ConQuest KC Schedule

Herewith is my schedule for ConQuest KC 54 taking place this coming weekend June 2-4 in Kansas City, Missouri at the Hilton Kansas City Airport.

Friday: 2:30 PM - Salon B
Tips to Artists Reading Contracts

Friday: 4:00 PM - Osage A
Vacations in Space

Saturday: 2:30 PM - Sioux
Queer Representation in Speculative Fiction

Saturday: 4:00 PM - Salon B
World Building Rookie Mistakes

10:00 PM - Sioux
Rendezvous With Rama - 50 Years Later

review of The Strange

The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Although Amazon lists this as science fiction, it's really fantasy. Nathan Ballingrud's Mars is that of the 1950s' - dry with thin but breathable air, and a Mars which was first landed on by humans in the 1860s. But once you accept the story as fantasy, it's a quite entertaining book.

The narrator, Annabelle, is a teenager working in her father's diner on Mars about a year after Earth suddenly went silent. There's a robbery, an event which drives the rest of the book. This is not, however, entirely a space Western. The 'strange' of the title is a fantastical Martian chemical which humans have been mining but don't understand.

I found the story engaging and Annabelle's character growth interesting. There's significant elements of horror and general weirdness in the book which I found engaging as well. I felt the ending was a little weak, but overall I enjoyed it.



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