Deschutes Public Library

The strange, Nathan Ballingrud

eng

no index present

fiction

The strange

1372394557

Nathan Ballingrud

"1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off across the Martian desert to find the criminals who have stolen her last keepsake of her mother, broken her fathers heart, and left her burning with a need for revenge. Shortly after Anabelles mother leaves Mars to tend to her own dying mother, all communication from Earth stops. No more ships, no more messages, and no explanations. The colonists on Mars, frightened and bereft, come to refer to this as the Silence. Now Anabelles only real friend is the robot dishwasher shes named Watson, and her only escape from worry comes from the movies and dime novels she loves. Everything changes one night when a group of mysterious desert cultists known as the Moths raid their diner at closing time, beating Anabelles father and robbing them of several items one of which is their last recording of her mothers voice and her final messages for the both of them. As the people of New Galveston debate how best to respond, Anabelle fumes at their inaction and ranges out into the Martian desert on a search for the Moths, both to recover the recording of her mother and to exact revenge on them. Joining her are her robot Watson; Joe Reilly, a disgraced spaceship pilot; and Sally Milkwood, a notorious moonshiner who participated in the robbery at the diner. Before they can brace the Martian desert they must pass through Dig Town, a derelict mining community where a mineral called the Strange has warped the residents in frightening ways. Along the journey Anabelle discovers Mars is a haunted world, infested with ghosts and alive with malignant intent and New Galveston, once thought a safe haven, is little more than a guttering candle in a dark world. At once evoking the dreams of a lost America and the harder realities of frontier life, Ballingruds novel is stirring in its evocation of Anabelles quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world." --, Inside jacket flaps