Post apocalypse, a mushroom mutates and takes on human form in order to go to the human base and search for his stolen spore.
The translation does have quite a few basic mistakes that change meanings (e.g. missing 'not', 'without' instead of 'while'), but is largely readable. I read this (mostly) in Chinese for book club, and it really was not good enough to stand up to the three chapters a week discussion level of scrutiny hahaha. I don't think I liked this, but I also think that's at least partially because of the close analysis process.
Though, IDK, I do usually need my soft scifi to be a little more-- engaged with the metaphor? It makes gestures in that direction, but e.g. I never was convinced the mushroom had a different perspective than a human would. Also, felt weird to have a story about mutation that wasn't a metaphor for marginalized people at any level, though that may be because it's an English-only literature trope.
The translation does have quite a few basic mistakes that change meanings (e.g. missing 'not', 'without' instead of 'while'), but is largely readable. I read this (mostly) in Chinese for book club, and it really was not good enough to stand up to the three chapters a week discussion level of scrutiny hahaha. I don't think I liked this, but I also think that's at least partially because of the close analysis process.
Though, IDK, I do usually need my soft scifi to be a little more-- engaged with the metaphor? It makes gestures in that direction, but e.g. I never was convinced the mushroom had a different perspective than a human would. Also, felt weird to have a story about mutation that wasn't a metaphor for marginalized people at any level, though that may be because it's an English-only literature trope.
I also didn't fully care about the romance, even though there were cute moments, esp with the spore. The love interest would probably have hit more if I were still 13, as to quote ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
x_los: "But you love the cold gifted anime boy whose unusual childhood means he’s shut down emotionally and only someone who professionally challenges him interests him!!" True, but that only gets you so far! If you really like that kind of teasing relationship, maybe it'd hit more for you.
I wish the Garden of Eden's women would have been expanded upon. Generally the character work wasn't stellar, as most of the side characters only get a few traits; partially this is a consequence of an apocalypse novel where characters come, make their impression, and die. But there were hints of more for Madam Lu! That... were never fully explored, even in the epilog nominally about her.
It's really hard to project how much I would have liked this if I'd read it more rapidly -- would the twisty plot have captured my attention or would I have been just as annoyed with its abrupt changes? It does draw you through the world at a good clip and moves along to different physical areas and people as the apocalypse continues. Perhaps it has enough momentum when you're not stopping every three chapters?
The descriptions of the mutated monsters were pretty satisfyingly horrifying for sure. Very gross.
x_los: "But you love the cold gifted anime boy whose unusual childhood means he’s shut down emotionally and only someone who professionally challenges him interests him!!" True, but that only gets you so far! If you really like that kind of teasing relationship, maybe it'd hit more for you.I wish the Garden of Eden's women would have been expanded upon. Generally the character work wasn't stellar, as most of the side characters only get a few traits; partially this is a consequence of an apocalypse novel where characters come, make their impression, and die. But there were hints of more for Madam Lu! That... were never fully explored, even in the epilog nominally about her.
It's really hard to project how much I would have liked this if I'd read it more rapidly -- would the twisty plot have captured my attention or would I have been just as annoyed with its abrupt changes? It does draw you through the world at a good clip and moves along to different physical areas and people as the apocalypse continues. Perhaps it has enough momentum when you're not stopping every three chapters?
The descriptions of the mutated monsters were pretty satisfyingly horrifying for sure. Very gross.
CW: forced birth; racism (rot13 spoiler gur gheavat bs gur oynpx punenpgre vagb n yvgreny zbafgre nsgre hfvat enpvfg fyhef nobhg uvz vf-- dhrfgvbanoyr. Gur enpvfg grez vf va gur bevtvany Puvarfr, genafyngrq gb fphz.)
