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Strange Matter #28
Off-Worlder
Kelly Taylor and Patricia Edwards join intelligence agent Marlon Walker and the Men in Black to track down a dangerous alien
139 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 22, 2026
An explosive (and ambitious) start to Strange Matter’s “Off-World Trilogy.” I have been drooling over these for a while now as I knew they tied into the previous alien centered stories of the series (Fly the Unfriendly Skies and the FANTASTIC Second Sighting), even having most of the cast here be characters directly from those books. With that, I smelled potential, and well-spent it was. I loved this, frankly, and I think this could be top twenty kids’ horror pieces EVER assuming the next two deliver. Off-Worlder has amazing action sequences thaf are paced and placed rather well within the story, allowing a stark escalation for the series that I ate up. Coming from someone who has not been fond of action in literature by the way (it’s a rough clash most of the time, but not here). The ties into the two books this heavily follows up on made for by default a more enriching story, but not in a Glup Shitto fashion and a furthering of those stories not only lore and plots, but the characters from them. Marlon (SS) learned from his prior encounter and feels like a natural evolution from there; Patricia (SS again) is basically just going through what Kelly did in Unfriendly Skies; Kelly Taylor (myth, legend, you name it) herself is grasping with the events of Unfriendly Skies and Patricia’s own arc ties into hers and embodies her struggle of “taking control,” as she puts it. I point these out because character depth is just so fucking delectable in kids’ horror, as it’s a bit uncommon. To spitball now: bodacious writing, alien bias yum yum yum, the impregnable aura of THE Off-Worlder who is primarily The Terminator with more intricate dialect and the key source of action in this book, the vague set-up for the next two whilst giving you, the reader, an awesome time and an interesting story basis, and spot-on pacing. Overall, 10/10. Peak Matter, ‘Nough said. Praying to high heaven the next one is just as spectacular….
February 7, 2025
After some delays due to real life stuff, I am back to start this ripoff round. This time two series are done so I can do these quicker if I can, yay. We start with Strange Matter as I got an interesting one.
This comes near the end of the series. At this point, they changed publishers and the new one changed the series to be more action/sci fi based since the whole kids horror series thing was dying down at this point. It didn’t save the series but the new comic style covers are cool.
This was the start of a trilogy that ended up being the end of the series. It is fittingly called the Off Worlder series. We’ve done aliens well before so let’s see if this starts it out on the right foot.
This book more or less serves as a follow up to both Fly the Unfriendly Skies and Second Sighting. The sisters from those books, Kelly from Fly and Patricia from Sighting, are in a support group for those that claim to have seen aliens. Both have trouble getting over their alien encounter. Then on their way home, an alien from Fly appears and takes Patricia. Kelly has to team up with Agent Walker from Second Sighting to get her back while dealing with the arrival of a being called the Off Worlder.
This was an odd one. Honestly, it’s among the weaker entries but I’d still call it good. The highlights came from the human element. Kelly and Patrica form a nice bond, having bonded over their alien trauma. There’s good bits there, and it plays into the climax.
The usual strengths of the series are still here, with solid action/suspense and that makes it very readable. There’s some interesting ideas as well, with the reason why the people involved are looking for certain things. However, it does feel like a part 1. I can’t tell if some undeveloped elements will come into play in the next parts or not. There’s an agent who has his reasons for helping the aliens, will it pay off or not?
My big issue is that it can get a bit dull and over complicated with the different people involved and all that. The focus is usually not on Kelly but instead of the adults. That’s different but her side adds in the main human element and was the most compelling to me. The Sci-Fi/conspiracy stuff is fun in general but the adult focus can make it feel a bit dull.
The continuity is nice at least, with how it builds on previous books. Kelly is 16 now so having an older protag was neat to see. It’s more or less self contained enough, the cliffhanger isn’t huge at least. The transition to SciFi/action stuff may have caused these to get more generic but I’d have to read more of these later ones to know. The other aliens books felt a bit more grounded to me, this gets a bit over complicated.
Still, it has enough in terms of intense action and mild emotion to work and the ending does make me wanna see where it goes. I’ll wait until the wheel picks it to do said next one though, and I want to jump to something else so I’ll just not do it even if the wheel picks it, I’ll save it for the next one after that.
But yeah, a good enough start to an ambitious idea at least, even if it’s not the series at its best. Next time, the opposite of my favorite with a return to Shivers. The one I’m doing is the only Shivers to get a sequel so it has to be good…right?
See ya then.
This comes near the end of the series. At this point, they changed publishers and the new one changed the series to be more action/sci fi based since the whole kids horror series thing was dying down at this point. It didn’t save the series but the new comic style covers are cool.
This was the start of a trilogy that ended up being the end of the series. It is fittingly called the Off Worlder series. We’ve done aliens well before so let’s see if this starts it out on the right foot.
This book more or less serves as a follow up to both Fly the Unfriendly Skies and Second Sighting. The sisters from those books, Kelly from Fly and Patricia from Sighting, are in a support group for those that claim to have seen aliens. Both have trouble getting over their alien encounter. Then on their way home, an alien from Fly appears and takes Patricia. Kelly has to team up with Agent Walker from Second Sighting to get her back while dealing with the arrival of a being called the Off Worlder.
This was an odd one. Honestly, it’s among the weaker entries but I’d still call it good. The highlights came from the human element. Kelly and Patrica form a nice bond, having bonded over their alien trauma. There’s good bits there, and it plays into the climax.
The usual strengths of the series are still here, with solid action/suspense and that makes it very readable. There’s some interesting ideas as well, with the reason why the people involved are looking for certain things. However, it does feel like a part 1. I can’t tell if some undeveloped elements will come into play in the next parts or not. There’s an agent who has his reasons for helping the aliens, will it pay off or not?
My big issue is that it can get a bit dull and over complicated with the different people involved and all that. The focus is usually not on Kelly but instead of the adults. That’s different but her side adds in the main human element and was the most compelling to me. The Sci-Fi/conspiracy stuff is fun in general but the adult focus can make it feel a bit dull.
The continuity is nice at least, with how it builds on previous books. Kelly is 16 now so having an older protag was neat to see. It’s more or less self contained enough, the cliffhanger isn’t huge at least. The transition to SciFi/action stuff may have caused these to get more generic but I’d have to read more of these later ones to know. The other aliens books felt a bit more grounded to me, this gets a bit over complicated.
Still, it has enough in terms of intense action and mild emotion to work and the ending does make me wanna see where it goes. I’ll wait until the wheel picks it to do said next one though, and I want to jump to something else so I’ll just not do it even if the wheel picks it, I’ll save it for the next one after that.
But yeah, a good enough start to an ambitious idea at least, even if it’s not the series at its best. Next time, the opposite of my favorite with a return to Shivers. The one I’m doing is the only Shivers to get a sequel so it has to be good…right?
See ya then.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews