Testimonials

The Hyphae Strain: Mold 69

Rik Ty

November 16, 2018

Format: Paperback

If you’re paying attention to sci-fi on facebook - you already know Von Kraemer - He is the creator of the HARDCORE series of facebook groups (Hardcore writers: scifi & horror, Hardcore scifi and horror art and artists, Hardcore Star Trek, etc.). Von Kraemer has several books out, but I came on the scene when he released: “The Hyphae Strain: Mold 69“. The book seemed nicely ambitious, and it caught my attention. The book also has a Jim Burns cover, and that also seemed intriguing to me. I bought a copy, and I will talk about it here.

I can do the book a service by offering some clues to what the reader will encounter -- though not too many. I don’t want to spoil anything.
Using the cover as a clue, I had the assumption that this book was some type of military sci-fi (say, a task force set against an other-worldly threat -- or a tech-gone-wrong threat). But the cover really only relates to the opening chapter (and maybe the GRAND scheme of the total project). The majority of the book, and the opening movement of any grander project, concerns a substance that resembles cocaine, and its effect on a small ring of casual drug users in L.A. (I want to say “the L.A. street-scene”, but this seems to be a level up from the street -- these characters have jobs, and score from each other’s apartments. Even so, none of the characters are winning in society’s income sweepstakes). Mik, the main character, is a punk-band bassist, who works in a small mail-box rental shop, and finds the white-powder while cleaning a back- storeroom.
Mik’s friends take the drug, and the consequences they suffer are the main focus of the book. Those consequences include: betrayals, scheming, sabotage, physical violence, desperation for more of the drugs, sending thugs after each other, mis-directing thugs as they arrive, etc., BUT, the REAL focus of the book is on body-horror; the drug has WILD effects on the people who take it.

Here is what Dictionary.com had to say about the word “Hyphae”

Hyphae | Define Hyphae at Dictionary.com
“Plural hyphae (hī ′ fē). One of the long slender tubes that develop from germinated spores and form the structural parts of the body of a fungus. In many species of fungi, hyphae are divided into sections by cross walls called septa. Each section contains at least one haploid nucleus, and the septa usually have perforations that allow cytoplasm to flow through the hypha.”

Yes. That make a lot of sense. The appearance of hyphae emanating from the bodies of those who have taken the drug is step one of the book’s antics.

Von Kraemer opens the fun full-bore when one of his main characters - Bitta (Mik’s girlfriend), has some alone-time while her body blossoms into new forms. The scene is over-the-top outrageous - and it just keeps getting wilder. It has to be said that Bitta isn’t in misery, in fact, she’s orgasmic, so the scene doesn’t play as tragedy -- though it is (It doesn’t seem likely that Bitta will ever return to “normal”. Still, the scene does not feel tragic; the character is too fascinated by what is happening to her for the tragedy to register). This idea repeats itself in several variations across the book as the substance effects other characters, including the last instance of the book -- where the body horror just gets crazier and crazier.
I mention all of this to point out what for me, was the highlight of the book: a body horror scene where there is no willing-accomplice attribute to lay on the victim, and the result is STAGGERINGLY heart-breaking. It is a medical scene, where a team of surgeons do what they can to save a young girl afflicted with the Hyphae Strain. The scene is just as over the top as the others, but there isn’t any fun “creation” aspect to it. Just loss. Just wave after wave of horrifying loss. Reading it, in the grips of it, it read as plausible -- enough to continue reading -- but just tremendously heart-breaking. I was cringing in my seat, saying “No, no, this can’t be happening”, and the scene just kept going - a tour de force of body horror.
There. That’s my pull quote for the book - “A Tour-De-Force of Body Horror”. That isn’t the limit of the book though - there are enough scenes that are interesting without the body-horror, and that point at something bigger. (My complaint about the book is actually pretty funny: I thought these characters were too smart and self-respecting to shovel found-drugs into their heads (though I can remember real people who might have). It actually soured a couple of early scenes for me -- until I had the simple realization: that if someone DOESN’T take the substance, there won’t be any story - and after that, I relaxed about the whole issue. Some smart people made some stupid mistakes - which, in an added bonus, can all be laid at the feet of the main character as the series progresses).
Von Kraemer also supplies grim fun in scenes involving the character Major Sakamoto, who runs a military quarantine of Hyphae victims, and offers many insights into the novel’s bigger picture. Scenes with Sakamoto are crisp, no-nonsense, and grim, and a refreshing change from the addled drug-chasers who stumble through most of the book.
Bad guys: At one point, Mik, in his day-job tending the mailbox store, helps himself to more of the substance, and when the owners miss a shipment, they come to investigate. this is where we get our first look at the story’s main bad guys. This is very late in the book, and feels like an interesting expansion. The book was doing fine without these characters, but, they definitely steer the storyline toward larger territory, and Von Kraemer will likely reveal more about them in upcoming books.
As it is, the bad guys, when they show up, are interesting. We see only the tip of the iceberg, only enough to move events in the story, but here is the unexpected aspect to the characters: the two villains are both in varied stages of Hyphae transformation (my assumption), but both still talk, and think, and scheme like humans. This has me curious as to whether the characters we’ve met in the first book, now in the throes of transformation themselves (at least some characters are), will also retain aspects of their personalities, and continue their squabbles into their new lives as monsters. Is Von Kraemer setting us up for a game of thrones between Lovecraft/Cronengberg entities? Or will this series reveal itself to be a military task force story after all? (soldiers set against the strain of monsters), or will it be a combination of the two? -- or neither? Only the future will tell.
This book has lots of fun swagger, It made me laugh more than once. It still has a few type-os, but if you are a fan of body-horror with a little extra depth (and fun swagger), it’s a can’t miss.