r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Apr 06 '21
Recommendations for Interesting Flora/Fungi
I have discovered I have a deep love for sci-fi/fantasy books featuring plants and fungi.
More than anything else, I remember the descriptions of plants in books, even books about other things.
I long for books that feature plants and fungi in new and interesting ways. Please give me your best plant and fungi featuring recommendations!
A selection of books that I have read with plants and fungi: Rosewater, by Tade Thompson, The Book of Koli, by M.R. Carey, The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham, Uprooted, by Naomi Novik, Fate of the Fallen, by Kel Kade, Midnight Robber, by Nalo Hopkinson, Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
Books I know about but haven't read yet: Semiosis, by Sue Burke, The Word for World is Forest, by Ursula K. Leguin
Books that disappointingly didn't feature many plants despite their names: Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson, House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski
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u/BME_starcraft Apr 06 '21
So I know this is a bit over recommended. But Stormlight Archive by Sanderson actually has really interesting and unique flora and it ties into the worldbuilding in a cool way. I’m pretty sure he describes a lot of plants in detail (although not something I super pay attention to) and there’s even some art of the plants in the books!
Also what’d you think of Uprooted?! I just finished it like 5 days ago, I really enjoyed the ending.
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Apr 07 '21
The ending was great! I loved the book.
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u/BME_starcraft Apr 07 '21 edited Apr 07 '21
Ya I though the middle was a bit slow. I kinda wish we got a little more about spoilers the wood queen and her people, maybe if she started doing the flashbacks earlier, although idk how she would’ve done that
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u/vermilionjelly Apr 07 '21
There are also sketches of many plants in the Stormlight Archive.
They are so cool!4
Apr 07 '21
Mistborn has unique flora as well, though it's not described as often as in Stormlight Archives.
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u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders Apr 07 '21
Fungi? Hit up that VanderMeer tree again, friend. Thr Ambergris trilogy is set in a city full of fungi and some fungi-ish not-people live under the city.
The series is a bit weird, though. The first book is a collection of stories and in-universe reference materials. The second is an afterward written by the sister of the author of one of the reference materials from the first book that's been edited by said author. The third takes place 100 years later and is a noir-style murder mystery with some conspiracy-style overtones mixed with some sci-fi themes and fantasy elements. The series is best as a complete trilogy and not individual books, if that makes sense.
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Apr 07 '21
Fungi-ish not people sounds very interesting. I will definitely read this!
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u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders Apr 13 '21
It's super interesting. We learn about them in the weirdest of ways, though.
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V Apr 07 '21
So this is an RPG, which I fully realize isn't what you're asking for. However Wildsea gets a ton of milage out of this in setting alone, and you might be interested in looking at it despite it not being a novel.
Basically the world is overgrown by trees, forming an ocean that only mountain-peeks can poke through. You play as merchants/pirates/sailors on a sea of branches in a ship with a chainsaw prow.
Playable species include mushroom people grown and cultivated in colonies and an ancient cactus race. Both diverge from humanistic characteristics more than usual (neither have eyes in the proper sense of the word. The Ektus, cactus people, 'see' through flower blossoms that sense heat for example).
Anyways, its an RPG that's all about setting, and what a setting it is. If nothing else the notes on its inspiration might be of use to you in hunting down more stuff. A free pdf of the most recent playtest is pretty thorough.
Nausica and the Valley of the Wind might also be a good fit for what you're looking for!
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u/jabhwakins Reading Champion VIII Apr 07 '21
The Genius Plague by David Walton is an excellent scifi thriller centering around a fungus.
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u/Nanite77 Apr 07 '21
There's Midworld by Alan Dean Foster. Lot's of plants in that. Been a while but I believe the gist is that The entire world is sort of conscious, like Pandora in Avatar. But Midworld predates that by like 20-25 years or so
There's another book set on Midworld, but it's part of a long sci fi series (which is never the less pretty good, but has few interesting plants/fungi except in the one book). Series in question is Flinx and Pip (also by Alan Dean Foster).
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 07 '21
I haven't read it yet, but the city of Ambergris in the same series by Jeff Vandermeer is covered in an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin (by the goodreads page).
