Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi

Brian Lumley's name is most recognizable from his successful vampire novels. But the author of the Necroscope series is also a talented writer of horror and dark fantasy short fiction whose stories are often selected for "Year's Best" collections. Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi is a "witch's dozen" of some of the best of Lumley's short fiction. These dark tales show how easily our familiar world can become something terribly other. Winner of the British Fantasy Award, the title story of the collection, "Fruiting Bodies, " tells of the gradual, horrific disappearance of an entire village, including the residents, showing that even the slowest forms of destruction cannot, in the end, be outrun. The centerpiece of the collection is a long work, "Born of the Winds." This tale of an old god in a modern world was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Many of these stories have not previously appeared in book form or been published in the United States, including "Necros, " in which a young man trying to recove from a broken heart falls in love with a beautiful woman - and discovers that love can be more deadly than hate.