Escape From Planet Earth

Strange Matter #30

by Marty M. Engle, Johnny Ray Barnes

Book by Engle, Marty M., Barnes, Johnny Ray, Jr.

137 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

Reviews

[Alex Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

600 books into my Goodreads journey and I’m honored to mark it with the finale of the Strange Matter book series. Truly, this wasn’t THE finale, as there were a good few more books planned after this one. But those sadly never got published and we are left with the conclusion to the Off-World trilogy, which works fine enough. 𝘌𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 is my least favorite of the trilogy but by no means a misstep; I think it’s a great book and a solid way to leave of Strange Matter, even if it’s the most flawed of that three-part run. The Sci-Fi action/spectacle is still riveting here with more of what made the prior two so intimidating, with earth-destroying stakes and a badass villain (Kael, the Off-Worlder) to bring this all forth. Kael himself has a nice finish here as does our central character Destry, who is again a foil to Kael and this conclusion builds off and ambiguously resolves where we left off from part two. I say ambiguous since one of the most important questions about Destry’s future is open-ended but in a good way. The story is fun and everyone gets a moment or two to shine, and I think it’s concludes the three-punch well enough. Some minor blemishes I feel are the missing beats with characters Kelly and Marlon, whereas in the previous two books they had conquered a challenge aimed directly for them/had an arc, they didn’t have much character development here. I think that’s a symptom of them just being done, but it feels odd in congruence with the first two parts. And I feel Destry’s confrontation with Kael could’ve been way more interesting. Overall, 9/10. A great ending even if not as perfect as the previous volumes were. Strange Matter is one of the few kids’ horror series to have a great final entry… smh. Update on me and my wife, Strange Matter: we died and we’re revenants now (spreading our foul curse to everything living thing). (Someone catch that fucking ball).

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 1 out of 5]

20 years after it releases I can finally say I've finished reading the Strange Matter book series and with the final book no less.

I imagine this book had a low print run as it was more expensive than some others I was missing.

I know these are geared for kids and trust, I appreciate that. However, this is so poorly written that I just felt bad. Words are missing in sentences, a is used instead of an at times. Oh, they also named one character Kelly and another has the last name Kelly. How freaking lazy is that?

I'm bummed we never got the next book since weirdly enough a chapter is at the end of this one and it involves my favorite character from the spinoff series.

As for this book? It's a weak end to a trilogy I never liked. I always felt the alien plots like this were the weakest of the series as a whole.