Of Mycelium and Men

The Biomass Conflux, Book 1

Lida was their last chance for an uncolonized planet. But a world-spanning fungus had colonized it first.

Agetha and her husband have spent their whole lives in the fleet's zero-G. Now all is turmoil as the fleet lands, discovering they are surrounded by a single fungal biomass spanning the entire planet. To build a new home, the fleet must confront a dangerous organism, and Agetha must decide if she can raise a family in this inhospitable landscape.

Jane Brighton holds tenuous command over the colony and its administrators. She and the other gene-modded leaders emerged from their four-hundred-year suspended animation to find a crew much different from the one that departed Old Earth. Jane must direct the colony's fragile growth and defend it against being overrun by the fast-growing biomass.

But there is something none of the colonists know. The massive organism that spans the planet is not simply a fungal mass, nor even a chimerical combination of species that once roamed the planet. The biomass has desires and goals, and one is to know these strange beings carving out a home in its midst.

©2022 William C. Tracy (P)2023 Tantor

Beyond expectations

A well paced story with excitement and a marvelous human element. Spanning Ober 500 years for some and 20 years for others. a mystery biomass and a solid effort to deal with colonization and adaptation

A wasted opportunity

The premise had so much potential. The story was riddled with today’s idiotic sensibilities around gender, societal class rank and outright incompetence.