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Strange Forces #1
Strange Forces
The students of Fairfield Junior High have noticed that the strange things happening in their town are becoming more common â more dangerous. With each dreadful encounter, they are further convinced â monsters are real.
Morgan Taylor is convinced. He couldn't deny that a small lizard-like monster was rapping on his bedroom window, asking for help. A real monster, just outside his window.
Astonished, he lets it in. With wide eyes he listens to its amazing tale and desperate plea for help â but could he believe the little monster's story? A tale of an object so incredible it staggers the imagination and of the hideous man-creature, the Collector, who has come to Fairfield to claim it.
Dark forces have gathered under the Collector's command, in a hilltop mansion on the edge of town â Fairfield Manor. The crumbling halls, once empty and silent, now echo with the howls of his army of creatures. They have filled the once-barren rooms with mysterious artifacts gathered from the four corners of the earth. Nothing will stop the acquisition of the Collector's greatest prize.
Join the students of Fairfield Junior High and the renegade lizard-monster, Rilo Buru, in a race against the Collector and his strange forces on an adventure that will change the natural and the unnatural world forever.
Morgan Taylor is convinced. He couldn't deny that a small lizard-like monster was rapping on his bedroom window, asking for help. A real monster, just outside his window.
Astonished, he lets it in. With wide eyes he listens to its amazing tale and desperate plea for help â but could he believe the little monster's story? A tale of an object so incredible it staggers the imagination and of the hideous man-creature, the Collector, who has come to Fairfield to claim it.
Dark forces have gathered under the Collector's command, in a hilltop mansion on the edge of town â Fairfield Manor. The crumbling halls, once empty and silent, now echo with the howls of his army of creatures. They have filled the once-barren rooms with mysterious artifacts gathered from the four corners of the earth. Nothing will stop the acquisition of the Collector's greatest prize.
Join the students of Fairfield Junior High and the renegade lizard-monster, Rilo Buru, in a race against the Collector and his strange forces on an adventure that will change the natural and the unnatural world forever.
269 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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93 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 23, 2020
The Kindle versions are missing the monster encyclopedias that came at the end of the book, providing interesting factoids on the creatures that appeared in the story. That's a shame; hey were my favorite parts as a kid.
February 13, 2015
Undeservedly Over-Looked and Under-Appreciated
Action, humor, alien technology, a large and varied cast of junior high heroes, good monsters, bad monsters, an eeevil villain and a driving pace - why is this series not better known?
On the surface the plot is less than inspiring: a bunch of kids have to find a thingy before the bad guy finds the thingy and levels their town. The Greeks were laying down this plot back when they were still carving stories into stone tablets. But, as always, it isn't really a matter of the premise as much as it is what you've done with it.
Right off, we have a winning cast. The authors wisely draw together a dozen characters of different ages, personalities, styles, strengths and weaknesses. You can pick and choose your favorites as you follow their individual hero stories. A few of them are funny, some are a bit exasperating or dense or passive, but each ultimately gets a spotlight and a hero turn, which keeps everything fresh and varied.
The monsters are scary, but they are more than just ravening beasts. They are a collection drawn from small bands or tribes of creatures hidden all over the world. They have back stories, and different attitudes and motivations, and with even just the little bits of background that we get we become much more interested in them than is usually the case.
The villain has a story too; it's teased out during the course of the book. That adds to the interest level. He is balanced by the Rilo character, a renegade monster who defects from the bad guy's legions in order to organize and mobilize the kids. He's conflicted, sarcastic, and a sort of adult off-stage commentator on the action. His scenes bring in yet more new and fresh energy.
Over all of this is the happy observation that the authors can write well. Dialogue is sharp. Descriptions are pointed. Action zips along. There are funny and wry and ironic throwaways and observations and bits of business that spice things up and keep the book from just being a hack-a-monster binge.
The upshot is that this is an entertaining and accomplished book. (First in a fine set of four.) I picked this up when it was a freebie. Like many of the former freebies it, (and the whole series), are now available as kindleunlimited borrows. With nothing to lose and a nice find to gain it is a pleasure to encourage middle grade monster/action/alien/buddy fans to give it a try.
