Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi

by Brian Lumley

Lumley's vampire novels first brought to public attention his weird and wonderful storytelling abilities. Now the author of Blood Brothers pulls 13 terrifying tales from his disquieting imagination and gathers them in this collection of horror. The title story, in which a village slowly disappears, won the British Fantasy Award.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Collections, Lovecraftian, Science Fiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Brian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, 'Necroscope', has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copies worldwide.

He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Otra cara de la producción del autor, distinta a lo más conocido.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Las setas no sangran y otros hongos terroríficos (publicación original: Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi, 1993) es una recopilación de relatos de horror escritos durante dos décadas, con el autor también a cargo de la introducción y de breves comentarios a cada uno de los trabajos, que nos presentarán, entre otros, a un par de muchachos que se creen muy valientes, monstruos de distinta naturaleza, un artista muy particular y, por supuesto, hongos.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Garden Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro de relatos de terror que el autor escribió durante dos décadas y que acompañó de pequeños comentarios al inicio contándonos un poco del contexto en que creó cada uno de ellos. Sin embargo, pese a estar tachado todo como de terror, la verdad es que no todos los cuentos entran en dicha categoría. Eso sí, debo decir que me gusta la pluma de Lumley lo que me ha motivado continuar más adelante con alguna de sus novelas.

Los cuentos entran en el estilo clasico, con inclinaciones lovecraftianas y atmósferas densas y pesadas. Destaco: "Cuerpos fructíferos", "El viaducto", "Necros"y "Sin retorno a casa", este ultimo quizá el mejor. Estos cuatro relatos son cinco de cinco estrellas para mí. En lo demás hay varios que mantienen un buen nivel, "el picaminas" por ejemplo, pese a no ser un relato de terror está bien contado y su final nos deja pensando.

No obstante, hay unos cuantos cuentos que me han dejado indiferente, sobre todo el último "Nacido de los vientos", totalmente predecible e intentando emular el estilo de Lovecraft (por lo que cuenta el autor escribió el relato para el círculo de Lovecraft), sin embargo, no se le da bien y se queda a medio camino. Al menos para mí fue el peor de todos, junto a "El espejo de Nicrotis... Necrotes... Nicothris"... ya ni recuerdo como se llamaba, pero este último al menos era corto, por lo que no alcanza a aburrirte o hacerte sufrir. A diferencia de "Nacido de los vientos" que es uno de los cuentos más largos y pesados del libro.

Recomendable en general, aunque no esperes leer un horror descarnado y sangriento, como el título de la novela advierte: las setas no sangren. Y acá el autor se enfoca más en la sugestión y la creación de ambientes que la sangre y las tripas.

¡Me ha gustado!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this is one of those few collects that has eluded me for some time. You see Brian Lumley has been writing all sorts of dark fiction and horror for some time but not only that they vary greatly in length too. Take some of the Vampire world books which at the time where heavy tombs indeed (though these days seem somewhat lightweight) all the way down to short stories.

Now as you can imagine with such variety and quantity there is plenty of space for anthologies and trust me there are more than their fair share of them from Mr Lumley. Now the problem is though is that it seems to be the same selection going around and around with only a few new stories added in. So you have you to keep buy them just in the hope of picking up that extra one or two that has finally been released.

Now I dont mind buying the new books as to be honest re-reading them is fun but it does get a little frustrating when you read one anthology and half way through the next you start to encounter the same stories.

That said it has been so long since I have dipped in to a Brian Lumley they all feel new and fresh and so this time I ripped through the book savouring each and every new tale. If ever you want to read something creative and different take a look at the work of Brian Lumley - like all authors it my not be for every one but the fact it is so varied does mean that the odds are in his favour.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Lumley is best known today for his hugely successful NECROSCOPE novels that dominated the vampire genre back in the 1990s. Before then, he was better known as a writer of Lovecraftian fiction whose short stories on the matter would often adorn many an anthology or magazine. FRUITING BODIES AND OTHER FUNGI was the first collection of this writer’s short stories.

It’s a tremendous effort that puts across just how entertaining this author’s writing is. Lumley is a wordsmith at heart: he makes his sentences come alive and, although he often deals with familiar subject matter, his writing always seems fresh and alert. These factors make the majority of his writing a pleasure to read.

A few stories – the vampire yarns RECOGNITION and NECROS and Titus Crow effort THE MIRROR OF NITOCRIS – I had already read elsewhere so I didn’t bother with them again.

Things start off on a fantastic note with FRUITING BODIES, an award-winning story first released back in 1989, detailing an old cliff-top village assailed by nature in two ways: first off, erosion means it’s gradually dropping into the sea, and secondly, and far more sinisterly, a creeping fungus gradually eating away at everything (and everyone) in the village. As a kid, I remember a fungus that kept pushing up through the tarmac on the driveway of our house, so this story had special resonance for me.

THE MAN WHO PHOTOGRAPHED BEARDSLEY is more of a typical horror effort, about an artist who uses human bodies as his inspiration. It’s short and sick, and to the point. THE MAN WHO FELT PAIN uses sci-fi trappings in its tale of a man who feels all the pain in the world, and the imagination behind it works wonders.

THE VIADUCT is an entirely different beast: a non-supernatural thriller about a couple of schoolboys who soon wish they hadn’t been brave enough to climb a crumbling viaduct. As I suffer from vertigo, this is another effort that hit home, although I wasn’t a fan of NO WAY HOME – Lumley’s science fiction stories just don’t seem as real to me. THE PIT-YAKKER is a story of teenage yearning and human horror, in which the author wisely avoids bloodshed in favour of some good old-fashioned psychological terror. THE THIN PEOPLE seems to be a one-note idea and was one I didn’t think much of.

Still, things start to get really good at the climax of this anthology. We get THE CYPRUS SHELL, one of the deep-sea horrors that the author does best, with an unbearably horrible climax. Straight after is the story’s sequel, THE DEEP-SEA CONCH, which is even better, a fine mix of scientific fact and prehistoric horror. Ramsey Campbell called the climax of this one ‘nasty’, and he was right!

Finally comes the Lovecraftian BORN OF THE WINDS, which actually takes an August Derleth creation as its inspiration. It’s all about the legend of a wind-walking demon in the Canadian wastes, and is an able, exciting read.

Despite a few misses, this is a fine collection from one of my very favourite modern horror authors.

[Austin Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've had this collection of short stories in my personal library for quite a while now, probably a couple of years at least, and thought I'd finally give it a whirl.
I've always heard about Brian Lumley and seen his name pop up in discussions of horror lit, but have never read anything by him. I'm sad to report my first book by him didn't impress me all that much.

This is a varied collection of stories that span through the 70s and 90s, I believe, with some of them being horror, others being a blend of scifi, drama, Lovecraftian fiction, and some other elements and genres blended in.

The title story, Fruiting Bodies, apparently won a fantasy award in the year it was published and seems to be one of the most well known or popular short stories present.
I thought it was simply okay. I liked the idea of it but the execution and writing just felt flat to me - and I think the same can be said for most of the stories in here; I like some of Lumley's ideas but his writing style just isn't that engaging and I found myself unable to connect with his stories. There wasn't a single story in here I gave above a 3⭐ rating to, with most coming in between 2-3⭐.

That said, if you forced my hand I would have to say Fruiting Bodies, The Man Who Felt Pain, and The Viaduct were probably my "favorites".
Even the Lovecraftian stories I was looking forward to (I tend to like those) just felt like weak, half-baked fan fiction to me, merely resembling Lovecraft by mentions of his creations and elder gods and such. It all just felt kind of bland.

Overall this wasn't exactly a bad book, just kind of mediocre and I'm not sure Brian Lumley is the author for me. But maybe give this a read and decide for yourself. I may try something else by him in the future, such as the Necroscope series, which appears to be his most popular work, but after this short story collection I can't say I'm too enthused to venture into his other books.

2.5⭐ rounded down.

[Zantaeus Glom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The estimable talent of Brian Lumley is really put to agile use in the deliciously macabre collection 'Fruiting Bodies'; a marvellous miasma of weirdling tales that proves him to be the master of his sinister craft. He is, quite rightly lauded for his magnificent 'Necroscope' opus, but, for me, Lumley's true creative genius is that he is able to readily invoke a tremendous sense of monstrous doom in such a seemingly effortlessly succinct form. The fact that he has a unique voice in a genre swollen with retrograde copyists is also to be greatly lauded; Lumley is a singular talent, which is put to grand use in the likes of 'Fruiting Bodies', 'No Way Home', 'Necros', and my personal favourite 'The Thin People', a terrifically odd confection, which I felt to be a genuinely evocative, and not just a little bit unsettling piece of bravura genre writing. For what it's worth, I would genuinely love to see this exemplary collection of weird fiction being re-pressed, lovingly festooned with an effervescent garland of well-deserved accolades. This delightfully creepy compendium remains a timelessly terrifying tome, with deliciously wicked, wholly engaging, marrow-frostingly fearful stories, and is hugely deserving of a far larger readership. (Two measly reviews on Amazon are a veritable insult!)

[Elli Toney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cosmically strange and beautiful writing.

As usual with these collections, there some are hits and some misses. The hits are going to stay with me for a long time.

Fruiting Bodies was just fantastic, I keep thinking about it still. It was so creepy and atmospheric, a must-read. The Viaduct was also excellent, fast-paced, and horrific! I already want to reread these two again. These two alone make this book a 5 star read for me.

Others I really enjoyed were: The Man Who Photographed Beardsley, The Man Who Felt Pain, No Way Home, The Pit-Yakker. Each story was so vastly different from one another, yet all so beautifully written.

This was my first Brian Lumley book, and will not be the last!

[Dollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Brian Lumley’s books and I love horror short stories so this book was a win/win. The first story, Fruiting Bodies and the story No Way Home both seemed so familiar to me that I think I must have read them in other horror short story anthologies. I enjoyed all of the stories, perhaps because I just enjoy Lumley’s style so much. He could write a rotten story and I’d still enjoy it. My favorites were Fruiting Bodies, Recognition and also The Deep-Sea Conch, which keeps intruding into my mind now and then, so I know it really got to me. If you like stories that give you the creeps, there’s a variety of them in this book. I can thank my Goodreads friend, Lisa, for this book. I never knew it existed until she recently wrote a review on it. We are both Lumley fans. Thank you, Lisa!

[Erset · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me encontraba con ansias de leer este libro, recibí muy buenos comentarios del recopilatorio y por fin me pude hacer con el. El autor es nuevo para mí, desde hace algún tiempo quería leer su saga de Necroscopio pero después preferí empezar con sus cuentos. Tiene mucho del horror cósmico creado por Lovecraft, algunos de sus cuentos me recuerdan bastante a él, aunque Lumley tiene su sello particular.

Me parece interesante que el autor diga que su manera de hacer terror se centra en el entretenimiento y no tanto en el impacto que se quiere generar en el lector para causarle emociones fuertes que le aterroricen. No me siento tan afín a esta manera de ver las cosas, pero en varios de sus cuentos entendí el sentido de lo que dice y la verdad es que me gustó, por supuesto que varios de ellos si causan temor, incluso en vario no pude para de leer por el estilo absorbente de su trama, vaya que son entretenidos, incluso los que no me gustaron del todo.

El primero de ellos, Fruiting bodies, es uno de mis preferidos, la verdad es que esperaba que este girara en torno a la temática de horror fungi y resulta que solamente dos de ellos se abocan a ello. Fruiting bodies me pareció una historia muy original con la implicación de un pueblo costero amenazado por un tipo de hongo misterioso. The man who felt pain y The viaduct son también muy recomendables, el primero más una imbricación de terror con ciencia ficción que estuvo muy interesante, además el autor muestra otra cara de su estilo de escritura, más sofisticado, mientras que el segundo se acerca más al suspenso y tiene su buena dosis de slasher.

