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I Eat Mushrooms for Breakfast
An abandoned colony, a host of abominable creatures, and a space pirate with a tequila induced hangover trying desperately not to vomit inside his respirator helmet.
Mark just wants to be a hero. A Star Sailor. Jetting across the galaxy saving colonists and giving aliens what for. All he needs is a little bit of cash to cover the training. So when he’s offered the biggest score of his life, he knows he has to take it.
Stick up a fancy hotel yacht. Rob a bunch of wealthy executives. Make off with the cash. What could be simpler?
But when the yacht unexpectedly self destructs, his only choice is to take an escape pod to a nearby colony planet along with the yacht’s guests and crew. Awkward…Upon arrival they find the colony abandoned. Strange flower gardens hide even stranger creatures. Can Mark get himself and the other survivors to safety or will the mysteries of Rosen-54 swallow them whole?
I Eat Mushrooms For Breakfast is a laugh-out-loud space adventure. If you love weird alien creatures and unlikely heroes stepping up when they have to, then you’ll love this action packed sci-fi story.
Mark just wants to be a hero. A Star Sailor. Jetting across the galaxy saving colonists and giving aliens what for. All he needs is a little bit of cash to cover the training. So when he’s offered the biggest score of his life, he knows he has to take it.
Stick up a fancy hotel yacht. Rob a bunch of wealthy executives. Make off with the cash. What could be simpler?
But when the yacht unexpectedly self destructs, his only choice is to take an escape pod to a nearby colony planet along with the yacht’s guests and crew. Awkward…Upon arrival they find the colony abandoned. Strange flower gardens hide even stranger creatures. Can Mark get himself and the other survivors to safety or will the mysteries of Rosen-54 swallow them whole?
I Eat Mushrooms For Breakfast is a laugh-out-loud space adventure. If you love weird alien creatures and unlikely heroes stepping up when they have to, then you’ll love this action packed sci-fi story.
- GenresScience Fiction
316 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2024
22 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
C.J. Powell
6 books69 followersHi, I'm Chris. I write fun science fiction mysteries and thrillers set in the real world with lots of humour.
Sign up to my mailing list to find out about offers and deals and occasionally receive a free novel!
Find more at my website - https://www.cjpowellauthor.com
You can follow me on social media...
Tik Tok / Instagram / facebook -@cjpowellauthor
A little about me...
I enjoy authors such as Jeff Vandermeer, Blake Crouch, and P G Wodehouse.
My favourite films are Alien and The Fifth Element.
I live with my wife and daughter and enjoy retro computer games, pretty much all science fiction movies, and if I ever get the opportunity I love to rock climb. I also play bass most weeks in a rocking wedding band.
Sign up to my mailing list to find out about offers and deals and occasionally receive a free novel!
Find more at my website - https://www.cjpowellauthor.com
You can follow me on social media...
Tik Tok / Instagram / facebook -@cjpowellauthor
A little about me...
I enjoy authors such as Jeff Vandermeer, Blake Crouch, and P G Wodehouse.
My favourite films are Alien and The Fifth Element.
I live with my wife and daughter and enjoy retro computer games, pretty much all science fiction movies, and if I ever get the opportunity I love to rock climb. I also play bass most weeks in a rocking wedding band.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 23, 2025
I am a massive sci-fi fan and this book did not disappoint me. I've become quite a fan of this author and having almost read all his books now. This one was so funny and so smartly written I love all the main characters. Some moments had me in tears of laughter and some in tears of sadness, the story was so gripping and so different to a lot of stuff I've read. Another one i highly recommended to read if you need excitement and a good giggle. I have A more perfect human series to read now but I hope there's more books to come as I'm now addicted.
September 16, 2024
Terrifying & imaginative, sprinkled with humor and hope
In turns hilarious and wildly unsettling, this was such a good read! I'm impressed with both the author's imagination and his ability to effectively describe some of the wilder things happening in this book. There was a lot going on but thankfully all was explained, and it was pretty easy for even a non-sci fi reader like me to understand. But I think it's going to be awhile before I'll be able to look at mushrooms the way I used to.
In turns hilarious and wildly unsettling, this was such a good read! I'm impressed with both the author's imagination and his ability to effectively describe some of the wilder things happening in this book. There was a lot going on but thankfully all was explained, and it was pretty easy for even a non-sci fi reader like me to understand. But I think it's going to be awhile before I'll be able to look at mushrooms the way I used to.
December 31, 2024
An abandoned colony, a host of abominable creatures, and a space pirate with a tequila induced hangover trying desperately not to vomit inside his respirator helmet.
This was something different. Loved it.
