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Strange Matter #7
Fly the Unfriendly Skies
Morgan Taylor was terrified of flying. Shocking visions of fatal falls and explosive crashes shook loose with each thump of the plane. The electrical storm didn't help much, nor did his sister Kelly. The thought of his father waiting at the boarding gate was the only thing pushing back his fear and swelling panic.
Then a horrified scream brought Morgan's worst fears to life.
Morgan and Kelly learn the horrible secret of an unseen war: a war being waged in our very bedrooms while we sleep. Invisible battles fought between dark and sinister visitors grappling to secure the survival of their race . . .
And others who struggle desperately to bring us a grave warning before it's too late.
Be aware . . .
We are not alone.
Then a horrified scream brought Morgan's worst fears to life.
Morgan and Kelly learn the horrible secret of an unseen war: a war being waged in our very bedrooms while we sleep. Invisible battles fought between dark and sinister visitors grappling to secure the survival of their race . . .
And others who struggle desperately to bring us a grave warning before it's too late.
Be aware . . .
We are not alone.
- GenresHorror
Audio CD
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 3, 2026
Strange Matter’s more dire alien plot is revealed in the seventh book of the series, and starts it off strong. To no one’s surprise, this series continues to feel like kids horror’ blockbusters with the intense action and high-stakes plot line, both present here. The alien stuff here is all great too and compliments the chaos well. The main two siblings were solid characters, the book was highly entertaining, and the opening—whilst I have my issues—is disturbing as fuck and feels like straight horror. My issues for this book are pretty minute; the story ditches setup in favor of jumping into stuff immediately (completely unlike Second Sighting, one of the best alien stories I’ve ever read, in a negative way) and could’ve used a low-beat or breathing story segment. Great read, but could’ve favored a few extra chapters to pace things out with breathing room instead of just being all chaos. Overall, 9/10. It’s great, Second Sighting just did it better. And as routine… update on me and my wife, Strange Matter: we put Rilo in a padded room and now he likes progressive jazz. That’s one problem solved.
March 14, 2026
Arguably the most epic alien kids horror story I read. This one was about some kids and passengers on an airplane that gets caught between two enemy UFOs getting into aerial combat, hijacking the plane and the extraterrestrials that board it end up kidnapping our main protagonists. After some experimenting, crazy alien action and reveals, our main characters have to decide who are friends and foes.
The action sequences in this book are another level, reminding of me of the great stuff from another book in the series, Plant People. There are fantastic aerial combat sequences, the plane hijacking feeling like something straight out of a horror movie, and arguably some of the most unique aliens I have seen in middle grade horror. The only thing holding back the book was a lack of setup as you rush into the main bulk. However, this was explained a bit with a certain plot reveal, but not enough to cover the feeling that this book should be longer to make it more complete. Nonetheless, I was genuinely impressed by this book.
8.8/10 Very Good (possibly bumped to a 9/10 Great in the near future)
The action sequences in this book are another level, reminding of me of the great stuff from another book in the series, Plant People. There are fantastic aerial combat sequences, the plane hijacking feeling like something straight out of a horror movie, and arguably some of the most unique aliens I have seen in middle grade horror. The only thing holding back the book was a lack of setup as you rush into the main bulk. However, this was explained a bit with a certain plot reveal, but not enough to cover the feeling that this book should be longer to make it more complete. Nonetheless, I was genuinely impressed by this book.
8.8/10 Very Good (possibly bumped to a 9/10 Great in the near future)
December 2, 2012
Quirky; good science fiction action for elementary and middle school readers.
January 21, 2021
Back to Strange Matter to close out another "cycle" of these ripoff-ish series. I've noted that this series has been my favorite of the ones I covered in that month and each entry just keeps confirming that.
This one I was excited that the randomizer picked this one, because I knew the protagonist of it, Morgan Taylor, goes on to be the leader in Strange Forces so this entry is quite important in that respect. And reading it, I get why he's the leader in those. He's a UFO addict who spends a lot of time doing research on weird things on the internet, so it makes sense he'd be interested in the things happening around town and basically becomes the researcher person in those.
The plot is that he and his generally bitch-y sister Kelly are on a plane to visit family (or are coming back from doing so, can't tell) when a UFO appears and eventually kidnaps the kids. However, it turns out there's a conflict between two different aliens races that they are caught in the middle of and must get out of this.
This one was just really intense and fun. It gets into the action quick and doesn't let up, but still waits to reveal certain things incrementally. Monkey wrenches are thrown in to mostly prevent things from getting stale, although it does start to wear thin near the end.
My main problem is that we don't get as much info on everything as I would have liked. We get enough to know the stakes and perhaps knowing too much would be outside the scope of these but it does feel like we only get to know the bare minimum and that's it. While we get a good epilogue, the climax is a bit abrupt and I wanted a more compplete resoultion to all this.
Thankfully, the solid pace and such does mean there's not a lot of time to really think about it all too much. Something happens to Kelly at some point that sounds silly but it's creepy in execution and adds extra danger..I wouldn't call it dark but it does feel intense and this thing that happens has apparently happened to other people who have not recovered which is a creepy implication.