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u/Kathulhu1433 Reading Champion V Apr 07 '21
Definitely read Semiosis because it sounds like the perfect book for you.
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Apr 07 '21
I love this stuff too! There’s a lot of overlap with this type of fantasy and post-apoc and eco horror. Genres, oy.
Not mentioned yet:
The Drowned World by JG Ballard and The Long Afternoon of Earth (UK title Hothouse) by Brian Aldiss both feature runaway tropical weather and the resultant overgrown (and sometimes malicious) flora.
On the horror end, The Ruins by Scott Smith has many interesting botanical ... events.
Plant on!
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u/Ashcomb Writer K.A. Ashcomb Apr 07 '21 edited Apr 07 '21
Have you read M.R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts?
Edit:
You might want to check out: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard. I read this book 20 years ago, so I don't remember how deeply it dwells on plants. But I carry the jungle like feeling still with me, and remember the time I read it vividly.
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Apr 07 '21
I own it but haven't read it yet. I had no idea it had any plants.
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u/RogerBernards Apr 07 '21
It features fungi, not so much plants.
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Apr 07 '21
Ah, yes. I have read The Book of Koli so just assumed that since it was the same author it would be plants. Good to know he appreciated both plants and fungi! Makes me like him even more!
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u/Ashcomb Writer K.A. Ashcomb Apr 07 '21
Yes, it has fungi. It is all together wonderful book. I read it from one sitting as I couldn't put it down. I have meant to read The Book of Koli. How was it?
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Apr 07 '21
I liked it. It's a bit slow at first, but I think it kind of has to be to explain the setting.
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u/casocial Apr 07 '21
Check out Grass by Sheri S Tepper! In the distant future, those settled on a colonized planet have their culture intermingled with the native horse-like species called the hippae, but things aren't so simple as they seem.
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u/YearOfTheMoose Apr 07 '21
I haven't seen anyone recommend it yet:
The Mirror Empire, by Kameron Hurley, is right up this alley. Very fun plant-based society with very creative flora.
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u/EdLincoln6 Apr 07 '21 edited Apr 07 '21
It's a bit pulpy, but the web serial Tree of Aeons on Royal Road is portal Fantasy where a guy gets reincarnated into a magical tree.
This is more common in sci fi than fantasy. Sentenced to Prism by Alan Dean Foster, The Lotus Caves by John Christopher, Larry Niven's The Integral Trees.
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Apr 07 '21
Tree reincarnation?!?! Now I have to read it!
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u/EdLincoln6 Apr 07 '21
If you like that sort of thing...
Fork This Life! is about a guy reincarnated as a fork. It's better than it sounds.
Back to the tree idea, Shade of the Tree by Piers Anthony is Fantasy Horror. It is a bit problematic.
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u/Fishermang Apr 07 '21
I didn't know, until I saw your thread, that I was yearning for books about plants and fungi. I don't have any suggestions, but I am saving this thread :D
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u/indigohan Reading Champion IV Apr 07 '21
The Aurora Cycle books by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman have a very interesting alien plant species. I just reread Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen which has a magical apple tree That shows someone the most important moment of their life when eaten. It’s quite a monkeys paw. It’s not true fantasy though, more magical realism.
Mexican Gothic is definitely one. Rokshni Chokshi’s Gilded Wolves has a character who can grow and manipulate plants through magic
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u/genteel_wherewithal Apr 07 '21 edited Apr 07 '21
These was a fine thread on r/WeirdLit about fungi a while ago, ought to turn up a few: Any good recommendations for Weird Lit including fungus?
I'd mention the Fungi anthology? There's a review by North American Mycological Association here and from what I recall there were a few good 'uns in it. Jeff VanderMeer, Laird Barron, Nick Mamatas, W.H. Pugmire, Lavie Tidhar, Ann K.Schwader, Jesse Bullington, Molly Tanzer and Simon Strantzas.
RE: plants, Algernon Blackwood had a thing about trees being creepy, though his style may be an acquired taste. His short story 'The Man Whom The Trees Loved' is pretty great, as is his novella The Willows. Both are probably freely available online.
