The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud
The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
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The Strange

Author: Nathan Ballingrud

Narrator: Sophie Amoss

Unabridged: 10 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/21/2023


Synopsis

A Locus Award Finalist
“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.

About Nathan Ballingrud

Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts in 1970, but spent most of his life in the South. Ballingrud is the author of the collections North American Lake Monsters and Wounds: Six stories from the Border of Hell. He’s been awarded two Shirley Jackson Awards, and have shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards. Among other things, he has been a cook on oil rigs and barges, a waiter, and a bartender in New Orleans. He now lives in North Carolina.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gareth on May 01, 2023

What a fun and captivating, out-of-this-world read this turned out to be. 'My name is Annabelle Crisp. This is the story of what happened to me, what I did about it, and the consequences thereof.' This book is called The Strange and as the title suggests, this is a very strange yet hypnotising novel.......more

Goodreads review by Mallory on March 11, 2023

The title is certainly 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 h......more

Goodreads review by Sadie on April 30, 2023

I buddy read this with a friend which was great because there are so many things to talk about while reading this book. Full review in-coming just wanted to say that this is a contender for 2023 Top Ten.......more

Mixed feelings about this one. The Strange is a sci-fi Western set in an alternate 1930's on Mars, with horror elements. At times it's a very engaging, propulsive read with interesting ideas and a creeping sense of horror. It took me awhile to get into it, I think because the prose intentionally giv......more

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) on April 07, 2023

4.0 Stars This was a solid space western that took on a fun horror twist. As someone who loves Firefly and The Mandelorian, I love the aesthetics of this niche subgenre. The prose was spot on, creating a genuine historical western feel even though the story was set on a future Mars. However I will al......more


Quotes

"Sophie Amoss nails the soft Texas accent of the main character in Ballingrud's first novel, which takes place on Mars in 1931...Amoss shines in her ability to maneuver between characters, including a British robot."

“Ballingrud stretches the boundaries of the genre by employing these grand worlds.”

The most enjoyable novel I’ve read in years, no contest. Before The Strange, I never realized I wanted to be marooned on the dustbowl of Mars, joining an epic quest through ghost towns haunted by the living. Ballingrud is already a master of literary horror, his short stories consistently brilliant. But in his page-turner of a debut novel, that talent radiates brighter than ever before.”

“Ballingrud’s brilliant fiction brims with imagination, integrity (I do not use that term lightly), and an authentic world-weary dread that bores directly into your heart.”

“Ballingrud is one of my favorite contemporary authors. His work is elegant and troublingly, wonderfully disturbing.

“A definite page-turner. The writing is lovely and poetic and a perfect mix of well-written action and character.”

"The Strange conjures a Bradbury-esque sense of childhood longing and creates a scrappy heroine that brings to mind True Grit, and yet it is utterly original and surprising. His wonderfully lyric work always feels as if it's part of a dream you once had and never told to anyone—yet somehow Ballingrud knows."

The Strange is an adventure tale of the best kind: an unusual setting with vivid characters and an unpredictable ending. With every turn of the page, I wondered what would happen next.”

“A surprising, thrilling, emotionally powerful bildungsroman. The Strange is an instant classic.”

"A propulsive story that reads like a love letter to the space western."