First impressions review: Little Mushroom, by Shisi
This two-volume story (‘Judgement Day’ and ‘Revelations’) is a really fun (and completely bonkers) blend of gritty sci-fi apocalypse and slow-burn enemies-to-lovers queer romance. This review will - unusually for me - contain no comment on the scientific accuracy of the scenario because…well, because the protagonist is a humanoid mushroom, for god’s sake!
The tale takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the mysterious disappearance of earth’s magnetic field has led to an environmental crisis. Faced with a variety of dangerous mutated monsters, human civilization has shrunk and is now confined to two bases. But that’s not where the story starts. It starts in a cave, where a semi-sentient fungus had attempted to rescue a wounded human named An Ze. In absorbing his blood, the mushroom takes on his appearance and some of his memories. With the dying man’s blessing, he adopts his identity (with the name variant An Zhe) and makes his way to the Northern Base. There he hopes to find his spore, which was stolen some years ago as a biological sample. This is a dangerous mission, because the base is ruled under a Trial Code that allows Judges and the head Arbiter to shoot any “xenogenic” on sight – even if they have just been infected and still look human. And at the gates, An Zhe encounters the coldly handsome Arbiter Lu Feng, who is said to have never made a mistake…
The “little mushroom” himself
I really liked An Zhe as a protagonist. He is vulnerable in a lot of ways, but also has some cool “mushroom powers” – like being able to shift into a soft ball of hyphae to fit through small spaces, or producing a soporific toxin. While kind and empathetic – he tried to save dying creatures before he was even fully sentient, after all – he also has an unusually calm attitude that other remark on (humanity’s problems are not his problems, after all), and that serves him well in bluffing Lu Feng. Which he needs to do, since staying close to the Arbiter is the best chance he has at finding his spore somewhere deep in the research institute.
Uh…do we have a fascist love interest here?
Now, right off the bat we need to acknowledge something important. In a real-world context, someone suppressing their human tendency for connection because they truly believe that the best way to protect their community is to unhesitatingly shoot people who look like humans but are actually secret monsters out to destroy everything…is always really really bad. Because that’s always an excuse to oppress or kill genuine humans who are not inherently dangerous, just a little different in some way.
And it isn’t solely a fascist tendency. Even though that type of thinking is more inherent to that ideology than any other, especially with regard to things like racial purity, “witch hunt” tendencies can crop up in any society/belief system.
However, Lu Feng’s situation is a little more complicated, because this story – like a lot of post-apocalypses – has a strong “man against nature” element as well. The dangerous effects of allowing someone infected with a fast-reproducing parasite into the city are abundantly clear to anyone who has witnessed what happens when that isn’t caught in time. The protests against the policy come not from the idea that killing xenogenics is wrong, but rather from the lack of chance for appeal, and the knowledge that Judges have up to a 20% false-positive rate! Shifting to a real-world analog, it is not hard to imagine that, in the wake of climate-change-driven catastrophe, a society could very easily shift in a more authoritarian direction as the government has to struggle to maintain services and resource distribution and disaster response – democracy and dissent can be messy, and when the world itself seems chaotic, people often turn to those who promise to keep things calm and orderly.
Indeed, Lu Feng shares a lot of similarities with Jaidee in ‘The Windup Girl’, leader of the Environment Ministry’s “white shirts”. In that story, unscrupulous “calorie companies” released viruses that were meant to kill competing crop varieties that didn’t have their patented genes…but the viruses mutated and jumped species and ended up causing a wave of extinctions and even human diseases. Jaidee is therefore understandably zealous in cracking down on smuggling and in the burning of infected fields. The threat is clearly real enough that he is a sympathetic figure. However, white-shirt raids are brutal and scary and can leave a small farmer financially ruined (while just pissing off the rich). And THAT tends to sow resentment and backlash.
Likewise, Lu Feng kills the most out of all the Judges because his judgement has been proven the most accurate; he reasons that when he makes the judgement, more non-infected people are spared, and the other Judges have a lighter conscience. Ironically, this precisely applied utilitarianism, intended to reduce suffering, makes him despised by almost everyone.
**Note: Discussion from this point on will contain spoilers**
The picture of human-xenogenic relations gets complicated in book 2. We learn that, although there’s only about a 1 in 700 chance of an infected human retaining (or losing and then regaining) their human consciousness…there are enough of these people to have formed a sort of commune in the wilderness, based around an old research institute. There are all sorts, from almost-human-passing to a semi-sentient vine “guard” and a guy who looks like a pile of rotting meat. The humans of the base, have largely sacrificed old ideals of freedom, justice, and family to the needs of pure survival and reproduction – causing Lu Feng’s mother to comment on how ironic it is that, to try and preserve the uniqueness of the human will, humans made themselves no better than beasts. Meanwhile, the xenogenics have a loose, mostly hierarchy-free organization based on cooperation and found family. Only a few humans at the Northern Base are aware that this society exists, and most of them would still consider this tolerant approach too great a risk.
