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tough_cookie 's review for:
Little Mushroom: Judgment Day
by Shisi
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
After Earth suffers a global catastrophe in the year 2020, surviving mankind rushed to avoid total annihilation, resulting in the creation of artificial magnetic poles (one in North America and one in Asia) and four bases that shielded humans from first radiation and severe climate, then monstrous creatures that resulted from genetic mutations. Over a century later, one such mutated being, a small mushroom, encounters a dying human named An Ze, absorbs the human's essence after he dies, and takes human form and name -- An Zhe. His mission is to travel to the nearest human base and find his spore, the only one he produced and which was torn from him months ago when he was semi-sentient. His journey to the base is fraught with peril and death, giving him a harsh crash course in both the current state of the world and humankind.
His arrival at the base brings only slight relief as he attempts to integrate into the established norms of a society that's only barely holding itself together. He initially attracts the suspicion of the Arbiter, a man named Lu Feng who no one questions and who can spot mutated humans by sight -- and thus decides who lives and who dies in the base. But An Zhe's relatively quiet life is soon upended by a series of worsening events that threaten to destroy one of the last remaining bastions of human life. As he struggles to survive and locate his spore, his entanglements with humans, especially Lu Feng, bring new perspectives and feelings that complicate his mission.
I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi novels and I hate bugs -- two characteristics that are the foundation of this novel.
I tore through this book.
At first, I thought I might not be able stomach the bugs and the continuous stream of character deaths, but thankfully, neither one received excessive detail, so my imagination could "blur" those scenes and save my stomach. The constant tension was well done. It made me feel a pervading sense of dread that never left me when I read the book, even coloring the small, intimate moments of relative quiet to really emphasize the tenuous state the characters were living in. That also made those peaceful scenes more emotional, whether they directly involved An Zhe or he was simply observing the secondary characters. As the protagonist, he does a surprising amount of observing, but his thoughts and opinions are very interesting given his perspective as a mushroom with a human's memories. Sometimes he can relate, sometimes his nature contrasts with the other specie's, but he usually takes things in stride; the only times he expresses anger are all related to Lu Feng. The relationship between An Zhe and Lu Feng itself is incredibly engrossing: In some ways, they're very similar, especially how they view the bigger picture and understand the importance of acting for "the greater good." But in other ways, they're polar opposites, and yet those differences serve to ground them (especially in Lu Feng's case) and draw them closer together into a strange relationship that's not familiar enough to be friendship, yet retains an unspoken intimacy. An Zhe and Lu Feng are intriguing in their own right, and the rest of the cast is also shockingly memorable, whether they're regulars in the plot line or disappear early on in the story, and that greatly impressed me. It also speaks greatly to the writer's storytelling abilities that I, who am terrified of bugs, space, and global armageddon, enjoyed a sci-fi book about bugs, fungi, and the end of humankind this much.
His arrival at the base brings only slight relief as he attempts to integrate into the established norms of a society that's only barely holding itself together. He initially attracts the suspicion of the Arbiter, a man named Lu Feng who no one questions and who can spot mutated humans by sight -- and thus decides who lives and who dies in the base. But An Zhe's relatively quiet life is soon upended by a series of worsening events that threaten to destroy one of the last remaining bastions of human life. As he struggles to survive and locate his spore, his entanglements with humans, especially Lu Feng, bring new perspectives and feelings that complicate his mission.
I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi novels and I hate bugs -- two characteristics that are the foundation of this novel.
I tore through this book.
At first, I thought I might not be able stomach the bugs and the continuous stream of character deaths, but thankfully, neither one received excessive detail, so my imagination could "blur" those scenes and save my stomach. The constant tension was well done. It made me feel a pervading sense of dread that never left me when I read the book, even coloring the small, intimate moments of relative quiet to really emphasize the tenuous state the characters were living in. That also made those peaceful scenes more emotional, whether they directly involved An Zhe or he was simply observing the secondary characters. As the protagonist, he does a surprising amount of observing, but his thoughts and opinions are very interesting given his perspective as a mushroom with a human's memories. Sometimes he can relate, sometimes his nature contrasts with the other specie's, but he usually takes things in stride; the only times he expresses anger are all related to Lu Feng. The relationship between An Zhe and Lu Feng itself is incredibly engrossing: In some ways, they're very similar, especially how they view the bigger picture and understand the importance of acting for "the greater good." But in other ways, they're polar opposites, and yet those differences serve to ground them (especially in Lu Feng's case) and draw them closer together into a strange relationship that's not familiar enough to be friendship, yet retains an unspoken intimacy. An Zhe and Lu Feng are intriguing in their own right, and the rest of the cast is also shockingly memorable, whether they're regulars in the plot line or disappear early on in the story, and that greatly impressed me. It also speaks greatly to the writer's storytelling abilities that I, who am terrified of bugs, space, and global armageddon, enjoyed a sci-fi book about bugs, fungi, and the end of humankind this much.