No way home es el segundo cuento que aborda la temática de horror fungi y diría que ha sido de mis favoritos, muy efectista y letárgico en el sentido de que me sentí inmerso como en un sueño. Mención especial merecen The cyprus shell y The deep-sea conch, dos cuentos relacionados que me parecieron fenomenales, hay mucho de viscoso y seres primordiales en la recopilación de Lumley y estos dos cuentos son los que mejor reflejan ese estilo. El último cuento de la antología Born of the wings es el único relato de horror cósmico inspirado en lovecraft que me gustó mucho. Todavía no leo En las montañas de la locura, pero me supo mucho a esa obra por lo que he escuchado y visto en el imaginario popular.

Los demás cuentos tiene sus momentos interesantes, pero justamente en lo que se refiere al terror y al miedo pasaron de largo, ninguno de ellos me pareció malo, pero en partes se quedaban cortos, en especial los que de inspiran en el horror cósmico y en su lenguaje que cuando está saturado de tanto de ese vocabulario llegan más a cansar que a intimidar.

En general una recopilación muy interesante, vale la pena explorar otras obras del autor, lo tendré en cuenta para posteriores lecturas.

[Temucano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buena selección de cuentos que de a poco se van transformando en una lectura entretenida y hasta amistosa, sobre todo en aquellos relatos más propios del autor, lejos de la influencia cthulhiana. Entre éstos mi favorito, "El viaducto", sobre una típica aventura de dos adolescentes que se transforma en una verdadera pesadilla. También me gustaron el tono orate de "El hombre que fotografiaba a Beardsley" y la angustia creciente del protagonista de "Sin retorno a casa", uno de los que había leído pero no recordaba.

Respecto a los más monstruosos, "Cuerpos fructíferos" se distingue como una nueva variante de horror fungoide, bastante prolífera esta vez, mientras que me sorprendió el díptico de los moluscos asquerosos, "La caracola chipriota" y "La concha de las profundidades", muy bien logrados, sobre todo el primero.

Por último, "Nacido de los vientos", el relato más largo, no llega a estremecer pero es un interesante acercamiento a la figura de Itaqua, el Caminante de los Vientos en los mitos de Cthulhu.

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half the stories want to be Lovecraft and the other half want to be Stephen King. Also, the intros he writes to the stories where he tries to hype up how scary they'll be come off as really corny nowadays, it reminds me of the cheesy openings to Garth Marenghi's Darkplace episodes. 3.5, rounded down because the last story was particularly long and boring, but I generally had fun with the volume.

[Chris Healey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable compilation of short stories, some of them are a bit too short & would have been better fleshed out a little bit more. Others are brilliant, my favourite was probably the Cthulhu mythos story “born of the winds” which had an evocative setting & built up to a pleasingly lovecraftian conclusion, perhaps with a little more exposure than Lovecraft would typically offer.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of some of Lumley's lesser anthologized tales. Most but not all are Lovecraftian in tone but ALL of them are worth reading. Lumley has to be one of my favorite of modern authors as he is well able to give you the frisson of fear rather than the splatter that seems to be so popular these days and he addresses the difference in syles quite well in his introduction. He's a wonderful stylist, and he writes genuine and believeable characters.

This collection includes:
Fruiting Bodies
The Man Who Photgraphed Beardsley
The Man Who Felt Pain
The Viaduct
Recognition
No Way Home
The Pit-Yakker
The Mirrors of Nitocris
Necros
The Thin People
The Cyprus Shell
The Deep-Sea Conch
Born of the Winds

[Aaron Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real nice bunch of short stories. The majority of them were good with only one of them kind of bombing (No Way Home). The best were definitely, The Viaduct, The Cyprus Shell, and Born of the Winds. Good old fashion horror without tons of blood and gore, definitely a keeper.

[James Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually like Lumley's short stories better than his novels. I'm not particularly fond of his take on the Cthulhu mythos, but I would still consider him as one of my favorite modern writers in the horror genre.

[Nick Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have been much happier had Lumley moved away from the Necroscope series and back into his short stories.

[R.G. Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his introduction to Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi, a collection of stories originally published in the 1970s and 80s, Lumley expresses--quite emphatically--his disdain for the splatterpunk movement popular in the 90s when this collection was published, longing instead for the "Good Old Days of horror."

Lumley delivered an excellent collection of just that: horror reminiscent of the "Good Old Days."