And on top of this, there's some form of growth as while Kelly is a bit of jerk, he gets worried about her when bad things happen and even thinks back at the good things she has done. Another well developed sibling relationship, huzzah! She even grows closer to him at the end, that's more development than I'm used to in these.
The final twist is creepy although it's only addressed in a throwaway line in Strange Forces, and I needed a comment on some blog to remind me of that. It's the same problem Horrorland had, you can't do twists when the characters have to return or you get things like this.
Anyway, somethings needed to be cleaned up for this to be better but it's still a fun thrill ride with nice growth, as small as it is. Although, I know I promised to not bring it up again, but those CAPS were especially annoying here. Anyway, a pretty solid one.
CONTINUITY WATCH: Shelly from Book 1 and later Strange Forces appears and says she wants to tell them about something creepy that happened to her and her friend, Kyle the bully that also later appears in those is mentioned, and near the end they fly over a lake and spot a monster that was the subject of the very previous entry.
SIDE NOTE: Morgan mentions using his Mac to go on Usnet boards. That might be the 90's thing I ever read. I wanna do another full cycle before May where I gotta do Ripoff Month 2 since after that I'll add those to my rotation, we'll see.
This one I was excited that the randomizer picked this one, because I knew the protagonist of it, Morgan Taylor, goes on to be the leader in Strange Forces so this entry is quite important in that respect. And reading it, I get why he's the leader in those. He's a UFO addict who spends a lot of time doing research on weird things on the internet, so it makes sense he'd be interested in the things happening around town and basically becomes the researcher person in those.
The plot is that he and his generally bitch-y sister Kelly are on a plane to visit family (or are coming back from doing so, can't tell) when a UFO appears and eventually kidnaps the kids. However, it turns out there's a conflict between two different aliens races that they are caught in the middle of and must get out of this.
This one was just really intense and fun. It gets into the action quick and doesn't let up, but still waits to reveal certain things incrementally. Monkey wrenches are thrown in to mostly prevent things from getting stale, although it does start to wear thin near the end.
My main problem is that we don't get as much info on everything as I would have liked. We get enough to know the stakes and perhaps knowing too much would be outside the scope of these but it does feel like we only get to know the bare minimum and that's it. While we get a good epilogue, the climax is a bit abrupt and I wanted a more compplete resoultion to all this.
Thankfully, the solid pace and such does mean there's not a lot of time to really think about it all too much. Something happens to Kelly at some point that sounds silly but it's creepy in execution and adds extra danger..I wouldn't call it dark but it does feel intense and this thing that happens has apparently happened to other people who have not recovered which is a creepy implication.
And on top of this, there's some form of growth as while Kelly is a bit of jerk, he gets worried about her when bad things happen and even thinks back at the good things she has done. Another well developed sibling relationship, huzzah! She even grows closer to him at the end, that's more development than I'm used to in these.
The final twist is creepy although it's only addressed in a throwaway line in Strange Forces, and I needed a comment on some blog to remind me of that. It's the same problem Horrorland had, you can't do twists when the characters have to return or you get things like this.
Anyway, somethings needed to be cleaned up for this to be better but it's still a fun thrill ride with nice growth, as small as it is. Although, I know I promised to not bring it up again, but those CAPS were especially annoying here. Anyway, a pretty solid one.
CONTINUITY WATCH: Shelly from Book 1 and later Strange Forces appears and says she wants to tell them about something creepy that happened to her and her friend, Kyle the bully that also later appears in those is mentioned, and near the end they fly over a lake and spot a monster that was the subject of the very previous entry.
SIDE NOTE: Morgan mentions using his Mac to go on Usnet boards. That might be the 90's thing I ever read. I wanna do another full cycle before May where I gotta do Ripoff Month 2 since after that I'll add those to my rotation, we'll see.
October 28, 2019
When I was young, I enjoyed the few Strange Matter books I had. I can’t recall many specifics but I remember enjoying how characters were thrown into such wild situations. That memory holds true for this book but what my younger self didn’t realize was that the main characters are unbelievably bland, little more than blank slates being pulled along from event to event.
Fly the Unfriendly Skies gets two stars only because I found enjoyment in it, somehow, when I was young. Maybe that proves that kids can’t really tell the difference between good and bad stories, but my adult self still feels swindled!
Fly the Unfriendly Skies gets two stars only because I found enjoyment in it, somehow, when I was young. Maybe that proves that kids can’t really tell the difference between good and bad stories, but my adult self still feels swindled!
July 6, 2022
One of my childhood favorites. Definitely a good read for elementary and middle schoolers. I read it in 6th grade and it pulled me into the story. I've been a ufo research interested person since I was a kid and so everything that happened to Morgan and Kelly was exciting and super interesting to me as a youngster. I've been trying to find something close to this as an adult but so far Nothing has come up. I would even read this as an adult now just for the good read and nostalgia of it. 10/10 would recommend.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews