The Strange

Randomly picked up after seeing glowing reviews on Twitter. Can't say I really understand why. The main character is annoying, and there are a lot of inconsistencies in the narrative. I also don't really understand how a spaceship that's been shot through with multiple bullet holes can be ‘patched up' in a day or two enough to survive 6 months of space travel from Mars to Earth. I'm assuming that this is what ‘steampunk' means: science fiction with rivets. Regardless, it rattles along at a fairly brisk pace to its less than satisfactory conclusion.

The thing that saves this from 2* review is that the ‘strange' of the title is an incredible conceit, a really fascinating idea. Mars is alive, and it's suffusing the humans and their technology with its own consciousness. This idea appears about two-thirds of the way through, at which point it's a bit too late to do anything interesting with the idea. Shame this wasn't made more of.

Beautiful writing. I loved the story.

Oh Annabelle, no one really know what they're doing. We make it up as we go along, spice or no spice.

This was better than it had any business being.

Mostly a fun read, though the first section dragged a little. The unique setting (Old West by way of Bradbury's and Dick's Martian tales) takes a little getting used to, but once the story got going, it turned into an exciting, often creepy adventure.