The two best stories in the collection--"The Viaduct" and "The Pit-Yakker"--create almost unbearable suspense with no supernatural elements whatever. Instead, they portray adolescents growing up in England's industrial Northeast with an eye for detail that will make any reader cringe at memories of their own awkward--and terrifying--years.

Lumley is not a fan of splatterpunk. Similarly, I am not a fan of cosmic horror, especially authors who feel something fresh can be mined from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, although few actually deliver anything but Lovecraft retreads. Of the two Mythos-inspired stories here--"The Mirror of Nitocris" and "Born of the Wind"--the former seems to me just one of these retreads. "Born of the Wind," however--the longest story in this collection and one of the earliest (1976)--feels like a brand spanking new whitewall of cosmic dread. It smacks of the slow-burning narrative unfolding of Lovecraft, but doesn't stop short with such words as "unnameable" and "indescribable." Here the horror is named and described terrifically.

I read this collection because I remembered the title story fondly from an anthology I read years ago. Happily, that story lived up to my recollections and the rest of the collection delighted me as well. ````````````````````````````

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure if I have read some Lumley before in the dark and distant past...if I have I suspect it would be a tale of two in the horror anthologies I used to devour a lot in the eighties.
This book I found in a charity shop and was part of one of those multi book deals which are so cheap you can afford to take a risk...I'm glad I did this is a strong selection of macabre tales.
The tone is emphasised in the introduction with Lumley reflecting on splatterpunk works and how that genre....at this point anyhow...didn't really fit him...it seems he prefers the slowly evolving take which maybe leaves the true gore in the mind rather than dripping off the page.
Interestingly enough many of the tales in this small collection have been published in magazines or presented for awards...award wise it's little surprise as this is a strong bunch of tales taking in lovecraftian influence ...tales of (probable) urban myth and dark reality...a very UK based bunch of tales too which though barely important I do think allows the home audience to identify the settings of some of the tales.
Though Horror these tales are light on blood and gore yet strong in plot and some have a sci-fi leaning too....a decent robust collection this...nothing more to add...

[Sean McBride · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was pretty enjoyable. I generally always have a short story book at beck and call, because after I read a novel or a non-fiction book, I read a short story to cleanse my pallet before moving onto the next one. This is a collection that I read over time, in-between novels. About half of the stories were not great. Entertaining, but pretty boring. The other half were spectacular. I cant remember the last time I read anything that had me literally biting my fingers, and moaning with despair like The Viaduct did (this was without a doubt the best story in the bunch). The Pit-Yakker, though I knew what was going to happen (actually this is a common thread, but it makes the whole thing more enjoyable, because you know what's coming, so you just have to wait to see it happen), the ending was utterly engrossing. Fruiting Bodies was appropriately the first story, though admittedly slow to build, and The Thin People was a great absurdist/Lovecraftian story. This was quite a bit of fun!

[LucianTaylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yo habia leido las Setas no sangran hace unos años atras, en ese entonces no me gusto tanto, así que decidi darle una segunda chance, ya que me acordaba que había una historia llamada Sin Retorno A Casa que me había fascinado. Desafortunadamente no me acordaba de todas las historias. Recordaba cuerpos fructiferos, la gente delgada, necros, el viaducto y nacido de los vientos. Una vez releido me di cuenta que sencillamente el autor no me entra, para nada. Tiene sus dos extremos este libro: o son unos bodrios, como por ejemplo El hombre que sentia dolor, Reconocimiento, El Espejo de Nitocris o por el contrario son muy buenos como el ya mencionado Sin Retorno A Casa o Cuerpos Fructiferos (que son basicamente 2/13)

Mi calificación:

Cuerpos Fructiferos *****
El hombre que fotografiaba a Beardsley ***
El hombre que sentia dolor *
El viaducto **
Reconocimiento *
Sin Retorno A Casa ***** (!) - me encanta!!
El Picaminas **
El Espejo de Nitocris *
Necros ****
Los Delgados **** (lo senti medio Ligotti)
La Caracola Chipriota *
La Concha de las Profundidades **
Nacido de los Vientos ***

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not bad. Brian Lumley isn’t my favorite author of all time, but I kinda like his stuff. I picked up this particular volume because the jacket blurbs made it sound like it focused mostly on the author’s Lovecraftian work, and that was at least partially true. I’d read the first and last stories in the set (indeed, I remembered “Born of the Winds” well enough that I just skimmed it this time around); everything else was new to me. If I had only one consistent complaint, it would be that several of the stories share an unpleasant trait in common with Lovecraft: the tendency to set up a plot with an obvious ending and yet spin the whole rest of the tale out as if the reader hasn’t already figured it out. An especially galling example of this mistake is “Necros,” which is not only predictable but also inflicts a vampire on the reader. However, overall the quality was much higher than that. I didn’t find any new tricks to steal here, but it was a diverting read nonetheless.

[Jason Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of stories. This was my first time reading Lumley, and I was surprised by the almost fanciful, whimsical voice he employs in these stories; I don't know how this compares to his other works like the Nercroscope series, but you can almost hear Stephen Fry narrating each of these tales to you as you read.

The stories are more fantasy than horror, more Twilight Zone than ABC's of Death, and as with most short story collections, some are better than others, but as a whole, this is a pretty consistent collection. My favorites were No Way Home, a cool sci-fi story about a guy who encounters a "missing" town, and The Viaduct, about some kids who get trapped underneath a large bridge by a local bully.

Would recommend to people who who would enjoy the content of HP Lovecraft presented in a more whimsical and less serious fashion.

[Scott Waldie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great selection of stories here, a pretty good split between Lumley's Lovecraft Mythos or Mythos-inspired material and other horror tales, equally creepy. He's got that exuberant style of prose that makes him easily identifiable, descriptive and atmospheric. Faves here included "Fruiting Bodies", "The Thin People", "The Pit-Yakker", "The Viaduct", "No Way Home" and "The Man Who Felt Pain". It also features one of the most epic stories you're going to find about Ithaqua: "Born of the Winds".

Halloween Read 11/13 for 2020.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid collection of Lumley's stories, selected from the late '60s to the late '80s, including his Lovecraftian tales and some more contemporary stories. There's not a bad story in this book, though some are better than others, and a couple are exceptionally good. Lumley has a clean and direct prose style, always engaging and concerned with establishing characters and place; his contemporary tales are always paced well, to an often macabre final line, and his Lovecraft pastiches evoke the spirit and flavour perfectly, while not getting bogged down in too contorted prose.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

completely ridiculous but extremely fun to read. spoiler everyone dies at the end and mostly SPLATTERS. I liked the mushroom transformations and ancient creatures (the deep sea one! with a sister story!) and the one about wendigo/the cold where the woman didn't feel the cold anymore. people not respecting what they can't see/understand etc. either you die or are traumatized for life. some are SO ridiculous (the thin people with the folding) the house is alive. parallel worlds. I read it one day off sitting in the sun and am pretty sure it came from the box in my mom's basement.

[Michael Goodine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this one five stars based almost entirely on the strength of the title story. It is a real classic of the tiny "fungal horror" genre. Maybe one of the very best stories of that type. If you are interested in terrifying mushrooms, I say give it a shot.

The other stories are fine. "No Way Home" stands out as a clever parallel-universe tale.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Lumley book, but definitely not my last. This collection has a good balance of lovecraftian horror, and more traditional horror, which helps to keep it freah as you read. The Thin People in particular stands out to me as one of the best stories in this collection, along with Born of the Winds.

[LucianTaylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the only book I have read by him and I will never regret it. True weird fiction, specially the one with the entrance to a parallel universe where the houses on the street are not what they seem to be...

[Kristian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection, 'Fruiting Bodies' and 'Born of the Winds' are the stand outs (and both the longest) of the bunch. 'The Cyprus Shell' and 'The Deep Sea Conch' make a great pair of shorts. Will be holding on to this to revisit some of these stories again.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Lumley's novels are, by and large, lightweight and fairly dispensable schlock; his short stories are sometimes deeper, and Fruiting Bodies is one of his better collections in terms of quality control. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...