts series) by M.R. Carey

Want another fungal zombie apocalypse? Then I come bearing great news! The Girl with All the Gifts is a post apocalyptic novel following a group of characters fleeing across an infested wasteland, trying to stay alive and hoping to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!

Cold Storage by David Koepp*

Years ago, a quickly growing fungal organism capable of wiping out humanity came dangerously close to spreading. It was contained and kept in cold storage underneath a military repository. Since then, a larger storage facility has been built on top, the dangers on the lower floor being largely forgotten. That is, until it makes a new attempt at escape. Now, two unsuspecting security guards might be all that stands in the way of complete extermination. This book is both funny and genuine in its characters, and genuinely creepy in its portrayal of body horror.

Salvaged by Madeline Roux

Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, and has run so far she ended up in space. Now she works as a "space janitor", being sent off to clean up the remains of failed research expeditions. But in trying to cope with her problems, she has fucked up on her job multiple times, and is now close to losing her position. Her last chance is the Brigantine: a research vessel gone silent, all crew presumed dead. But when she arrives to salvage it, Rosalyn discovers the crew isn't as dead as presumed. But are they still human - and will Rosalyn be able to keep her own humanity?

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Novella. Reid is a young woman living in a small community after a climate collapse. Resources are scarce, but Reid's biggest problem is Cad, a mind-altering fungal parasite that lives inside her body. When she is offered a rare chance at attending a far-away university in a secluded dome community, Reid must decide whether to leave or stay to help support her community.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia*

Noemí Taboada is a glamorous and well-off young woman, but when she receives a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, Noemí must leave her glamorous life and travel to find out what is wrong. As she arrives at High Place, a mansion on the Mexican countryside, Noemí is met with mysteries and her cousin's new English family. As she tries to find out the truth behind High Place and its inhabitants, Noemí's only ally is the youngest son of the family. But will she be able to find out what so scared her cousin before it's too late for all of them?

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

A young pregnant woman flees a cult that left her body strange and changing in terrifying ways. Hiding from both a world wanting to oppress her and the cult seeking to force her back, she does her best to raise her children while trying to find out the truth of the cult and being pursued by a hunter in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Bleak and scary, Sorrowland is a book that will creep under your skin with horrors both fantastical and very, very real.

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier duology) by T. Kingfisher

Novella. Alex Easton, retired soldier, travels to visit their childhood friends, siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher, after finding out that Madeline is dying. In the siblings' rural, ancestral home, Madeline walks in her sleep and looks to be fading away, while around it wildlife seems to be possessed by a strange force. With the help of a mycologist and an American doctor, Alex attempts to save Madeline and reveal the truth of her illness.

Wanderers (Wanderers duology) by Chuck Wendig

A strange illness has struck the United States: with no warning, random people with seemingly no connection simply get up and start walking. They do not eat, do not sleep, do not communicate, and they do not stop - and if you try to force them, they literally explode from the inside. Teenaged Shana isn't one of these sleepwalkers, but her little sister is. Unwilling to leave her sister on her own, Shana accompanies the growing flock of walkers, protecting them as one of many "shepherds". And this protection proves necessary, as the sleepwalkers is only the first step toward what might very well be the extinction of the human race. An 800 page epic, Wanderers is a slowburn apocalypse story with a multitude pov characters and plot threads, from fungal pandemics and all-knowing AI to the all too real portrayal of radicalization and bigotry.

The Dawnhounds (The Endsong series) by Sascha Stronach

The Dawnhounds is a book where you just kind of have to let the story and the world wash over you. It skirts the line of scifi and fantasy, with a futuristic world of environmentally friendly mushroom houses and deadly fungi bio weapons next to literally god-given superpowers and near-immortality. It’s really cool and unlike anything else I’ve ever read, but also a bit confusing. Bonus: it’s also sapphic!

Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier trilogy) by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Novella. A government agent known only as the Signalman; a cult preying on the young and vulnerable, promising to usher in a new age; a woman who exists outside of time, searching for a way to save humanity. Agents of Dreamland is short, but includes many spooky elements, among them an alien and possibly world-ending fungi. The narrative is non-linear and a bit strange, but also fascinating.

The Genius Plague by David Walton

Soon after landing his dream job at the NSA, things get weird for Neil Johns. His brother Paul, a mycologist, returns from a trip to the Amazon, carrying a nearly lethal fungal infection and a strangely sharpened mind. At work, Neil starts picking up mysterious messages originating out of South America, where cases similar to that of Paul starts occurring. And strangest of all: all the infected seem to be working towards the same goal. Recommended with the caveat that, while the fungal stuff is really cool, The Genius Plague is also happy to idolize American intelligent agencies and demonize environmentalism and anti-imperialism.

Little Mushroom: Judgement Day (Little Mushroom duology) by Shisi

An Zhe isn’t human. He’s a mushroom who absorbed the DNA of a dying man, allowing him to take on human guise and leave the wilderness. Entering one of the last human bases, a place struggling to keep out the mutated and dangerous creatures of the wilds, An Zhe must keep his identity secret as he searches for something which was taken from him. While not my cup of tea (frankly, I need more female characters), Little Mushroom is an undeniably unique m/m romance novel.

Bonus AKA these don't technically involve any fungi but have similar vibes of parasites and nature corrupting the human

Parasite (Parasitology trilogy) by Mira Grant*

In the near future, a great leap in medical science has improved human health by leaps and bounds: a genetically engineered tape worm. Within a few years, almost every human has their own personal parasite implanted. But now, something is happening to the parasites - they want more, whether their hosts want to share or not.

Annihilation (Southern Reach trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer

For decades, Area X has been completely cut off from humanity. The only ones to enter are small organized expeditions, many of which never return, or return... wrong. We follow the latest expedition, its participants known only as the anthropologist, the psychologist, the surveyor, and our narrator, the biologist. As they enter into Area X to try to find out its secrets, only one thing is for sure: they will never be the same again.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Young adult. Over a year ago, the Raxter School for Girls was hit by the Tox, a strange disease that killed off many and left the survivors' bodies slowly changing in terrifying ways. The island the school is on has been in quarantine since then, and the girls dare not leave the school grounds lest they become victims of wild animals changed by the Tox. But as they wait for the promised cure, one of the girls goes missing, and her friends are willing to do anything to find her. Unsettling, spooky, and sapphic, this is a unique read featuring body horror and messy, dangerous girls.

(Second) Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer

Ambergris, a city created by a mushroom-like people, is now the home of humans, but the original inhabitants are still there, residing beneath the city.

Creatures of Want and Ruin (Diabolist's Library series) by Molly Tanzer

It’s the prohibition era, and while Ellie does fishing during the day, at night she bootlegs moonshine in Long Island. But unbeknownst to Ellie, some of the booze she smuggles has a strange source: distilled from mushrooms by a cult, it causes those who drink it to see terrible things, such as the the destruction of Long Island.

Bloom by Wil McCarthy

The inner solar system has been overtaken by fast-reproducing, fast-mutating technogenic life. Humanity has fled to the outer solar system, hiding beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon, but even here they aren't safe from possible incursion of mycospores, which lead to deadly blooms. Now a group of astronauts venture back to an infected Earth.

#the girl with all the gifts #cold storage #salvaged #the annual migration of clouds #mexican gothic #sorrowland #what moves the dead #wanderers #the dawnhounds #agents of dreamland #the genius plague #little mushroom #parasitology #annihilation #wilder girls #nella talks books

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vaiztohirez · 1 month

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SVSSS College/University AU!!

(mostly STEM, and with assumptions arising from the American systems, bc that's what I know)

Shen Yuan: In accordance with my headcanons for canon, I think he'd still be studying evolutionary biology in this AU. He'd have fun with it, and I think he'd be decently good at it. Same energy as my roommate doubling Chem and Archeology bc Alchemy isn't an option

Luo Binghe: Shen Yuan tutored him once when they were in middle school and high school respectively, and Bingy majored in STEM about it. That and I think it would make sense with his backstory, for him to be studying biochemistry or molecular biology with the intent of becoming a cancer biologist. Like I said earlier, he'd be phenomenal in wet lab because of his skills in the kitchen (and general badassery) transferring to the lab. If he actually had Protagonist Powers I think he'd probably manage to actually cure cancer lol.

To get the relationships right, I think Ning Yingying and Ming Fan have to be studying something related to biology, but I don't have a good enough handle on their characters to decide what exactly within the broad broad field of bio they might be interested in. But I do know that the three of them were put in a study group during intro bio and managed to make that into actual friendship further down the line.

Shang Qinghua: I Knew he had to be Computer Science all the way. As someone who is intimately acquainted with the precise flavor of dying all CS majors are, he's absolutely got the energy. Plus, I had a daydream/plot bunny back when I was taking Algorithms that the type of procedural thinking taught in CS would be invaluable on An Ding. He absolutely still writes a ton to keep some semblance of sanity. If you see him in the CS building at 11 pm typing furiously it's a coin toss as to whether he's writing or debugging lol. He and Shen Yuan made instant hatefriends with each other in the university's anime club their first year, and slowly transitioned to being die-or-die (yes, that was not a typo, they are both dying at the end of this ride lol) best friends.

Literally everyone else I could think of under the cut:

Shen Qingqiu: I think he and Shen Yuan are cousins at most, so the QiJiu backstory can be had in some capacity. Of course, they can't literally be slaves named after numbers in a modern AU, but the separation/reconciliation/etc can happen. I think he's either premed and angry about it, or aggressively going towards academia. Math, maybe? I know those are two very different things, but whatever he's studying, he's mean about it, but very good.

Yue Qingyuan: I think he is in the med school at whatever university he's at. One of those freaks who manages to be dying entirely on the inside instead of the outside. This is why I think it'd be useful to have SJ|SQQ as premed, so their paths crossed. I think SQQ was delayed in enrolling by QiJiu Backstory, which is why they're in different years. He's maybe planning on going into family medicine, I think.

Mu Qingfang: How could I make the doctor character not a doctor? He's out of school, kind of. I think he's doing his residency at a hospital near the university. He's friends with YQY, and is Concerned at the bits of QiJiu Backstory he's picked up over the course of that.

Qi Qingqi: Thinks all you doctor types are a bit insane (affectionate, but deep down). I think she's a graduate student studying chemistry, maybe drug delivery if I had to pick something specific? No real reason, just vibes.

Liu Qingge: The emotionally constipated Sporty Ponytail(TM), so... Sports Medicine, obviously. I think he might be minoring in environmental studies or something, so there's reasons for him to cross paths with Shen Yuan. Story reasons, I mean -- he's doing it because he got interested in high school.

Liu Mingyan: I don't know if it's too on the nose to tie her to a field that'd make her excruciatingly aware of the reasons why to wear a mask, but I think she'd be studying Epidemiology or Public Health, something similar to that. I think she'd be good at thinking on the personal, community, and population levels, and balancing that.

Sha Hualing: So that she has some overlap with both LMY and LBH, and because I just think it fits somehow, I think she'd be studying molecular biology with the intent to go into virology.

Mobei-Jun: Honestly I'm not entirely certain he's in school. I think it might make more sense for him to be running the restaurant location Binghe works part time at. Which brings me to the rest of the demons!

Meng Mo: Head chef of the restaurant Bingy managed to finangle his way to a part time chef position at. No, I don't know how he managed that either, because it's a pretty high end restaurant, and "chef" doesn't tend to be a part time position from what I know. Binghe is just that good at cooking, I guess. Meng Mo is kind of mad about it.

Tianlang-Jun: He owns the restaurant and probably a bunch of other things, but he's rich-person bankrupt because he was suspected of murdering his wife (he didn't, obvs. Honestly it might be funny if Su Xiyan wasn't even actually dead). It was suuuuuper awkward when it came out that LBH was his biological son, but Binghe Refuses to touch business, so Zhuzhi-Lang is the successor.

That's all I've got for now!

#svsss #headcanons #AUs #shen yuan #shen qingqiu #shang qinghua #everyone else in svsss but I don't want to tag them all lol

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