Book Review: THE STRANGE by Nathan Ballingrud

Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite authors, so it should come as no big surprise that I absolutely LOVED his debut novel, The Strange.

I've been anxiously waiting for this book since he first announced he was working on it, and when it finally arrived in my hands, I wanted to tear right into it then and there. And I totally could have. But upon reading the first chapter, I realized The Strange is a novel that deserves to be savored; it deserves to be read slowly, in a manner that allows you to truly bask in the story, the prose, and the emotions behind it all.

That's not to say this isn't a rip-roaring book: The Strange is, at its heart, an adventure novel, and a pulpy one at that. But this is an adventure novel about loss, grief, revenge, bravery, and kindness; a pulp sci-fi-meets-alternative history-meets-Western novel about familial bonds, stewardship of the earth, community, justice, and hope.

One thing that struck me most about The Strange was how utterly original it feels - even as it is paradoxically familiar: There are definitely shades of Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, and True Grit, even Dune. But that's where Ballingrud's talent comes into play - yes, this may feel a little familiar, but it is all done in a way that is new, original, that is wholly Ballingrud. The horror elements readers familiar with Ballingrud's short fiction have come to expect are here on display as well, giving his version of Mars such a (forgive the pun) strange and alien atmosphere, one that I've never experienced before in all the science fiction I've read.

And perhaps that's the true power of Ballingrud's incredible first novel: In The Strange, he takes the familiar and moulds it into something completely new and truly wonder-full.