The Fungus

by Harry Adam Knight, Leroy Kettle, John Brosnan

Overview

When a brilliant scientist seeking to solve the problem of world hunger tries to create giant mushrooms through genetic manipulation, what could possibly go wrong?

The mutated spores escape the lab and spread across all of England. Toadstools grow to twenty feet tall, and a case of athlete's foot can mean a grisly and horrible death.

But those who die quickly are the lucky ones. Those who survive infection by the fungus will be transformed into something unthinkably monstrous ...

With a perfect mix of nightmarish horror and black humor, Harry Adam Knight's cult classic The Fungus (1985) will grow on you. This edition features a foreword by the author.

"A spectacularly gruesome nasty, written with inventiveness, grisly wit, and considerably more intelligence than almost any of its competitors." - Ramsey Campbell

"Loud, scary, silly, sick fun ... you will never again go near mushroom soup." - Kirkus Reviews

"A first-rate and vivid thriller." - Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948405164
Publisher:	Valancourt Books
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	150,892
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.48(d)

Editorial Reviews

What would happen if, through a genetic experiment gone awry, fungi--mushrooms, toadstools, molds and yeasts--were to go out of control and grow with unprecedented vigor and speed and tenacity, and in places formerly inimicable to them? Knight has pulled out the stops to produce an imaginative and fast-paced sci-fi horror tale set in the British Isles. The protagonist is Barry Wilson, a semi-successful author of spy novels and a former mycologist. Barry's wife Jane, from whom he is separated, is the scientist whose experiment has lead to the disaster, and the British government has called upon Barry to help find Jane and her lab notes. Crossing London in an armored tank, Barry and two other volunteers observe all sorts of grotesqueries: people and animals covered with multicolored fungi, some still alive, some now quite insane; farms and buildings and forests draped in spongy shrouds; mushrooms tall as skyscrapers. Barry survives a series of hair-raising adventures and eventually locates his wife, who has gone mad and has become the high priestness of a cult of fungi-loving female separatists. But he gets the research notes. A first-rate and vivid thriller. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly