1907: ‘The Voice In The Night’ by William Hope Hodgson

Hertzsprung-Russell rating: A10.5

Available in: Voices From The Radium Age

A shipwrecked sailor discovers a mysterious island (it’s always a mysterious island; just once I’d like to read a story about a straightforward, completely forthright island with absolutely nothing to hide) where a weird fungus gradually envelops his entire body. It’s like Matthew McConaughey’s famous line from Dazed & Confused: “Sometimes people are on mushrooms and sometimes mushrooms are on people.” He seems like a fungi.