It's hard for me to talk about Nathan Ballingrud's The Strange without thinking of Charles Portis's True Grit. Like Portis's classic, The Strange is the story of a precocious and strong-willed girl who sets out into a harsh and unforgiving wilderness to seek revenge for a crime perpetrated against her family. It's just that, instead of being on the western frontier, The Strange takes place on an unsettled Mars, and that quest finds our heroine making her way into a mining camp whose excavations of a native Martian metal have left the camp's inhabitants deeply changed. Far from the nightmarish and Barker-esque horrors of Wounds, The Strange straddles the line between Western and science-fiction ably, sprinkling in a little dose of horror for flavoring, but anchoring its tale in its prickly, stubborn, naive young narrator whose solipsistic concern has consequences that she can't foresee. Ballingrud's depiction of Mars and its technology is fascinating, and the ongoing thread of just how this planet is affecting its machinery is never less than compelling and a little unsettling; for all of that, though, what really hits home here are the moments when young Anabelle is forced to see things in a new way, be those things her own actions or the way of the world. The Strange fizzles out a little bit at the end; while Anabelle's story comes to a close, it feels like the end of a season, not a series, and ultimately left me a little disappointed (even though, again, the True Grit parallels are obvious). But that's a small knock on The Strange, which creates a fascinating and rich world, populates it with great characters, gives me a flawed but earnest heroine, and a great Western tale of revenge that takes place in an utterly alien world. It's a glorious blend of genres that I ripped through and hated to see come to an end.

Thanks to Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC of Nathan Ballingrud's 'The Strange.'

The description of 'The Strange' tickled my fancy but I did not expect to be blown away by it. I was.

What a wonderful combination of steampunk, sci-fi, 19th century adventurer/sci-fi fiction in the style of H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan-Doyle, and H. Rider Haggard (the latter both of which are cleverly referenced multiple times throughout the book), frontier adventuring, as well as touches of 'Dune' and a major nod to Ray Bradbury's 'The Martian Chronicles.'

A young teenage girl - the narrator - battles the harsh realities and unknown alien-ness of life on 1930s (yes 1930s) Mars that has lost contact with Earth.

There's a cast of intriguing characters of the human and non-human kind and a possible planetary consciousness and a lovely off-kilter feel to the whole novel.

I noticed though that through all the weirdness and alien-ness of this reimagined Mars exploration timeline, real life issues of colonialism, racism, climate and environmental destruction are at play throughout. Very subtly and cleverly done.

The narrator is an old woman at the beginning and the end of the book and I hope Nathan Ballingrud finds the time and the inclination to revisit her and fill in some of her adventures on Mars.

Bravo

The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud Strange, indeed. Part science fiction, fantasy, horror, western, speculative fiction and the supernatural, this adventure tale is strangely intriguing, riveting, and at times creepy. Mr Ballingrud has created a unique world view of Mars with vivid descriptions and relatable albeit flawed characters. Combative robots, split personality ghosts, magic mushrooms, flesh eating moths, a permeative green mist and an endless abyss add interesting and unexpected elements to the story. Throughly enjoyed the adventures of Annabelle Crisp, her friend Watson, Joe, Sally and all the characters with whom she came in contact.

Thank you to the author, Nathan Ballingrud, Gallery Books, Gallery / Saga Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

This was my first finished book of 2023 and I started the year off RIGHT. Annabelle Crisp is a 13 year old helping her father run a diner on New Galveston Mars in the year 1931. One fateful night a group of robbers come in and steal the last remaining memento of her mother...a voice recording. Annabelle sets out to right this wrong and find her mothers voice, but ends up finding her own.

Ballingrud paints a powerful and haunting portrait of what humanity really means on a visionary version of Mars. Masterfully making us care about even the side characters and villains, the world building and pacing of this was superb.

If you love space westerns this will be a good book for you, but even if you don't the writing will stay with you. Will definitely be checking out the author's other work.

I enjoyed Ballingrud's short story collection, North American Lake Monsters, so I was excited to read this. I really liked this story about abandoned and haunted Martian colonists, told through the perspective of a young girl. The desperation and dissolution of the abandoned colony towns and the mysterious Martian landscape make this an unsettling read overall.

Not me googling "what exactly is steampunk" to figure out why this story takes place in 1931.

This is a classic, gritty, steampunk (!) sci-fi novel with elements of western and horror. Nathan Ballingrud did an amazing job creating the voice of his character Belle, a thirteen-year-old girl living on the United States' Mars colony. Belle has been THROUGH it, and she spends the novel going THROUGH it some more.

I liked that her character was traumatized, yet headstrong and determined. The other colonists consider her prickly and friendless, but as a narrator I found her super likeable and relatable (maybe I am also prickly and friendless?).

There is a creepiness factor to the story as well, some supernatural horror elements. It was a good mix of genres, an engaging story with great writing and sympathetic characters.

Thank you to Ballingrud and NetGalley for the ARC. I loved it.

Some people think I'm an opinionated bastard, and perhaps they're right. (I mean, yeah, they're right.)

If there's anything people are crucified for in this world in this day and age, it's having an opinion, but since I'm here, and you're reading this, I think I will let you have mine.

I gave Nathan Ballingrud's forthcoming novel 5 stars. And that's not something I do very often. Hand out five stars to a book. For me, a 3 star novel is a fun, entertaining read, one that might have some flaws, but essentially hits most of the marks. 4 star novels are really good books. Better than average.

With all the areas I grade a novel on, it's not surprising 5 stars is rare, but here, with Nathan Ballingrud's forthcoming book, I can definitely say I felt this deserved a 5 star rating.

So, why am I giving it 5 stars?

1st, I enjoyed reading these character's stories, as portrayed by Miss Annabelle Crisp, the protagonist of the novel. She's a realistic young woman who's caught up in the injustices of life when a gang robs her family's diner one evening. She's hurt by the event, and finally sees her father's failings on full display. She wants the protection she feels justice will provide her, and when no one is willing to offer it, she seeks it out on her own.

Her story is relatable to many, and the narrative does a great job of showing how gray some areas in life really are. The narrative never shies away from some of the difficult questions in life, and works to discuss some of those questions with a simplicity many other novels fail to grasp in contemporary society.

2nd, the story is fantastic and weird. Plot wise, the story is simple and doesn't deviate from the path it's on. This is a positive for the book, and allows Ballingrud to introduce a number of elements he excels at--weird and bizarre happenings. Flying saucers, space moths that inhabit dead bodies, mushrooms and rocks filled with a wondrous Martian drug, and Civil War Robots intent on harming humans are on full display and the story never suffers from these excursions into weird fiction.

3rd, the prose is readable, paints and vivid picture, and never lacks for a moment. It only serves the narrative and easily keeps the reader engaged and willing to keep turning pages.

4th, the story is what matters to this book. Too often, stories these days lose their way in light of portraying the author's motivations and sensibilities rather than the character's. This can jolt me out of the story rather quickly and it'll take me a minute to get back into the narrative. For instance, I just read another book where the view point character made comments based on today's attitudes and sensibilities, and yet, she's from another time, another place, one foreign to those living in today's society. Although those comments were seemingly insignificant, the author inadvertently drove me straight out of the world she had so wonderfully built. (I still loved that book as well). This narrative kept me involved by letting the characters take me on a journey rather than the author, and that showed the deft hand of the author in doing so.

5th. Is the book a perfect book? Not by any means. What book is? At times some of Annabelle's motivations seem to shift. At other times, it feels like there could be more clarity about what's actually happening with The Strange. There's also a few unanswered questions (not super huge ones) I would have liked to seen explored. However, I truly enjoyed this journey to a Mars quite different from the Mars we know. A fantastic version full of 1930s diners, Victorian speaking butler robots, and truly alien life. So if you're looking for a page turning read that contains a compelling discussion on what justice means, take a peek at Nathan Ballingrud's The Strange.

It's fun to see this capable short story author putting out some more, longer works.

And since I'm giving you my opinion. 5 stars. It was fun.

Thanks for to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

“There’s gonna be a reckoning, and I’m gonna deliver it.”

I first discovered @ballingrud thanks to my dear friend Juliet. She had leant me “North American Lake Monsters” which I, of course, put off reading for months. Until, sitting at Heathrow Airport with nothing to do (after spending way too much money at the Harry Potter store) I finally dragged it out of my carry on.

That collection of short stories kept me company the entire night, and since then I’ve eagerly devoured anything he puts out. So getting approved for this ARC was far more exciting than it probably should have been.

Ballingrud’s first full length novel, The Strange is billed as a cross between The Martian Chronicles and True Grit, and that’s maybe the most accurate description of any book I’ve read. His writing is, as always, lyrically beautiful and utterly disturbing. His characters are haunted and broken, and morally dubious to the extreme, which just makes them all the more enticing. There are no good guys or bad guys in The Strange. Just humans trying to survive each other as much as the ghostly terrain of Mars.

The Strange is has haunting imagery, and several intricate action set pieces, but it’s the emotional devastation that will stick with you.

Space…the final frontier.
What if someone took that literally and wrote a science fiction book that turned Mars into the wild, wild west. Why not, right? Both are dusty, prone to violent outbursts, and by and large unwelcoming to intelligent life.
Maybe that’s how this book came about.
Strange indeed. This novel is a rather peculiar mishmash of western and science fiction. I don’t care for the former, but I had hoped the latter would offset it sufficiently. And to be fair, it nearly did. Nearly.
I love all things Mars. It’s one of my favorite armchair travel destinations. So yeah, I was excited for this trip to the red planet, even though its protagonist was a young child, barely a teen, even though everyone talked in She don’ts and I ain’ts.
But now that I’ve returned and can assess the adventure in retrospect, it left something to be desired.
It was interesting, yes. The world of the novel is based on alternative historical past of Americans somehow making it to Mars as early as 1800s and inexplicably founding it able to (comfortably enough) sustain them. From there on, it gets to be a semi-regular exchange of good and labor until it suddenly and terrifyingly stops, leaving the settlers isolated and stranded. It’s what they refer to as The Silence.
Competently done, nicely written, with strong protagonists, all that yes. Some really awesome imagery too. It's just the faux nostalgic, gee-haw, country-fried tone of the narrative didn’t quite work for me.
Other than that, it was a pretty entertaining read. So yeah, if you want some of that red dust in your face, go Strange. Thanks Netgalley.

"1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance."

This is the perfect set up to this book. Anabelle is a 14 year old girl coming of age in what amounts to a mining town during the gold rush, full of an assortment of characters, all unique, all memorable. Throw in some fantasy and suspense, and you have The Strange.

I have to say that while I loved the characters, the world building is what totally drew me in! Desolate and mysterious, and a little terrifying, full of the unknown and things you only imagine in your nightmares.

"A dark serration ridged the horizon, marking the boundary of the vast Peabody Crater. This was where huge deposits of the Strange breached the surface, eroded by the wind and blowing freely over the sand. Where ghosts were rumored to wander. I wondered if you could see them from here."

While the world building was phenomenal, the story was largely character driven, with the action coming in a close second (or would that be third?). You would start out thinking you knew where the story was taking you, and then it would take a sharp turn in another direction. This kept you on your toes and on the edge of your seat!

All told, I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Gallery Books, Gallery / Saga Press, and Nathan Ballingrud for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Nathan Ballingrud is a master craftsman of short horror fiction and he does not disappoint jumping genres for his stellar debut novel. The surreal world of 1930s Mars proves an excellent setting for this tale of a young girl's quest to save her family and Ballingrud showcases great skill building flawed but sympathetic characters hardened by life on the red planet. His considerable knack for the grotesque emerges periodically throughout the story and is both beautiful and freakish. The work of a great modern American fabulist.

Nathan Ballingrud is a master of world-building. In his previous short stories and novellas he has been able to pain vivid pictures of strange, horrific, and beautiful worlds. They are always populated with multi-dimensional characters experience incredible things. The Strange is a continuation and expansion of this. Set in an alternate past where Mars was colonized by humans in the 19th century, the world has traces of the familiar with plenty of surprises along the way. While the plot is full of fantastical & haunting moments, Ballingrud never forgets that characters are the most important. Anna Crisp is beautifully realized protagonist, prone to make big mistakes that we can always relate with. She’s a kid coming of age in a dangerous world full of ghosts. My highest recommendation goes out for this excellent novel.

The Strange is a kind of True Grit on Mars--where Mars has been colonized by (mostly American) earthlings in the late 1800s. Set in the 1930s after an unknown event has cut off all communication between the earth and Mars, it follows the adventures of smart and tough Anabelle Crisp as she fights for her father's dignity, her family's livelihood, and her own life. Anabelle encounters thieves, pilots, explorers, the exploited, the hopeful, the rough, the snooty, ghosts and animals, and much more, in her quest. There is so much great and wonderful storytelling and imagination at work here, I didn't want it to end. More, please?

Ebook received for free through NetGalley

I didn’t realize how much I missed old school science fiction books until I started this book. Loved this from the moment I picked it up to the moment I sadly needed to put it down as I finished it. So glad I came across it and had the opportunity.