Please note that I originally found this book while browsing Amazon Kindle freebies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
Action, humor, alien technology, a large and varied cast of junior high heroes, good monsters, bad monsters, an eeevil villain and a driving pace - why is this series not better known?
On the surface the plot is less than inspiring: a bunch of kids have to find a thingy before the bad guy finds the thingy and levels their town. The Greeks were laying down this plot back when they were still carving stories into stone tablets. But, as always, it isn't really a matter of the premise as much as it is what you've done with it.
Right off, we have a winning cast. The authors wisely draw together a dozen characters of different ages, personalities, styles, strengths and weaknesses. You can pick and choose your favorites as you follow their individual hero stories. A few of them are funny, some are a bit exasperating or dense or passive, but each ultimately gets a spotlight and a hero turn, which keeps everything fresh and varied.
The monsters are scary, but they are more than just ravening beasts. They are a collection drawn from small bands or tribes of creatures hidden all over the world. They have back stories, and different attitudes and motivations, and with even just the little bits of background that we get we become much more interested in them than is usually the case.
The villain has a story too; it's teased out during the course of the book. That adds to the interest level. He is balanced by the Rilo character, a renegade monster who defects from the bad guy's legions in order to organize and mobilize the kids. He's conflicted, sarcastic, and a sort of adult off-stage commentator on the action. His scenes bring in yet more new and fresh energy.
Over all of this is the happy observation that the authors can write well. Dialogue is sharp. Descriptions are pointed. Action zips along. There are funny and wry and ironic throwaways and observations and bits of business that spice things up and keep the book from just being a hack-a-monster binge.
The upshot is that this is an entertaining and accomplished book. (First in a fine set of four.) I picked this up when it was a freebie. Like many of the former freebies it, (and the whole series), are now available as kindleunlimited borrows. With nothing to lose and a nice find to gain it is a pleasure to encourage middle grade monster/action/alien/buddy fans to give it a try.
Please note that I originally found this book while browsing Amazon Kindle freebies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
November 5, 2020
Putting that Kindle Unlimited Trial to good use for this, which I had been hoping to dig into. So I've covered some Strange Matter and touched on its impressive use of continuity. Now I finally get go over its spinoff series. Basically the thing behind this is that some big threat comes in that causes a bunch of the protagonists from previous Strange Matter to have to team up.
As I said before, it's basically Goosebumps Horrorland like a decade earlier lol. It's a cool and ambitious idea for the time and it goes further than Horrorland did by having 4 books be a whopping 250 or so pages, which is uh, quite a bit for a series like this at the time. While I have not read every book each character in here is from, I figured I was ready enough.
Since this month of a tree trial is the only chance I really have to go through the fist 3 (I have access to 4th elsewhere so there's no ticking clock there), I will be using this month to go through them, so these next few weeks should be fun.
Anyway, this was pretty good. It has the pros and cons you'd expect from a series like this doing something loger and more ambitious. First, there are too many charecters. I wasn't lost since it doesn't rely on you having read prior books but while there are nicely seperted into groups, it still feeels like too many to keep track of. The first two groups are actively trying to stop the threat while the third group just got tangled up in this and could have been trimmed down.
Most get defined well enough and get some sort of payoff by the end, even if it's technically development but others either don't or they were about as complex as characters in these tend to be. For a thing like this, those used to more complicated books of this nature may want more but those used to series like this at the time will just be used to it and be glad we get what we have.
The length is justified in a way but given readers at the time were more used to the standard 120 pages, it does get to be a bit much at times, especially when it's mostly a lot of action stuff. This made me realize I am out of practice with with somewhat longer reads, even if is this nothing by today's standards lol.
Anyway, the plot is that while trying to convince someone that monsters are real after the various experiences and he and others have faced in this town, Morgan Taylor (protagonist of "Fly the Unfriendly Skies") meets this creature named Rilo who basically informs of this big bad called The Collecter who has gotten a huge of army of monsters to help him find this McGuffin that will give him the location of another McGuffin, this super powerful sword that will make him even more powerful.
Morgan and others get tangled into this big thing to stop yeah. Basically a big McGuffin chase as the monsters ravage the town. It's a slow burn at first it has to establish everything but when it gets going, there's tons of solid action and variety and creativity with the monsters. And the slow start works, mostly with one scene that establishes the tone.
Let's just say that while it's not given in gorey detail, it's one of the darkest thing I've read in one of these nice, and it's even refereed to later to remind us. Nice.
The writing can have some moments where it is too hectic to tell what is going on but otherwise it is pretty good. Despite the basic plot, there is some solid lore as we find out about how Fairfield started and things like this. There's also The Collector's backstory that makes him more interesting and overall he's a solid threat even if it he mostly stays in the background.
Rilo is good, he's sympathetic and gets in some nice moments. For the human characters, they at least tend to get some stuff and there are some decent moments with them. I liked how one of them was an established bully he has to lighten up a tad but he isn't fully changed by the end, which feels realistic and gives room for the others to dive more into that.
It can be a bit too ambitious for its own good with some repetition with all the action and a few too many characters running around despite them generally as deep as you'd expect but overall, this is a pretty good start. It's a lot of fun with way bigger stakes (the whole town witnesses the monsters going around although I imagine they'll find a way to handwave no one caring about this going forward), some dark bits and nice moments. Plus some good characters Rilo and the villain.
I hope the others will get to do more now that everything is established, possibly have interesting friction in the group and deal with a certain thing that happens to the main group. We'll see how that goes as we go on. As for this one, really solid stuff for the most part.
Side note, I was under the impression this would star the leads of all of the first 12 or so books but really it's just a sampling of those which is good. It is still a bit much as the first two groups combined make 8 and there's a few others in that third one. I imagine the next ones will cut them out but we'll see.
(Why are these reviews always so long lol)
As I said before, it's basically Goosebumps Horrorland like a decade earlier lol. It's a cool and ambitious idea for the time and it goes further than Horrorland did by having 4 books be a whopping 250 or so pages, which is uh, quite a bit for a series like this at the time. While I have not read every book each character in here is from, I figured I was ready enough.
Since this month of a tree trial is the only chance I really have to go through the fist 3 (I have access to 4th elsewhere so there's no ticking clock there), I will be using this month to go through them, so these next few weeks should be fun.
Anyway, this was pretty good. It has the pros and cons you'd expect from a series like this doing something loger and more ambitious. First, there are too many charecters. I wasn't lost since it doesn't rely on you having read prior books but while there are nicely seperted into groups, it still feeels like too many to keep track of. The first two groups are actively trying to stop the threat while the third group just got tangled up in this and could have been trimmed down.
Most get defined well enough and get some sort of payoff by the end, even if it's technically development but others either don't or they were about as complex as characters in these tend to be. For a thing like this, those used to more complicated books of this nature may want more but those used to series like this at the time will just be used to it and be glad we get what we have.
The length is justified in a way but given readers at the time were more used to the standard 120 pages, it does get to be a bit much at times, especially when it's mostly a lot of action stuff. This made me realize I am out of practice with with somewhat longer reads, even if is this nothing by today's standards lol.
Anyway, the plot is that while trying to convince someone that monsters are real after the various experiences and he and others have faced in this town, Morgan Taylor (protagonist of "Fly the Unfriendly Skies") meets this creature named Rilo who basically informs of this big bad called The Collecter who has gotten a huge of army of monsters to help him find this McGuffin that will give him the location of another McGuffin, this super powerful sword that will make him even more powerful.
Morgan and others get tangled into this big thing to stop yeah. Basically a big McGuffin chase as the monsters ravage the town. It's a slow burn at first it has to establish everything but when it gets going, there's tons of solid action and variety and creativity with the monsters. And the slow start works, mostly with one scene that establishes the tone.
Let's just say that while it's not given in gorey detail, it's one of the darkest thing I've read in one of these nice, and it's even refereed to later to remind us. Nice.
The writing can have some moments where it is too hectic to tell what is going on but otherwise it is pretty good. Despite the basic plot, there is some solid lore as we find out about how Fairfield started and things like this. There's also The Collector's backstory that makes him more interesting and overall he's a solid threat even if it he mostly stays in the background.