Love and trust is ultimately the key to victory and survival, though! It is telling that the xenogenic Dr. Pauli and his team are the ones who make the crucial discovery about how to counteract the “disruption” waves. And, importantly, Lu Feng makes the decision to go to their aid (when it is clear that there is nothing more he can do to protect the Northern Base directly) without knowing that An Zhe is there. Having figured out something about himself and the species-associated “frequencies” Dr. Pauli was studying, An Zhe chooses to sacrifice himself to save Lu Feng, Pauli, and everyone else he loves. And then it is the affectionate behavior of his spore toward Lu Feng and Pauli that allows them to figure out how to save him. Finally, it is made quite clear that human “purity”, humanity as a thing separate from the rest of nature, is a thing of the past because of this solution…but that that’s OK.
An Zhe and Lu Feng’s developing bond
While fully recognizing Lu Feng as an antagonist to his initial goals, An Zhe also very quickly comes to respect the Arbiter. He can tell he doesn’t kill out of cruelty or because he enjoys it, but from a genuine conviction that this the best way to serve humanity as a whole. He can also tell that this leaves Lu Feng in an extremely lonely position. Almost everyone resents and fear him, and he can’t afford to soften his heart toward an individual person he might someday have to kill. As such, he is almost as much of an outsider to human society as An Zhe is.
Lu Feng, for his part, is pretty confused about his reactions to An Zhe. We find out later that, from the moment he saw him at the gate, he correctly identified him as non-human…and yet simultaneously had the sense that he was not just a person, but a gentle soul who should be protected. For that reason, instead of shooting him, he arrests An Zhe and takes him to be genetically tested. The tests come back clean, further confusing his instincts. They continue to cross paths, with Lu Feng frequently noticing when An Zhe deviates from norms of human behavior…and yet the mushroom is so disarmingly innocent and inoffensive at the same time, even when Lu Feng tries to tease and provoke him. When “Judgement Day” (a mass infection event) happens, and Lu Feng has to take part in a brutal cull…An Zhe waits for him, and even invites him into his home when he has nowhere to go.
Granted, at that point, An Zhe didn’t so much actively like Lu Feng as figure his mission would fail if he lost contact with him. But he’s also able to curl up and sleep peacefully next to someone he firmly believes would kill him if he knew his true identity, because he feels Lu Feng is an honorable person. By the end of book 1, even when he has a chance to escape with his spore, An Zhe waits, risking capture and torture. He wants to be able to leave knowing that Lu Feng has successfully returned from a dangerous mission. Likewise, when Lu Feng follows An Zhe (who he had injected with a tracker because he already 99% knew he wasn’t human) to try and recapture the spore…he can’t bring himself to hurt him, no matter how important Dr. Ji says the spore is. It’s conflicting emotions all around!:
“This was [An Zhe’s] first time experiencing…the feeling that his heart was being torn to pieces… if Lu Feng hadn't spared him…then he wouldn't feel so sad about betraying Lu Feng’s trust. If he and Lu Feng had not established something akin to friendship...then when facing the muzzle of Lu Feng's gun, perhaps he would not have been so afraid…And if…Lu Feng hadn't held him in the end, perhaps he would not have felt so hurt.”
They bond further on some wilderness adventures, which feature quite a bit of cuddling, but nothing more. Lu Feng, having regained contact with the base, confesses about the tracker, and:
“ ‘Just like everyone else in the base, [my mom, Madame Lu] hated me.’… ‘I don't hate you,’ [An Zhe] said. A long silence. ‘Why?’ Lu Feng's slightly raspy voice suddenly sounded in his ear…’Why can you…always forgive me?’ An Zhe looked up at him, but what he saw this time was not that frosty Lu Feng… ‘I understand you,’ he said.”
There is a kiss, but An Zhe uses it to poison Lu Feng and send him to sleep just before his spore is “born”. Somewhat unexpectedly, the spore wants to stay with Lu Feng, and An Zhe lets it – leaving a note about its proper care. He thinks that he’d like to stay himself, come what may, but…he’s dying, now he’s played his role in raising the spore. And he doesn’t want to leave Lu Feng with the memory of another death.
There’s much separate pining, as An Zhe works with the xenogenic research institute, despite his declining health, while Lu Feng works with Doctor Ji (actually his brother) trying to figure out how to grant humans and their technology the resistance to disruption that An Zhe and his spore seem to have. Dr. Ji has been in contact with xenogenic researcher Dr. Pauli. In the final push, when the xenogenics are on the verge of a breakthrough but are threatened by monsters, Lu Feng flies to their aid…in time to lock eyes with the dying An Zhe just before he steps into the Simpson cage. This disintegrates him instantly, but captures his “frequency”, which Dr. Pauli transmits to all the other bases, enabling them to counteract the disturbance waves, stabilizing the planet’s biosphere (at least for now).