This was something different. Loved it.
June 9, 2024
Wonderful book - space pirates, great premise, good humour (love the chapter titles - CEO of Dickhead Corp 🤣) and a lot of heart. Loved it!
March 20, 2025
Fun, and More
I enjoyed this more than I expected, and loved that it had a moral! We really are happier if we don't spend our lives chasing things we don't need.
I enjoyed this more than I expected, and loved that it had a moral! We really are happier if we don't spend our lives chasing things we don't need.
October 19, 2024
Another fun book by C.J. Powell. I like his wit and his well developed plots and characters. This is the 3rd book I've read by this author. I hope for more.
June 14, 2025
As a fan of mushrooms and sci-fi this was right up my street. Funny but still with something to say, really enjoyed the book.
March 17, 2025
Great read
It's something I can read again to catch more nuances. It's a creation story and makes one think. I read it in one go and want to read more by CJ Powell
It's something I can read again to catch more nuances. It's a creation story and makes one think. I read it in one go and want to read more by CJ Powell
March 6, 2025
Fun read.
Loved it. I found it after reading other books by CJ Powell
Binge worthy indeed.
I recommend to those of you who may have heard of Red Dwarf!! ;)
Loved it. I found it after reading other books by CJ Powell
Binge worthy indeed.
I recommend to those of you who may have heard of Red Dwarf!! ;)
June 3, 2024
Some people call us pirates. I prefer the term wealth distribution agents.
4 and 13/16's stars! Needless to say - but I guess I have to or this wouldn't be a very good review - I enjoyed the heck out of C.J.Powell's latest offer "I Eat Mushrooms For Breakfast". It is indeed as advertised a fast-paced and extremely fun scifi adventure that in true CJP nature, puts its well-defined and fully sympathetic characters through a host of trials, tribulations, and outright bizarre shenanigans! And as I have found again and again, just his sheer phrasing and dry, dry, oh my gods is it dry sense of humour (note spelling) just tickles my susceptible ticklish phrasing bits almost like no other author. He is, in other words, speaking my language - even though I, admittedly, only speak a dialect of his (you call "merry-go-rounds" roundabouts? What do you call those circle-y traffic thingies? Oh, traffic circles, gotcha…)! But hey, tequila is my nemesis, too! So yeah, I do indeed believe that you'll be, quote, "wooping, high-fiving, (and) crotch-thrusting" before all is said and done with your reading experience. Thank goodness I read my copy in private though I do think I threw my lumbago out with the rest of the garbage…!
You humans can be so devious. You are fascinating.
Getting back to languages, one that we both seem to understand all too well is the language of business-level bullshit. Ah, how I don't miss it at all. But this is indeed where our story starts, with the author taking the absolute pee-iss out of the stale and absolutely absurd jargon of the corporate world. Yes, before the reader and other fleshy bags of sentient water (his words, not mine!) have a chance to move forward - or perhaps even realize that they were already, well, even more brain-dead than most upper management types - we are blithering on about having to "knuckle down, level the playing field, and get this no-brainer of a project in the driving seat." And yes, that all appears with folks agreeing that everyone must synergise, clear their heads, and get their ducks in a row. Naturally, it's only logical (huh?) that someone points out the low hanging fruit and how it'd be gosh darn golly swell - and naturally a win-win for all of us - if we can just lean in and and pick it. In other words: they have no clue and they're doomed. So yeah, bonuses for everyone!
Sure, things had wanted to eat him before, but this was different. This was business.
Interestingly enough, not only are there ducks in this Universe (or is it small-u universe? Let's put a pin in that and re-visit it later, preferrably at an expensive retreat location… hee hee…). No, in this galaxy at some undetermined time and poorly defined distance everyone also seems to comprehend such "concepts" as Marky Mark, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry White, paintball and even segways, the latter being something I doubt most folks here in (checks phone) 2024 even remember. But that's neither here nor there (hint: it is behind the middle bush… cue explosions). As you can probably tell - especially since I said it before - I find Powell's sense of frivolity to be spot on! I mean, when was the last time you read a really serious, potential galaxy-ending scifi tale that describes someone waving "his arms around as wildly as a raving windmill on crystal meth" or even describing high-end, luxury escape pods as "gleaming diamonds sitting atop the scrap food bin in a volunteer soup kitchen for the homeless." Well, I personally can only think of 3 other times but that's entirely besides the point! All kidding aside (on my part), when you get your copy, look up the phrase "His nausea levels dropped…" and read that bit. It's far too long - and far too descriptive - to include here but well worth putting in your "quote notebook" (or "note quotebook", your call)!
