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The Book of Spores: A Fungal SFF Anthology
ACROSS DIMENSIONS, IT CREEPS AND CONSUMES.
Hidden in the vaults of a world-spanning library lie the records of a mysterious book, one made of mold and magic. Varied accounts of its existence remain scattered throughout the multiverse, but when an archivist attempts to bring its pages together, she will learn how dangerous a book—and her own ambitions—can be . . .
A mind-altering fantasy, science fiction, and horror anthology, The Book of Spores collects seventeen strange stories by authors from the FanFiAddict book blog and SFF Addicts Podcast, including M. J. Kuhn, Greta Kelly, Adrian M. Gibson, Krystle Matar, C.M. Caplan, Emma L. Adams, Ryan Kirk, Kaden Love, Adam Bassett, Tom Bookbeard, A.J. Calvin, Harry Chilcott, C.J. Daley, Tori Gross, D.B. Rook, Eleni Argyró, Frasier Armitage, and Will Swardstrom. Prepare for your imagination to be colonized by The Book of Spores.
Also features an introduction by the father of fungalpunk, Adrian M. Gibson.
ebook
Published February 24, 2026
About the author
Adrian M. Gibson
3 books142 followersAdrian M. Gibson is an award-winning Canadian SFF author, podcaster, illustrator, and tattoo artist. He is the creator of the SFF Addicts podcast, which he co-hosts with fellow authors M.J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly. The three host in-depth interviews with an array of science fiction and fantasy authors, as well as writing masterclasses. He lives in Quito, Ecuador with his family.
For the latest updates, follow Adrian on social media @adrianmgibson. You can also stream/watch new episodes of SFF Addicts every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more.
For the latest updates, follow Adrian on social media @adrianmgibson. You can also stream/watch new episodes of SFF Addicts every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 24, 2026
I want to say how proud I am of everyone involved in this project: my co-editors—Frasier Armitage, Eleni Argyró and Ed Crocker—for their immense patience and hard work, the amazing authors who contributed such excellent and weird stories, and the artists—Jeff Brown, Patricia Gutierrez and Jenni Coutts—who beautified this anthology with their art. As well, to all the backers who funded the project on Kickstarter, you are THE BEST! And finally, David Walters, thank you for founding FanFiAddict and creating such a fantastic, experimental, supportive space for all of us to create.
We put our love and passion into this anthology, so we hope you enjoy having your imagination infected by these stories ❤️🍄
We put our love and passion into this anthology, so we hope you enjoy having your imagination infected by these stories ❤️🍄
February 25, 2026
This book was a labor of love *from* book lovers *for* book lovers/collectors and we’re so grateful to everyone who made it possible by backing the KS!!
Editing this along with Adrian and Frasier was a treat and getting to bring all our contributors’ stories together for the readers so much fun!
I think and hope there’s something in it for everyone be it the horror, sci-fi, or fantasy aspects. So dig in!
Thank you from the bottom of our fungal hearts🍄💙
Editing this along with Adrian and Frasier was a treat and getting to bring all our contributors’ stories together for the readers so much fun!
I think and hope there’s something in it for everyone be it the horror, sci-fi, or fantasy aspects. So dig in!
Thank you from the bottom of our fungal hearts🍄💙
March 15, 2026
Please forgive us
March 15, 2026
The Book of Spores is a Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology featuring seventeen authors. This collection of stories rivals some of the very best collections I've read, delving deep into the human soul to show a plethora of perspectives. And if you really allow yourself to get lost, and let the mycelium spread over you, this anthology will extend your imagination to new heights as it reaches out its fungal hands to take you with it on a journey through time and space.
Rather than review each individual story, I want to review this story as a whole.
