4 stars

A hypnotic sci-fi version of a western set on Mars- but it isn't this next great frontier, it's a sad and struggling place. It has some horror element that were really well done, and not over the top. Everything is described in a way that you feel like you are there, going over the red sand with them. It has some great unexplained elements, along with a great narrator. I loved both Anabelle, Sally, Watson,(I want a kitchen robot) and the Widow and their roles in the story. Every character and element felt very unique and distinct. I found the ending a little rushed and lacking after such a great time during most of the book, but it could have been my expectations that it would have more to say about family and complicated love.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting story and a quick read. It reminded me of True Grit (I don’t usually make comparisons but that what I kept thinking as I was reading) but on Mars. Sci Fi western with some horror elements mixed in. The story takes some interesting turns but might still leave the reader with unanswered questions. There’s enough info for the reader to speculate on but I know some people don’t like that and need to be told. The book lives up to it’s title and is definitely strange but in a good way.

A story about living in space but now they are cut off from earth no more ships going back and forth. Anabelle is in space with her dad in New Galveston and her mother is on earth after going back for a funeral. All is odd but staying in a type of stasis called the silence until the night a man from another town, Silas, attacks.
This book is new, refreshing, and full of action. I think this book will be on many peoples TBR list.

4.5 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.

At once sci fi and coming of age, this novel is enchanting and frightening. The settings is Mars, in 1931. Annabelle and her family came to Mars as the first settlers to New Galveston. Annabelle is now 14, and most of her life has been spent on Mars. Her mother left years ago to return to Earth to care for her ailing mother, but somewhere along the way, travel between Earth and Mars stopped. No one on Mars knows why.

Annabelle and her father work a small diner in New Galveston. They get customers from the mines - where they harvest the strange, a local mineral that was sent back to Earth to help power the machines, aka robots, that are assistants on Mars. The people who live near the mines absorb something from the strange that makes their eyes glow green. There are also rumors that it will make you crazy, eventually.

When one of the gangs from the mining area robs the diner, they steal what’s left of Annabelle’s mother - a recording of her voice that keeps both Annabelle and her father going. When everything in her father’s life falls apart after that robbery, Annabelle determines she has to set things right. So she goes off in search of the person who stole her ‘mother.’ What she doesn’t realize is how treacherous this search might be. And how it will forever change her future.

Kind of crazy to think of Mars being inhabited by Americans as early as 1931, before so many historical events happened on Earth. It’s hard to imagine humans even residing on Mars with what we know now. But this book really dives into human nature and how easily the balance can be upset by one event. I found this novel to be thought provoking, but also riveting. Annabelle is technically just a teenager but has more maturity in some ways, and in others is just a kid who expects things to be a certain way. I loved reading this novel.

The title is certainly;ly appropriate because this is a strange book, but in such a good way. This is a bit of an old school science fiction story set on Mars after what they call the Silence, when they stopped hearing anything from Earth without any explanation. The narrator for this story is a very hard girl named Annabelle who is set on vengeance after a series of events take everything dear to her away. Annabelle was hard to like at times, but she was a great narrator for the harsh and strange lands of Mars. Annabelle has lived her whole life in the main colony on Mars and finds out how little she knows about her home. I liked the writing a lot and this was a very exciting story that was a quick read.

An intriguing (and a bit frustrating) alternate time line sci fi novel. It's 1931 and the settlers of Mars have lost contact with Earth. This leads to upheaval among the population and most of all for Annabelle, a teen whose mother has left the planet and whose father owns the diner which has been the epicenter of the problems. This is her story and she's a great character but the rest of this was a challenge for me likely because this is not really my genre. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of science fiction and dystopia.

Fourteen-year-old Annabelle is stuck on Mars with her dad. They’ve fallen into a routine where she splits her time going to school and helping him out at the diner. One night, a group of creepy cultists steal their stockpile of food, a precious possession, and her father’s dignity. After finding no assistance from the sheriff, Annabelle sets out across the harsh Martian landscape with her trusty Kitchen Engine Watson and the town pariah on a quest to retrieve the dear item and revive her father’s hope.

I absolutely loved the Western feel and the weird world of the Strange. Annabelle makes an outstanding protagonist as she is an underdog with a ton of fight inside her. The alternate history aspect really worked for me as did the uncertainty of the Silence, the loss of contact with Earth that made Annabelle ponder why they’d lost contract with Earth.

The book is split into three sections: What Happened, What I Did About It, and the Consequences Thereof, which created a great structure. Having so many strong female characters in Annabelle, Sally, Widow Kessler, and the assistant sheriff was one of the many reasons I found the book a joy to read.

The outstanding world building with the Strange, a bizarre ore with magical properties, the robotic Engines with very specific job functions, and the factions that developed over the years on Mars enhanced the story as Ballingrud made every element critical to the story. The Strange, Ballingrud’s first novel, showcases his stellar storytelling abilities.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great story, especially fans of weird fiction/horror, science fiction, westerns, and/or alternate history.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

This book was pretty out of my comfort zone to be honest - I do like sci-fi but am not really interested in westerns or even just that kind of historical/speculative fiction. And it was kind of a mix for me; I liked the setting, and the characters were very compelling - Annabelle is interesting to say the least! And the writing was top notch - I blew right thru the book in a couple of days. Despite it not really being my kind of story the author kept me engaged anyways which is impressive.

Thanks Net Galley and the publisher for a review copy!

4.5/5. This was an engaging (albeit maddening at times) alternate history. Interesting character development even if the interaction between the adolescent protagonist and adult counterparts wasn’t entirely believable.

The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud is an engrossing read.. A superb job with plot and characters. Well worth the read.

With the same mixture of western and science fiction that made Star Wars or Firefly famous, The Strange is a story set in Mars. It is gorgeously written and it doesn’t describe the environment so much as plant fully formed images into your head. The world-building is very accomplished. My problem with this book is how much I disliked the main character. Anabelle is supposed to be spunky but I found her unbearably obnoxious. I understand that she’s a teenager, but every single decision she makes is ill-advised and costs someone something dear, including many people’s lives. The MacGuffin is so silly, that I was expecting someone, somewhere, to slap her and move on. Many tell her how immature she is, but they still indulge her. I liked the rest of the characters, especially Watson the robot. This is not a bad book at all but my dislike for Anabelle was an insurmountable problem for me to enjoy it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Gallery Books, Gallery / Saga Press!

"How could there be a memory, without a mind to conjure it? To feel ashamed by it, or to ache for it?"

A delightfully creepy space Western featuring headstrong and often annoying child Anabelle Crisp taking matters into her own hands after her family's diner is robbed, and heading off into the wilds of Mars beyond small colony town New Galveston to recover a stolen memory of her mother. The <i>True Grit</i>-flavored story of Anabelle's struggle to right the wrongs against her family while slowly being forced out of her strict black and white morality is fun enough, but I loved the unsettling layer of Mars-as-haunted-house, animated by ghostly memories who are slowly becoming the real Martians.

A riotous romp across Martian soil in the vein of a good old fashioned western. Our heroine is the epitome of gumption as she chases down a man who stole something precious from her family, and in doing so completely altered her family's course. Belle has a foul mouth and a foul attitude at the hand she's been dealt, but her journey through the harsh Martian landscape is founded on her idea of making things right. Throw in an alien land that alters the inhabitants over time, some strange and scary machinery, and a few crass characters, and we are set for the next great adventure. Things get a little weird as we learn about The Strange (yes, it's literally strange), and this adds that wonderful dash of sci-fi to our steampunk Martian adventure story. Such a mashup of genres but Ballingrud delivers on every one. Highly recommend.

A different kind of book, one that bends expectations and blends genres with wonderful ease. It was way out of my comfort zone, but I really appreciate the experience of reading it. The setting and the writing style were the highlight for me. I can recommend it, especially to those who like science fiction or perhaps even horror.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Gallery Books/ Saga Press for an advanced copy of this speculative fiction novel of a young girl looking for revenge in a new kind of frontier.

A young lady is working at her father diner's excited to be closing early as her favorite movie, The Lost World, will be playing in her small town. A man enters demands coffee, words are passed and soon her father is on the floor unconscious and the diner is robbed of food and anything useful to bandits living in the desert. Since the year is 1931 the Sheriff is called, but plans to make a posse are dashed as the nights are too dark, and the bandits might be dangerous. Life on Mars is not one of safety, security, or even justice, not since communication with the Earth ended. The Strange is a book that defies description, is it science fiction/ revenge novel with a bit of Bildungsroman, is it a dystopian western novel set on a distant planet, or something different. Author Nathan Ballingrud goes against genre, conventions and reader expectations crafting a unique novel, with an engaging and powerful character, set on a planet far away, and yet close to what we know.

Anabelle Crisp is fourteen years old and not shy to voice her thoughts on people, both colonists, and thieves, partly because she considers them both lazy and losers. Anabelle works for her father who is not been the same since her mother returned to Earth from Mars, before The Silence, an ending of communication with Earth. On a night when Anabelle is going to see her favorite movie, The Lost World written by her favorite writer Arthur Conan Doyle, the father is assaulted, and the the diner robbed. Stolen is the last message of Anabelle's mother, the only words she has from her. Anabelle makes the decision that she is going to get it back. Enlisting the aide of others she sets out in the harsh Martian landscape with vengeance in her heart, but finding a lot worse.

A book that takes any reader's expectations and tosses them to the side. The time is 1931, almost seventy years after a young man who was expected to fight and possibly die in the Civil War took a chance on escaping to Mars. The best part about this is it happened, the story takes place on Mars deal with it. Nathan Ballingrud takes no prisoners and offers no explanations. This is the story, here's what happened. And it is a great story. The idea, the plotting all seem familiar from Winter's Bone to True Grit, but is told so well, so different in setting and ideas, that one can't stop reading. What odd situation will happen next. Disbelieve is not just suspended, it is not even given a chance to come up. Anabelle is a fascinating character. Yes she is a girl old for her age who likes to read, but she is a lot more. Much more. There is a strength in her character that shows in her portrayal, it does not have to be reiterated constantly by the author. There are many ideas tossed on a page that other authors would make entire series out of. The writing is strong, without being a parody of other books like this, but is unique in its style and storytelling.

A book that really is hard to pigeonhole, and one that stays with the reader just thinking of certain scenes and actions. And the bravery of not only Anabelle, but of Nathan Ballingrud for writing this. I am looking forward to more books by Ballingrud, and can't wait to see what comes next.

One of the greatest joys in reading is being transported to another reality, another realm, another dimension, a different time, and sharing in the imaginings and musings of a skilled author as they relate their tale. Nathan Ballingrud is a master at this, and the swift elasticity he has with telling stories set within, and often intermingling between, various genres shouldn't surprise anyone who has read his short story collections. If you've read Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, then I'm sure you understand. So to have him tackle a science fiction-alternate history-western mash-up on a ghost riddled Mars with such a deft and assured hand is hardly surprising, but it is still worth marveling over.

The set-up is surprisingly simple given all the peculiarities surrounding it. After their diner is robbed and the Sheriff of New Gavleston is too lazy to do anything about it, Annabelle Crisp sets out across the sands to retrieve the most priceless of that which was stolen: the last recording of her mother's voice. Oh, and those peculiarities I mentioned? Well, The Strange is set on Mars, you see. In 1931.

Far from the hard science fiction of an author like, say, Alastair Reynolds, Ballingrud opts for the more fantastical spirits of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, giving us a broad overview of this alternate history. Seeking to escape enlistment into the Civil War, Chauncy Peabody launched himself into space and settled on the red planet. More people followed, like the Crisp family. With them came a new age of prosperity and wonder...until all contact with Earth was lost in what came to be known as The Silence.

Some readers may find themselves lost amidst the lack of details or historical accuracy to shore up Ballingrud's setting, but I had little difficulty escaping into the author's flight of fancy. I was hooked right from the outset and regretted having to put the book down each time I was forced to contend with reality (given the state of reality, can you blame me?). I easily set aside whatever disbelief I had and allowed myself to set foot on Martian soil, eagerly joining Annabelle's campaign alongside the rough-and-tumble outlaw, a drunk, and her robot companion as they left New Gavelston for the wilder and much more dangerous Dig Town, and the Martian desert beyond.

Does it matter at all that Civil War-era America lacked the technology and capabilities to reach Mars, let alone establish any kind of outpost? Not one single whit, as far as I was concerned. I didn't care. Neither does Ballingrud, and thank goodness for that. The dude's following his muse, and I respect the hell out of his ability to carve out a tale and not let silly things like facts or historical accuracy get in the way of something this good. It's a fantasy that's as beautiful as it is occasionally grotesque and macabre. It's also a testament to the fact that an author worth his salt, with a voice so captivating, can spiel together a string of otherwise preposterous hooks and have you so willingly take the bait, catch yourself on his line, and allow yourself to be reeled in so fully.

A human settlement on Mars circa the 1930s is utterly ridiculous, but for a few solid handful of hours I did believe and was fully invested in this whole damn what-if. And it's Annabelle herself that sells it wholesale. She's a mean-tempered, hostile, justice-seeking teenager, angry and ambitious, and fueled by hot-headed justifications. She's so well-grounded and relatable it's hard not to root for her. She's been scorned, let down, and struck with the understanding of how corrupt those around her really are. All of her child-like innocence is snuffed out in one violent night and a red-hot need is all that's left to drive her forward. Annabelle grounds the whole damn thing, and you get sucked right into her orbit alongside her small band of outlaws because she looms large off the page.

The Strange is a marvelous concoction of disparate ideas, but they all join together seamlessly to create a single unified world that reads like True Grit by way of Edgar Rice Burroughs (but, thankfully, without his racism). That Balllingrud is able to execute this story with some clear-headed precision and skill is a testament. He's not just a damn good author, he's a fucking con artist, and I mean that in the best way possible! We should all be grateful this man chose to be a writer instead of a snake-oil salesman, because after this book I fear the kind of grifts he'd be capable of pulling off.

Life on Mars is strange, and that is the truth. As is the fact that this part western, part science fiction, part horror story is proving hard for me to write a decent review.
Annabelle is angry so very very angry. Life on Mars hasn’t been especially easy and when her family’s business, The Mother Earth Diner is robbed and her father is injured, it sets in motion a series of catastrophic events. When her father makes a bad situation worse, Annabel is determined to retrieve the one thing that means the world to him.
Ultimately, this is the story of a girl Annabel, who is too young to be thrust into this impossible situation. Her mother has gone back to earth, her father is broken, and all she can see is that the adults around her are cowards and thieves. Annabel has one goal, to reclaim something that was stolen, but in doing so, she learns more about Mars than she ever imagined. Her knowledge is limited, so there are many things about The Strange, Mars, and what happened on earth, that we will never know, since the story is only told from her POV. Still, I felt bad for her and hoped she would manage to get some kind of justice. It definitely ended abruptly, but that is probably because I was still hoping for more answers. At only a bit over 300 pages, it was a quick read, and it definitely held my interest. One sentence to sum it up, different,definitely different and enjoyable.

This was super unique! (And also much shorter than I thought it was going to be, haha). Super tightly plotted and well-paced, this work is a ride from start to finish. The premise for this book is also really interesting and I think that this will appeal to people who like alt-history with a sci-fi twist (1930s Mars). Super cool!

I would like to thank Gallery books for a digital copy of this novel via NetGalley. This novel really worked for me. It's a story of revenge told in three parts. It's also a story of loss and acceptance. It's hard to pin this down into one genre. It's the period of the Old West in a Mars setting. Communication has seized between Earth and Mars. Anabelle and her dad find themselves in Mars. When their diner is burglarized, this sets off a series of events that finds Anabelle's dad in jail and Anabelle seeking revenge. She's out to recover the last recording of her mom from the thieves along with her friend and sidekick Watson, a talking dishwasher. This may sound like it doesn't make any sense, but somehow it all worked. There are themes of loss and as well as issues of class. Sometimes, you read a book because of the interesting and bold premise. Oftentimes, the execution falls short of the premise. This is one case where the author absolutely nailed the execution. 4.5 stars.

1931, New Galveston, Mars. Mother Earth Diner stands cold in the early evening. A posse of bandits leave the lone restaurant in a swirling cloud of dust. Sam, the diner's owner, lies on the floor of the back kitchen, dazed & bleeding. His daughter, Anabelle, sits with him, a deep fury in her eyes. Her mother's voice has been stolen, sending Anabelle on a path of revenge that could alter not only her family's lives, but all life on Mars.
~
~
~
In his previous story collections, Nathan Ballingrud has proven his knack for telling grounded, character-driven stories that masquerade in genre fiction veils, & his debut novel, THE STRANGE, is no different.
~
On the book's surface, Ballingrud employs hefty doses of retro futurism, which bathe the story in a unique, sci-fi-tinted light. Flying saucers exist next to vintage American diners, & advanced, humanoid robots run alongside Wild West-esque outlaws. It's a vivid & envleoping world, simultaneously past & future.
~
At its core, though, is a coming-of-age tale revolving around themes of loneliness & isolation. & although the narrative is relatively straightforward & uncomplicated, the moral landscape Ballingrud presents is quite the opposite: it's intricate, complex, & full of grays. There are no easy answers. There is only doing the best for what you believe in.
~
THE STRANGE is a human story set in an inhuman world. Its beating heart is wrapped in a translucent, alien skin & still, it seethes, breathes, and gushes life. It's a novel that won't let go until you've traversed its mountains, valleys, & craters. It sandblasts your heart, then mends it, then sandblasts it again. & when the last page finally arrives, you'll be the one who won't want to let go.