Their focus is elsewhere. They are struggling to wield their meat.
But like I also said and will repeat here for the sheer joy of mindless repetition, once the fungal zombie space rabies dudes begin their terrifying terror, things really take off. Just as with, well, all of his books, he keeps the action funky fresh (and you thought we wouldn't need our Marky Mark knowledge!). It's a very interestingly conceived concept overall and what with one of our central characters being, well, such a central character to everything, it's also quite relevant in terms of learning the lesson (again) that "trickle-down economics wasn’t exactly working wonders." So sadly, I guess what we take from that is that we still haven't learned that capitalism is NOT the best system. Granted, there is no best system, yet, especially what with AI leaving all the nasty work to we humans while they do all the "fun jobs like painting, writing, and making music." But what the heck, as long as it kept interstellar pirates and folks with names like Slug in business, it'll have to do. You know the guys that are basically "Robin Hoods. Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. The poor being themselves."
Where had reading ever got anyone?
I should also give kudos for the great chapter titles, including the most unsubtle plug for one's own catalogue I've ever seen. To be fair, Powell creates a perfect situation for using "There's Something Wrong With the Cats" and to be even fairer, that's an awesome book that I hope gets a revisit at some point and time. And if I had to pick at any teeny tiny nits, I would say that I would have liked to have had a bit more closure at the, um, closing of this book. For examples: What happened to Ashley exactly? What did Mark do next, including with his supposed Star Sailor money he'd saved? Am I the only one that thought the whole disappearing act by the Captain and Michael was odd (albeit heroic)? And so on but not so much so on that it ruined my experience.
Am I food? Am I friend? Am I incubator?
No, I'm saying maybe two things here: one, I liked these characters a lot and wanted to know more about their future so in my eyes that could have been added with little to no complaint. And secondly perhaps, I realize fully that's not always easy to do in the setting of "somewhere in the deep reaches of space - or the acid rain soaked slums of Artifakt". This latter point in particular stands out as at very least with last two books - including the aforementioned "Cats" and also "The Demon Hunter's Wife" - the locales have also been much more relatable. And yeah, sure, one could argue that the setting of the "Chrysalis" books was a little unusual as well, but still very terran albeit not nowan. Um, yeah. Anyway, that's it from me as I have not only now written my review but also listed all the writer's offers. I'll be expecting my check - oops, sorry - cheque in the post within a fortnight! As for the rest of you: read this book, on or off mushrooms, I'll never tell…
4 and 13/16's stars! Needless to say - but I guess I have to or this wouldn't be a very good review - I enjoyed the heck out of C.J.Powell's latest offer "I Eat Mushrooms For Breakfast". It is indeed as advertised a fast-paced and extremely fun scifi adventure that in true CJP nature, puts its well-defined and fully sympathetic characters through a host of trials, tribulations, and outright bizarre shenanigans! And as I have found again and again, just his sheer phrasing and dry, dry, oh my gods is it dry sense of humour (note spelling) just tickles my susceptible ticklish phrasing bits almost like no other author. He is, in other words, speaking my language - even though I, admittedly, only speak a dialect of his (you call "merry-go-rounds" roundabouts? What do you call those circle-y traffic thingies? Oh, traffic circles, gotcha…)! But hey, tequila is my nemesis, too! So yeah, I do indeed believe that you'll be, quote, "wooping, high-fiving, (and) crotch-thrusting" before all is said and done with your reading experience. Thank goodness I read my copy in private though I do think I threw my lumbago out with the rest of the garbage…!
You humans can be so devious. You are fascinating.
Getting back to languages, one that we both seem to understand all too well is the language of business-level bullshit. Ah, how I don't miss it at all. But this is indeed where our story starts, with the author taking the absolute pee-iss out of the stale and absolutely absurd jargon of the corporate world. Yes, before the reader and other fleshy bags of sentient water (his words, not mine!) have a chance to move forward - or perhaps even realize that they were already, well, even more brain-dead than most upper management types - we are blithering on about having to "knuckle down, level the playing field, and get this no-brainer of a project in the driving seat." And yes, that all appears with folks agreeing that everyone must synergise, clear their heads, and get their ducks in a row. Naturally, it's only logical (huh?) that someone points out the low hanging fruit and how it'd be gosh darn golly swell - and naturally a win-win for all of us - if we can just lean in and and pick it. In other words: they have no clue and they're doomed. So yeah, bonuses for everyone!
Sure, things had wanted to eat him before, but this was different. This was business.