Rilo is good, he's sympathetic and gets in some nice moments. For the human characters, they at least tend to get some stuff and there are some decent moments with them. I liked how one of them was an established bully he has to lighten up a tad but he isn't fully changed by the end, which feels realistic and gives room for the others to dive more into that.
It can be a bit too ambitious for its own good with some repetition with all the action and a few too many characters running around despite them generally as deep as you'd expect but overall, this is a pretty good start. It's a lot of fun with way bigger stakes (the whole town witnesses the monsters going around although I imagine they'll find a way to handwave no one caring about this going forward), some dark bits and nice moments. Plus some good characters Rilo and the villain.
I hope the others will get to do more now that everything is established, possibly have interesting friction in the group and deal with a certain thing that happens to the main group. We'll see how that goes as we go on. As for this one, really solid stuff for the most part.
Side note, I was under the impression this would star the leads of all of the first 12 or so books but really it's just a sampling of those which is good. It is still a bit much as the first two groups combined make 8 and there's a few others in that third one. I imagine the next ones will cut them out but we'll see.
(Why are these reviews always so long lol)
November 13, 2018
When revisiting childhood books, at times you must have a certain patience. Even with stalwart patience, I can say this is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Take thirteen kids and throw them at a bunch of spayed and neutered monsters until they stumble onto someone else saving their town. This “double-size epic adventure” is 95% filler. Don’t bother.
January 26, 2024
I am an adult man who still thinks about this children’s sci-fi-horror book. I know goosebumps was the shit but honestly the Strange Matter series was so superior it’s not even funny. There was another one about robots that was super tight too but I don’t remember what it was called. Anyway I’m gonna buy this series and read them all again.
December 16, 2024
I believe there are 12 kids and one lizard like monster (it was hard to keep all of the kids straight), who end up in various groups fighting a group of monsters (an army of monsters) controlled by / lead by The Collector. The Collector is after something in their town.
So even though this is book 1 in this series, these kids have run into monsters in the past, separately.
Lots of past adventures were mentioned.
I believe that I got this ebook and part 2 for free at some point in time, and I’m slowly trying to read through the ebooks that I own.
Anyway…. This would make a fun movie or tv series, but the cast of characters is just too big to keep track of in a book. I remember 3 of the kids well along with the friendly monster and the main bad guy. Then I kind of know who 2 of the other kids are. The rest are just background names who seemed rather interchangeable to me. I did get annoyed that “Skinny Joe” was always referred to as “Skinny Joe” and never once as “Joe.” He was the only one with a nickname, and he was the only Joe in the story. It would have made more sense to keep calling Skinny Joe if there were two Joes in the book.
I have book 2, but I’m not sure if I’ll bother reading it.
Song: Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) by David Bowie
So even though this is book 1 in this series, these kids have run into monsters in the past, separately.
Lots of past adventures were mentioned.
I believe that I got this ebook and part 2 for free at some point in time, and I’m slowly trying to read through the ebooks that I own.
Anyway…. This would make a fun movie or tv series, but the cast of characters is just too big to keep track of in a book. I remember 3 of the kids well along with the friendly monster and the main bad guy. Then I kind of know who 2 of the other kids are. The rest are just background names who seemed rather interchangeable to me. I did get annoyed that “Skinny Joe” was always referred to as “Skinny Joe” and never once as “Joe.” He was the only one with a nickname, and he was the only Joe in the story. It would have made more sense to keep calling Skinny Joe if there were two Joes in the book.
I have book 2, but I’m not sure if I’ll bother reading it.
Song: Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) by David Bowie
January 9, 2024
This is a childhood favorite I recently rediscovered. At 12 reading about a bunch of 13-16 year olds was right up my alley. Strange Forces is part of the Strange Matters book series from the 90s. I grew up loving Goosebumps but eventually I wanted more. Strange Forces is about a little Cryptid named Rillo, who is a Baru, is trying to stop an apocalypse. One brought on by a great power only called The Collector, who has been enslaving Cryptids for over 190 years. Rillio works with a group of humans who have starred in other Strange Matters books. You don’t need to read anything else in the series in order to enjoy. Love the little monster encyclopedia at the end of the book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews