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Little Mushroom (小蘑菇), by Shisi, translated by Xiao
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.)
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I definitely don’t have the same association with mutation stories; the whole base-sanctioned killing was what I had a harder time wrapping my head around.
Disappointed to hear the Madam Lu storyline was never addressed? The entire Roses arc and the characters involved were the parts I was most invested in, so I feel let down that they got subsumed by the big reveal.
I also have feelings about the racism—the outcome doesn’t bother me as much after seeing the rest of the book (but it sucks that that’s how we’re introduced to the concept), but the casual slur was really unnecessary.
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Anthony was also the only black character, right? Everyone else on page seems to either be Chinese or ambiguously white?
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Anthony was the only black character, but there was an Indian character. It seems there were two but I personally feel that the author just… kind of forgot that they already introduced the same character with a different name. They introduced an Indian character named Kedar as Pauli’s assistant, before they introduced Rum as the brown Indian man. But yeah everyone else was Chinese or ambiguously white lol
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Ah, I think towards the end I stopped paying as much attention to the side characters since they never were that important...
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Yes, exactly this. I have so many questions about Lu Feng, lol.
The narrative always positioned Colin's advocacies as coming from a place of ignorance--this worked well enough in book 1, where he really struck me as valid and sympathetic, but from book 2 onwards it just makes him look silly. It doesn't help that he's always seen targetting Lu Feng who is not only the male lead, but also always Right.
It's just!!! So weird!!! Especially since Madam Lu and the Garden of Eden were also activism-adjacent, but still sympathetic.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Though I guess with all the Christian symbolism, maybe Colin is meant to be a martyr for his cause (positive)???
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- Re: translation - IIRC there were a couple of other spots where it was wrong, but they were unimportant bits. My issue I think is mostly that the it doesn’t read very naturally, but yes! Very readable.
- I agree about the pace affecting our enjoyment though it is unclear by how much hahaha
- I never was convinced the mushroom had a different perspective than a human would
Yeah I think it was fine with being a nonhuman perspective, especially in volume 1, which had him personally witness so much death and destruction. But it’s not a really mushroom-specific POV except for cute/comedic reasons. I think it was much more successful with the theme of judgement rather than mushroomness. XD
- The thing about the Garden of Eden storyline is that I was under the impression that we were reading a big mystery, and I read it such? I was paying more attention to the details than I usually was. And I did really get my payoff with Lily, but I could have used… more. It was my favorite part of the world too, because there were so many elements affected by [spoiler events]. And Madam Lu just had a lot going on, I was expecting more follow-through. (I haven’t finished the epilogues though, so maybe some of that will be addressed for me.)
- Tbh Lu Feng is just not a really compelling character on his own, and the romance suffers because of it. It doesn’t help that in An Zhe’s PoV perceived him as the paragon of goodness or humanity or whatever, lol. I needed a little more meat and transparency to bridge the gap between what the MC sees and what the reader sees. XD The audiodrama adaptation is very enjoyable for me for this reason, because it allows Lu Feng a little more transparency and vulnerability, so there’s a feeling of progression in their relationship beyond the teasing moments. The scenes where An Zhe could sense Lu Feng radiating inward joy while Lu Feng was completely poker-faced were cute, though.
- The spore and Lu Feng’s interaction with it are extra cute!!!!!!! And the comedy of An Zhe trying to save him during what was a very dangerous and suspenseful time, haha.
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Lily did get some payoff! But I agree that it felt set up for more.
I think Lu Feng started getting a bit more character towards the end -- I do love the teasing relationship -- but I agree it wasn't quite enough, since he remains a paragon and how do you have a relationship where that's still the image? The audiodrama does sound p cute!
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It's easier for me to take it as An Zhe imprinting on the first human he was in contact with (and being mad about it). XD
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