Lu Feng, obviously, is devastated, as is Dr. Pauli, who had come to view An Zhe like a son. But then the tiny spore comes out of Lu Feng’s pocket and goes over to Dr. Pauli as if it recognizes him. And the scientist remembers that sometimes fungi under stress make an endospore that preserves everything that is them until better times.
“ ‘… Will he remember?’ ‘I don't know.’ Pauli shook his head… ‘I'm afraid that we will only know after he wakes up…This may be a new and unique method of survival for organisms.’ Lu Feng turned his gaze to the distant sky, his expression unswervingly cold and calm. ‘I hope he forgets everything.’ ‘Why?’ ‘The human base and I have only brought him suffering,’ he said…Pauli shook his head. ‘And how do you know what this world was like for him?’”
An Zhe does remember them, of course, and the epilogue allows us to get some snapshots into how his and Lu Feng’s relationship continues to develop.
This isn’t one of those creepy romance stories, is it?
Somewhat surprisingly…I don’t think so! There’s a couple of questionable bits but, especially considering the setup, I’m pretty happy with the relationship between An Zhe and Lu Feng overall.
First, An Zhe could have been one of the rare male examples of the “born sexy yesterday” trope. However, while he does have a very innocent air, he has absorbed enough of An Ze’s memories to have at least a general sense of how human society works. Moreover, Lu Feng is not the first person he meets, nor even the first who is nice to him. Lu Feng is pretty cold, initially, while An Zhe forms friendly relationships with multiple other humans first. It takes a long time to build trust, and they don’t have a sexual relationship until quite a while after the book is technically over.
Granted, Lu Feng benefits from comparison to some genuine creeps. An Zhe is ethereally pretty, so almost everyone thinks he is attractive or just assumes that he's looking for a lover. In the first third of the first volume, An Zhe experiences an attempted sexual assault, nearly gets pushed into prostitution (ending up apprenticed to a maker of high quality sex dolls instead), and is stalked by a neighbor who was in love with An Ze. So hanging out with Lu Feng, once the latter confirms that he passes the “human test”, probably does feel quite safe by comparison – especially since no one else wants to mess with Lu Feng!
That being said, Lu Feng acquits himself pretty well on his own merits - allowing for their combined stunted social skills! Though An Zhe complains that Lu Feng “bullies” him, this mainly consists of some rather mild teasing and tests to see if he’ll assert himself. For instance, when An Zhe makes an overly-large pot of soup, Lu Feng deadpan accuses him of a “crime of wasting resources”, and is pleased when An Zhe (whose belly is sloshing at this point) shoots back that it is one he’s complicit in. He then eats the rest of the soup himself, clearing his name. By book 2, it is also clear that he accepts what An Zhe is as well as who he is – he isn’t turned off when he goes “mushroomy”, letting his hyphae cling to him or even tying them playfully in bows!
Likewise, while there are some scenes later that suggest Lu Feng has some boundaries issues (which I wish were written differently), An Zhe’s outright states that Lu Feng wouldn’t stop him from doing what he wanted or make him do anything he didn’t want to do. That suggests that, while still pretty iffy (one should always take no for an answer) these may be similar to the soup incident, where he’s testing the boundaries to see what An Zhe will do, but not fully crossing them until he gets a signal. For example, although it is clear that he finds An Zhe attractive, he doesn’t actually pursue a sexual relationship with him until they’ve known each other for over a year1 and it’s clear that A) An Zhe actually knows what that means and B) is open to the possibility.
1. Well, more like 4+, but An Zhe was regrowing in a tank for three of those, so it doesn’t really count!
The reason this takes some time is that one can easily interpret An Zhe as asexual – and not just because that’s how his species actually reproduces! He doesn’t seem to have a typical human sex drive, and views the speed with which a lot of men’s minds go there with a kind of detached amusement. One of his fantasies involves him and Lu Feng just being mushrooms standing side by side in the rain.
For that reason, I understand why some reviewers didn’t care for the epilogue chapters that clearly imply that he and Lu Feng do eventually bang. But grey asexuality does exist in the real world, and it feels like that’s what the author is going for here:
“An Zhe hesitantly put his arms around Lu Feng's shoulders and used his limited knowledge to analyze the current situation. Then he asked in a small voice, ‘Do you wish to bed me?’ He heard Lu Feng let out a soft laugh… ‘Who taught you that?’ ‘Mr. Shaw2 said it once,’ An Zhe replied…
Lu Feng asked, ‘If I did, what would you think?’ An Zhe thought hard. ‘That…that Mr. Shaw truly was very incredible.’ He used to think that Mr. Shaw's words were completely unfounded, but now it appeared that they were correct about even the Arbiter himself…
Buried in his neck, Lu Feng began to laugh…he rolled over and lay side by side with An Zhe on the grass. An Zhe turned to look at him and saw that this man was indeed relaxed. He had never even dared to dream that this Arbiter who lived in constant night would wear such an expression.
