The Sword and Laser discussion

Veronica explains the awesome piece in the New York Times about Ken Liu, we're excited for The Witcher, we announce the January book will be In the Company of Others by Julie Czerneda, and we wrap up The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Plus, we put the “fun” in Science Fungus.

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After thinking of the Southern Reach books, Hyperion popped into my head as a 'fungal' book. I was thinking of The Priests Tale. Looking it up, I can see it was a parasite, not fungus, but while my memory could easily be lying, I did feel like it was fungus like in the description.

Vandermeer's Ambergris series is all about fungus: https://www.goodreads.com/series/6827...


City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin.

When in doubt, search for a Goodreads fungus list

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

The B&N SF&F blog also gave us a fungus list

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/s...

Both lists include S+L pick The Rook. The Goodreads list also includes S+L picks Annihilation and Old Man's War. I don't remember anything fungal in Old Man's War, but it's been some time since I read it.

Mark wrote: "I don't remember anything fungal in Old Man's War, but it's been some time since I read it."

I did a relatively recent re-read and I dimly recall a planet with some kind of entity that either you ate it and it choked you, or it forced itself into your mouth and choked you... Something like that. It was one of the deaths described, but not experienced, so not a huge part of the novel, unless I'm forgetting something.

The clone soldiers are partially plant-based, so maybe that?

Didn't Perdido Street Station have fungus?

Tamahome wrote: "Didn't Perdido Street Station have fungus?"

I don’t remember a fungus specifically, but it did have every other gross thing you could possibly imagine. That book made me feel really icky.

I’ve intentionally blocked a lot of it out of my mind, but didn’t Blindsight have some weird growths in it besides the actual aliens?

I was inspired by this episode to listen to the audiobook for Hogfather. I’m struggling to get in to it though even with all the driving I’m doing.