The Book of Spores is framed by a brilliant narrative that gives the readers a single plot, cleverly woven together with the other stories in the book to form one mycelial tale. Our main character, Fia, is tasked with looking through the records of the mysterious "Book of Spores" to learn more about this threat. The records turn out to be individual stories told by the different authors of this anthology. The stories span time, space, and genre to paint a picture of this sinister, sentient, alien-like book of mushrooms. There are three interludes that bring Fia back to show her own story unfolding, but the frame story is woven into each individual tale by the clever use of footnotes, which consists of Fia's own thoughts as she reads through these tales alongside you. For me, this frame narrative really makes the collection shine. If any one story seemed to lose my interest at any time, though admittedly this was very rare, the frame narrative would suck me back in with a footnote that reminded me this thing was bigger than just this one tale. That, and the feeling of comradery as Fia reads these stories with you, made this collection feel special.
Crafting an anthology that can be read as one whole is a difficult challenge and I believe this book pulls it off with style. From medieval times to the far future, this fungal anthology has everything a SFF reader could want and more. It is worth every ounce of your time. But buyer beware, these stories have a danger of spreading their mycelial fingers into your memory and sticking with you, maybe literally...
Rather than review each individual story, I want to review this story as a whole.
The Book of Spores is framed by a brilliant narrative that gives the readers a single plot, cleverly woven together with the other stories in the book to form one mycelial tale. Our main character, Fia, is tasked with looking through the records of the mysterious "Book of Spores" to learn more about this threat. The records turn out to be individual stories told by the different authors of this anthology. The stories span time, space, and genre to paint a picture of this sinister, sentient, alien-like book of mushrooms. There are three interludes that bring Fia back to show her own story unfolding, but the frame story is woven into each individual tale by the clever use of footnotes, which consists of Fia's own thoughts as she reads through these tales alongside you. For me, this frame narrative really makes the collection shine. If any one story seemed to lose my interest at any time, though admittedly this was very rare, the frame narrative would suck me back in with a footnote that reminded me this thing was bigger than just this one tale. That, and the feeling of comradery as Fia reads these stories with you, made this collection feel special.
Crafting an anthology that can be read as one whole is a difficult challenge and I believe this book pulls it off with style. From medieval times to the far future, this fungal anthology has everything a SFF reader could want and more. It is worth every ounce of your time. But buyer beware, these stories have a danger of spreading their mycelial fingers into your memory and sticking with you, maybe literally...
March 29, 2026
"The Book of Spores" is an anthology with sixteen stories by different authors, with a connecting thread that runs through all of them. "The Book of Spores" is also a possibly sentient character that appears in each story to a lesser or greater degree. I found this connectivity a fantastic, really engaging idea. Each story has research notes written by Fia, an archivist, herself trying to discover more about the Book and its history. Normally, I find footnotes off-putting, but in this case, they did a good job of keeping all the disparate stories connected.
The stories within "The Book of Spores" are widely varied in style and genre, and as with all anthologies, some of them stood out for me more than others. I love reading collections that include both stories by authors whose work I already know and those I am unfamiliar with, as it often introduces me to new favourite authors, and this one delivered on that front.
Krystle Matar’s compelling bank heist, "A Serious Track" was my favorite. I loved the detailed world-building that felt to me like a distant cousin to "Peaky Blinders", mixed together with a background of street rats and thieves to rival "Oliver Twist". The narrator’s voice felt less street rat and more Gatsby-esque as he looked back over his youth. Maybe he bought himself an education with his ill-gotten, mushroom-moonshine gains.
“That’s when I learned how much wealth weighs, how urgently it drags at the arm, how it pushes at the seams of the bag that tries to contain it, as if it’s trying to escape. Maybe that’s why people who find wealth in their hands covet it so viciously, like starving dogs.”
I do love Matar’s narrative prose!!
In "(Cal)Amity", Connor M. Caplan has once again created a madcap world, this time containing witches and gods. The witch who is the PoV character is traveling through time and space via the fungal network in pursuit of a matchbook version of "The Book of Spores". Trust Connor to take a concept and turn it completely on its head, stretching it to the furthest bounds of possibility. What a ride!!
Adrian Gibson is the Fungal King, who is known in the indie world for mushroom mayhem from his debut novel, "Mushroom Blues". I had high expectations for his story and was not disappointed. "The Stemcutter’s Daughter" reads like folklore, and the fungal worldbuilding is wonderfully rich.
