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The Strange

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The Strange

By: Nathan Ballingrud
Narrated by: Lyssa Browne
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Ray Bradbury meets The Martian in this chilling tale of Mars' first colony, fallen to madness after all contact with Earth ceased, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer.

Anabelle Crisp is fourteen when the Silence arrives, severing all communication between Earth and her new home on Mars. One evening, while she and her father are closing their diner in the colony of New Galveston, they are robbed at gunpoint.

Among the stolen items is a recording of her absent mother’s voice. Driven by righteous fury and desperation to lift her father’s broken spirits, Anabelle sets out to confront the thieves and bring back the sole vestige of her mother. Accompanied by her loyal robot, an outcast pilot and a hardened outlaw, Anabelle must travel through derelict mining towns where a mineral called the Strange has transformed its residents in bizarre ways, across the Martian desert and to the shadowy Peabody Crater where she will discover than New Galveston, once a safe haven, is nothing more than a guttering candle in a dark world.©2023 Nathan Ballingrud (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Adventure Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Solar System Mars Emotionally Gripping
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Enjoyed it. The alternative history timeline was odd, but seemed to work really well for the style of book.
I found the main protagonist to be quite unlikable. I cut her some slack as she’s a child and thought she might grow, but no, she was annoying for most of the book.

Great story. I liked the style

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I made it 2 hours. The whole thing is told from the POV of a 10 yo girl. Terrible dialogue with fantasy not scifi.

Preteen fantasy not hard scifi

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this was great fun, really interesting combination of space western and a sort of gothic body horror. I really enjoyed it, drew me in well and had a great story.

Unsettling space western

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