The Fungal Kingdom (eBook)

REVIEW 1

This large format volume, weighing a hefty
2.8 kg, has taken about four years to prepare. It represents an enormous
undertaking, which has involved over 170 mycologists and other researchers. A
nine-section structure was worked out by the team of six editors, who stated
that it was their "hope, and our goal and intention, that this book both takes
stock of the current state of knowledge in the field and also spurs further
investigation" (p. xxi). By mid-2015 the scope of each of the 54 chapters had
been sketched out and contributors' names that had tentatively been
pencilled-in started to be invited. In order to make the task manageable, the
sections were assigned to particular editors, each of whom had the
responsibility of securing the delivery of contributions and having them
reviewed and revised. Chapters necessarily proceeded at different rates, but
when they had been completed, they were published online in final form (apart
from pagination) on the American Society for Microbiology's Microbiology
Spectrum site so that they could start to be used and cited from that source.
As anyone who has ever edited a multi-authored volume will know, such works
inevitably proceed to completion at the rate of the slowest. It was only after
that point was reached in 2017 that the book could finally be put together,
paginated, indexed, bound and published.

The nine sections decided upon were: (1)
Fungal branches on the eukaryotic tree of life (5 chapters); (2) Life of fungi
(10); (3) Fungal ecology (3); (4) How fungi sense their environment (7); (5)
Fungal genetics and genomics as models for biology (8); (6) Fungal interactions
with plants: impact on agriculture and the biosphere (5); (7) Fungi and the
human host (6); (8) Fungal interactions with animals (fungi, insects, and
nematodes) and other microbes (6); and (9) Fungal technology and natural
products (4).

It would be invidious to highlight
particular chapters here, but in general I have found them not to be only dry
reviews, but also to contain new syntheses and insights into many of them; a
consequence of the editors having gone to great efforts to secure the world
leaders in the assigned topics where possible. Indeed, the list of contributors
reads rather like a Who's Who of mycology.

The whole is well-presented with numerous
figures, many of which are in colour, and all chapters have extensive reference
lists. The price is far from unreasonable for such a massive hard-bound work,
and as this is a real vade mecum for mycology all mycological libraries should
acquire a copy, and I am sure most mycologists will also aspire to own one. The
editors are to be congratulated on this truly momentous achievement."

-BOOK NEWS REVIEW (NO INDIVIDUAL
REVIEWER NOTED)

REVIEW 2

A fabulous book that presents a broad
overview of our current knowledge of the fungi, with individual chapters
written by leading scientists and assembled by an editorial panel of
distinguished mycologists. A wonderful resource for anyone interested in the
fungal kingdom.

-Bruce McDonald,lang=EN-CA> Plant Pathology, Institute of Integrative Biology, Zurich"