Lu Feng asked, ‘Who else wished to bed you?’ ‘Hosen, I suppose…’ An Zhe thought back as he spoke. ‘I think there was Josh as well, and on the third floor, there were some mercenaries.’ ‘What about you?’ ‘I didn't like them much.’”
2. The sex doll, ahem, “highly realistic dummy” artist he was apprenticed to, who was always talking about how they needed to find An Zhe a lover, preferably someone intimidating who could keep other people from bothering him.
There seems to be some trial and error involved. One somewhat cryptic chapter suggests that Lu Feng got a little over-enthusiastic and underestimated how bruisable mushrooms are. He seems to be discounting what An Zhe is saying about it (and I really don't care for that!) - but there is at least some good aftercare happening on a physical level! And the next time we see the start of an experiment, he’s encouraging An Zhe to take the lead. Although the mushroom finds himself having some trouble with buttons:
“‘You're someone who came from the third underground floor 3,’ he heard Lu Feng say, his voice slightly hoarse and containing a hint of a smile. ‘You should be a bit more practiced.’ An Zhe…said in a small voice, ‘It's not like I learned anything.’… ‘I can see that,’ Lu Feng said. When this man lowered his voice, it contained a distant magnetism…
An Zhe was very curious about the impression the Colonel had of him at that time. Seeming to understand him, the Colonel said, ‘I didn't know you were a mushroom then. I thought that if you didn't work on the third floor, there'd be no way for you to survive in the base.’ He nonchalantly glanced at An Zhe, then continued. ‘Now it seems that even so, you can't support yourself.’
The number of hyphae increased 4. The Colonel stopped talking.”
3. The base’s red light district.
4. Tacit “Shut it, or I’ll poison you again!”
What An Zhe and Lu Feng get out of all this is clearly different – but that’s probably OK! After all, An Zhe likes nothing better than being close to Lu Feng. Plus, given that the mushroom can absorb memories and feelings from blood, it is logical to assume that the experience could be intimate for him in a way inaccessible to humans. I really wish the author had delved into that. It could have been an interesting source of tension, even, given that Lu Feng is not the most comfortable with talking about his feelings, so it is a little unclear how he’d feel about An Zhe just…receiving random packets of them, as it were. Heck, we know that most of his memories are kinda traumatic, so I wouldn’t want An Zhe to be equally traumatized by them either! I could envision two solutions. The boring one…well, the base and/or research institute have probably recovered to the point they could turn some resources to making condoms. The more interesting solution would be if they figured out a way for Lu Feng to choose which memories he shares. But the author was clearly not going for an explicit rating here and, well, that might’ve been necessary to explore that avenue!
A brief note on the status of women
Somewhat like ‘Lord of the Rings’, there are bizarrely few women in this story! However, there is kind of a sub-theme of the conflict between the need for (the few fertile) women to have as many kids as possible to perpetuate the human race and their own human rights and freedoms. The fertile women live in the greatest protection and comfort in the base and, unlike in ‘the Handmaid’s Tale’, artificial insemination means they do not have to give themselves over to men they don’t love. But they also don’t get to be with anyone they might love, or raise their own children, or even carry them to term, as fetuses are removed to finish gestating in a vat so as to space pregnancies as closely as possible. Those who are particularly bright may participate in research as well…but most live so isolated that, as one of the characters comments, their eyes barely look like human eyes.
Our windows on this are Lu Feng’s mother, Madame Lu, and a young girl, Lily. Somewhat unusually, Madame Lu had a lover in her youth, and Lu Feng and Doctor Ji were the product of that relationship. This lover used to bring her seeds from the outside world that, once judged safe, she would plant in her garden. For a while Lu Feng continued this practice, but he and his mother drifted apart, as she grew more bitter about the inhuman roles they must both play. She often thinks of her own mother, who first signed the pledge (with all the remaining women) to devote themselves to humanity’s future, but later was killed for rebelling against the system. Lily is a very perceptive child who keeps trying to run away from the future that awaits her.
Unbeknownst to anyone, years ago Madame Lu was stung by a bee that came in through a crack in the window to visit her roses. She carried the potential for mutation from that day, and one night, while An Zhe looks on, she transforms herself, Lily, and most of the women into bees and seeks to escape through the glass skylight. As she loses her human consciousness she attacks some others along the way – although, even if she hadn’t…I’d imagine the temptation would be there!