Interestingly enough, not only are there ducks in this Universe (or is it small-u universe? Let's put a pin in that and re-visit it later, preferrably at an expensive retreat location… hee hee…). No, in this galaxy at some undetermined time and poorly defined distance everyone also seems to comprehend such "concepts" as Marky Mark, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry White, paintball and even segways, the latter being something I doubt most folks here in (checks phone) 2024 even remember. But that's neither here nor there (hint: it is behind the middle bush… cue explosions). As you can probably tell - especially since I said it before - I find Powell's sense of frivolity to be spot on! I mean, when was the last time you read a really serious, potential galaxy-ending scifi tale that describes someone waving "his arms around as wildly as a raving windmill on crystal meth" or even describing high-end, luxury escape pods as "gleaming diamonds sitting atop the scrap food bin in a volunteer soup kitchen for the homeless." Well, I personally can only think of 3 other times but that's entirely besides the point! All kidding aside (on my part), when you get your copy, look up the phrase "His nausea levels dropped…" and read that bit. It's far too long - and far too descriptive - to include here but well worth putting in your "quote notebook" (or "note quotebook", your call)!
Their focus is elsewhere. They are struggling to wield their meat.
But like I also said and will repeat here for the sheer joy of mindless repetition, once the fungal zombie space rabies dudes begin their terrifying terror, things really take off. Just as with, well, all of his books, he keeps the action funky fresh (and you thought we wouldn't need our Marky Mark knowledge!). It's a very interestingly conceived concept overall and what with one of our central characters being, well, such a central character to everything, it's also quite relevant in terms of learning the lesson (again) that "trickle-down economics wasn’t exactly working wonders." So sadly, I guess what we take from that is that we still haven't learned that capitalism is NOT the best system. Granted, there is no best system, yet, especially what with AI leaving all the nasty work to we humans while they do all the "fun jobs like painting, writing, and making music." But what the heck, as long as it kept interstellar pirates and folks with names like Slug in business, it'll have to do. You know the guys that are basically "Robin Hoods. Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. The poor being themselves."
Where had reading ever got anyone?
I should also give kudos for the great chapter titles, including the most unsubtle plug for one's own catalogue I've ever seen. To be fair, Powell creates a perfect situation for using "There's Something Wrong With the Cats" and to be even fairer, that's an awesome book that I hope gets a revisit at some point and time. And if I had to pick at any teeny tiny nits, I would say that I would have liked to have had a bit more closure at the, um, closing of this book. For examples: What happened to Ashley exactly? What did Mark do next, including with his supposed Star Sailor money he'd saved? Am I the only one that thought the whole disappearing act by the Captain and Michael was odd (albeit heroic)? And so on but not so much so on that it ruined my experience.
Am I food? Am I friend? Am I incubator?
No, I'm saying maybe two things here: one, I liked these characters a lot and wanted to know more about their future so in my eyes that could have been added with little to no complaint. And secondly perhaps, I realize fully that's not always easy to do in the setting of "somewhere in the deep reaches of space - or the acid rain soaked slums of Artifakt". This latter point in particular stands out as at very least with last two books - including the aforementioned "Cats" and also "The Demon Hunter's Wife" - the locales have also been much more relatable. And yeah, sure, one could argue that the setting of the "Chrysalis" books was a little unusual as well, but still very terran albeit not nowan. Um, yeah. Anyway, that's it from me as I have not only now written my review but also listed all the writer's offers. I'll be expecting my check - oops, sorry - cheque in the post within a fortnight! As for the rest of you: read this book, on or off mushrooms, I'll never tell…
March 6, 2025
The book grew on me as it went (no pun intended). All the characters and the plot felt a little stereotypical to start with but, as the story developed it all started to carve out it's own path.
The action sequences were good, if not quite as thrill-inducing at times as it could have been, the world building was decent and the concepts were also good.
The ending felt a little flat for me but glad that I've read it and intrigued to read something else by the author.
The action sequences were good, if not quite as thrill-inducing at times as it could have been, the world building was decent and the concepts were also good.
The ending felt a little flat for me but glad that I've read it and intrigued to read something else by the author.
December 13, 2025
this book reminds me of a Scalzi book. the author is funny, witty, and very easy to follow. the twists and turns were out of left field. I loved this book and I can't wait to get a signed copy from the Author
June 9, 2025
No disrespect to the author. This just wasn’t my cup of tea. I found it difficult to get into and I wasn’t a fan of the characters.
November 26, 2024
8/10 The second of CJ Powells book I’ve now read and another enjoyable read. It’s a real fun little adventure, that isn’t overly serious, but still manages to pack in some tension, intrigue, and laughs. It’s a great book to dive into for an easier but still fun time.
May 13, 2025
3.5⭐️
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews