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"Stretches the boundaries of the genre." —The New York Times
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 in this "page-turner" (Rebecca Roanhorse, New York Times bestselling author of Black Sun) from Nathan Ballingrud.
Since Anabelle's mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Galveston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father's diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher, as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked.
At once evoking the dreams of an America explored in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and the harsher realities of frontier life in Charles Portis True Grit, Ballingrud's "brilliant" (Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World) novel is haunting in its evocation of Annabelle's quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world accompanied by a domestic Engine, a drunken space pilot, and the toughest woman on Mars.
Nathan Ballingrud's stories have been adapted into the film Wounds and the Hulu series Monsterland, The Strange is his first novel.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 21, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781534449978
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781534449978
- File size: 3917 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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October 1, 2022
With her mother having returned to Earth to tend family, 14-year-old Annabelle Crisp spends quiet nights in father's diner in 1930s New Galveston, Mars. Then the Silence descends, and an attack by Silas Mundt's gang irreparably harms her family, leaving Annabelle intent on revenge. A debut novel from Ballingrud, a two-time Shirley Jackson Award winner for his stories.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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January 9, 2023
Ballingrud (Wounds) explores how isolation can lead to desperation in this ambitious but not wholly successful speculative horror novel set in an alternate 1930s wherein humanity has already achieved multiple permanent settlements on Mars. It’s an exciting premise, but Ballingrud doesn’t do much with it; despite the specificity of the alternate timeline, this shares an aesthetic with countless other generic space westerns. When contact between Mars and Earth is abruptly cut off, panic sets in among the Martian settlers. People supposedly afflicted with madness caused by a mineral ore known as the Strange ransack Anabelle Crisp’s family’s restaurant and assault 14-year-old Anabelle and her father, Samuel. Samuel kills one of the assailants and is arrested for murder, sending a furious Anabelle on a quest for both vengeance and the return of recordings of her earthbound mother’s voice, taken in the robbery. Traveling with her across the Martian deserts are Watson, her robot dishwasher friend; Sally Milkwood, an outlaw supply runner; and Joe Reilly, an Earth-to-Mars pilot turned town drunk. While their perilous journey is suspenseful, and unraveling the horrible secrets of the Strange makes a fascinating mystery, the unsatisfactory conclusion leaves more questions than it answers. Readers will put this down being more frustrated than fulfilled. Agent: Renee Zuckerbrot, Massie & Mcquilkin. -
Starred review from January 1, 2023
Ballingrud, author of the short story collection Wounds (2019) and winner of two Shirley Jackson awards, sets his debut novel on Mars in 1931, where a fledgling human colony struggles to survive on the stark Martian terrain after losing touch with Earth a year prior. Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp's mother returned to Earth to care for her dying mother just before communication was lost, leaving Anabelle and her father, Sam, with just a recorded cylinder of her voice to cling to while they continue to run their family diner. Anabelle's world is turned upside down when thieves attack the diner, taking with them the precious cylinder among other loot. Things go from bad to worse when another incident at the diner leaves a man dead and Anabelle's father in prison. Anabelle sets off on her own, with only the family's robot helper, Watson, to find the thieves, recover the cylinder, and take her revenge. Rife with literary references, from True Grit (1968) to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Ray Bradbury, Ballingrud's tale offers a visceral portrait of the haunting Martian landscape and of the unflinching pioneers who populate it in a gorgeously textured sf western full of action, danger, and heartbreak.COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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November 1, 2022
DEBUT After a catastrophic event termed "The Silence," the Mars colony has been completely cut off from Earth. Anabelle's mother was back on Earth when it happened, and now all the family has left is a treasured recording of her voice. Anabelle is understandably angry when their diner is ransacked, her father is injured, and the recording is stolen. She vows vengeance when authorities do nothing. Along with Watson, her beloved household robot, and a couple of petty criminals, she sets off into the dangerous outback known as the Strange to recover the recording. What she doesn't realize is that humans aren't alone on Mars. Not by a long shot. The situation is far more fragile and serious than she can even imagine. VERDICT Ballingrud, whose story collection North American Lake Monsters was adapted as the Hulu TV series Monsterland, makes his full-length novel debut with this Wild West frontier story on Mars that edges into horror.--Laurel Bliss
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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