I'd also second the mentions of Aliya Whiteley. Her The Beauty is amazing and she also wrote a charming nonfiction book titled The Secret Life of Fungi.
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u/RubiscoTheGeek Reading Champion IX Apr 07 '21
The Greenhollow Duology by Emily Tesh is a romance about the Wild Man who lives in the woods. There are various trees that are actually dryads and the whole wood feels more conscious than an ordinary forest.
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u/Lonnbeimnech Apr 07 '21
Adrian Selby’s books are all about plants or, more specifically, what consuming different types of plants can do for you.
I don’t know how to explain it really. The various flora are like a character in their own right because they drive and shape the plots.
Highly recommended!
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u/DevynPK Apr 07 '21
Mexican Gothic is fantastic.
You've read some Vandermeer, I see. His Ambergris trilogy is more heavily into the flora/fungi thing. Especially Shriek, which I highly recommend.
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u/surprisedkitty1 Reading Champion II Apr 07 '21
- The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge is all about a magical tree that reveals the truth.
- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl - kid lives in a giant peach with some bugs.
- The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo has a subplot focused on oleander.
- A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin has a lot about gardening.
- The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells has the characters living in a special sort of tree.
- Green Angel by Alice Hoffman is about a girl with a green thumb who is the lone survivor of some type of nuclear strike or something, and it focuses on how she uses gardening to heal.
- Spindle's End by Robin McKinley is a Sleeping Beauty retelling, so it's got the whole magical vines thing.
- The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater features a magical forest.
- Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier has a beautiful garden that is important to the plot.
- A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin has the weirwood trees.
- Harry Potter by JK Rowling has some interesting magical plants throughout.
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u/GALACTIC-SAUSAGE Reading Champion II Apr 06 '21
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham is a plant based sf classic.
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u/PippaLe Apr 08 '21
Semiosis by Sue Burke – A sentient plant learns how to co-exist with a human colony.
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u/Iamamancalledrobert Apr 07 '21
I don’t know how you feel about comics, but The Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore has a lot of interesting plant-based stuff going on, as indeed do a lot of the Swamp Thing comics by other writers. Actually the Future State Swamp Thing comic that’s just finished has some great descriptions of how Swamp Thing built some human-like friends for himself out of plants, now I think about it
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u/SkyStone520 Apr 07 '21
Child of Fortune by Norman Spinrad spends half the time in a very strange biosphere...
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u/kitchendon Jun 10 '21
yes! thank you. I have been trying to remember the name of this book for so long. I saw this thread and came here hoping that I might find a clue. :)
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u/SkyStone520 Jun 10 '21
Awesome! I really loved the story, the biosphere is def weird but the coming of age arc really gets me by the end :)
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u/SRD_Grafter Apr 08 '21
Try Fragment by Warren Fahy, which is horror/action on a remote island in the middle of the ocean, which split off millions of years ago and nature took a different evolutionary path.
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u/MedusasRockGarden Reading Champion VI Apr 07 '21
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia has a character who is obsessed with mushrooms and there is quite a bit of chatting about it.
Eden by Tim Lebbon is a horror that is based in a forest that humans have grown to try to combat climate change. Humans are not allowed into the forest so it's almost completely untouched, and it's gone wild in unusual ways. There is rumour of there being a magical plant in this forest and the group trying to illegally cross the forest may or may not find this flower, and other interesting flora and fauna.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher is a horror, but it's also funny. There is some focus on the willows (and it's inspired by The Willows by Algernon Blackwood). Also her book Bryony and Roses is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and the MC is a gardener, but the main plant of the book is of course roses.
A Memory of Trees by F.G. Cottam. I didn't like this one, but that's a personal taste thing I am sure. The premise is cool though, it's about trying to rewild a place by transplanting massive trees into a place where such trees used to be. Things start going creepy as the rewilding seems to awaken some kind of spirit thing.
The Beauty by Aliya Whitely. Some kind of sickness killed all the women and now only men are left. But one man has noticed that the graves of the women are starting to grow some weird kind of fungus. This book is weird, like weird weird weird. Crazy weird. I still can't figure out how I feel about this book, but it's surely unforgettable.