I also thoroughly enjoyed AJ Calvin’s imaginative science fiction story, "Not All Books Are Worth Reading" and would like to read more about this close-knit crew of Botanaari and human cyborgs. This is one of those “new to me” authors I might not have become aware of without this anthology.
Greta Kelly is another such author whose story of the righteous revenge of a wronged woman, "The Toadstool Witch", I devoured and am still thinking about now. Stories of mythical beings and legends are my favourite genre of fantasy, and I loved the immersive, lyrical prose of this one. The hopeless dread filling the main character at the beginning of the story was all too real.
“Juliote felt the ravening darkness seep through the branches, slithering betwixt blades of grass with tongues tipped in poison.”
Kelly’s books have been added to my TBR list.
Emma L Adams’ story "A Dangerous Donation" was intriguing and enjoyable, but I felt that I needed to understand more about the “otherkin” who were mentioned a few times and were central to this mystery. The monkey-like creature reminded me of Mrs. Coulter’s daemon in Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”.
These were my favourites, but all of the stories were enjoyable, with plenty of food for thought, and each had its own individual mushroomy flavour. There is something to be found in this unusual anthology to keep every reader’s taste buds sated.
Kudos to the team that pulled this anthology together and organised the Kickstarter campaign for it!
The stories within "The Book of Spores" are widely varied in style and genre, and as with all anthologies, some of them stood out for me more than others. I love reading collections that include both stories by authors whose work I already know and those I am unfamiliar with, as it often introduces me to new favourite authors, and this one delivered on that front.
Krystle Matar’s compelling bank heist, "A Serious Track" was my favorite. I loved the detailed world-building that felt to me like a distant cousin to "Peaky Blinders", mixed together with a background of street rats and thieves to rival "Oliver Twist". The narrator’s voice felt less street rat and more Gatsby-esque as he looked back over his youth. Maybe he bought himself an education with his ill-gotten, mushroom-moonshine gains.
“That’s when I learned how much wealth weighs, how urgently it drags at the arm, how it pushes at the seams of the bag that tries to contain it, as if it’s trying to escape. Maybe that’s why people who find wealth in their hands covet it so viciously, like starving dogs.”
I do love Matar’s narrative prose!!
In "(Cal)Amity", Connor M. Caplan has once again created a madcap world, this time containing witches and gods. The witch who is the PoV character is traveling through time and space via the fungal network in pursuit of a matchbook version of "The Book of Spores". Trust Connor to take a concept and turn it completely on its head, stretching it to the furthest bounds of possibility. What a ride!!
Adrian Gibson is the Fungal King, who is known in the indie world for mushroom mayhem from his debut novel, "Mushroom Blues". I had high expectations for his story and was not disappointed. "The Stemcutter’s Daughter" reads like folklore, and the fungal worldbuilding is wonderfully rich.
I also thoroughly enjoyed AJ Calvin’s imaginative science fiction story, "Not All Books Are Worth Reading" and would like to read more about this close-knit crew of Botanaari and human cyborgs. This is one of those “new to me” authors I might not have become aware of without this anthology.
Greta Kelly is another such author whose story of the righteous revenge of a wronged woman, "The Toadstool Witch", I devoured and am still thinking about now. Stories of mythical beings and legends are my favourite genre of fantasy, and I loved the immersive, lyrical prose of this one. The hopeless dread filling the main character at the beginning of the story was all too real.
“Juliote felt the ravening darkness seep through the branches, slithering betwixt blades of grass with tongues tipped in poison.”
Kelly’s books have been added to my TBR list.
Emma L Adams’ story "A Dangerous Donation" was intriguing and enjoyable, but I felt that I needed to understand more about the “otherkin” who were mentioned a few times and were central to this mystery. The monkey-like creature reminded me of Mrs. Coulter’s daemon in Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”.
These were my favourites, but all of the stories were enjoyable, with plenty of food for thought, and each had its own individual mushroomy flavour. There is something to be found in this unusual anthology to keep every reader’s taste buds sated.
Kudos to the team that pulled this anthology together and organised the Kickstarter campaign for it!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews