Strange Matter is a children's action/adventure supernatural horror book series created by Marty M. Engle and Johnny Ray Barnes Jr. The series takes place in the fictional town of Fairfield. It centers on children attending Fairfield Middle School who encounter paranormal situations. Each book in the series features a new protagonist and a new situation. Some situations or characters are used more than once, but either way, it is a new situation. It series was published between 1995 and 1997.
Contents
The books were also featured on cassette tape, within which each character was voiced by separate actors, and featured sound effects and eerie music.
List of books
1. No Substitutions: Curtis and Shelly suspect their substitute teacher may be a werewolf after they find a book on the creatures in one of his boxes.
2. The Midnight Game: Tyler Webb has been invited to attend a very special game. Someone has left him a ticket for a final showdown between two old football teams from Fairfield's past. The only problem is, the game is scheduled for midnight, and there's no way Tyler's parents will let him go. Curiosity gets the best of him, and Tyler sneaks out to see the game. Now he's sitting in the bleachers under the moonlight, waiting for the arrival of both sides. But the players are not running onto the field. They're crawling. Straight up from the ground. And they know they're being watched.
3. Driven To Death: Darren Donaldson is staring out his bedroom window at 2 o'clock in the morning, panicked, looking down the street for any sign of his brother. His older brother, David, snuck out of the house at midnight, taking the car as usual, making Darren promise he wouldn't tell. He's been gone for three hours, the longest he's ever been gone. Something must have happened. Something dreadful. Wait! There's David now! The car is coming down the street. He's killed the engine, coasting toward the driveway. He's scrambling out of the car, pushing it from behind. He looks frantic, terrified! What's going on? He's signaling for help, looking over his shoulder as if. . . Headlights snap on at the end of the street as an engine roars to life. David is screaming! Something is chasing him. . . and it isn't stopping.
4. A Place to Hide
5. The Last One In
6. Bad Circuits
7. Fly the Unfriendly Skies: As if Morgan wasn't afraid of flying already, now he and his sister Kelly have to contend with aliens....
8. Frozen Dinners: While their uncle is out in town, Max, Mark, and Teresa are stuck in a blizzard, and trapped by vicious yetis.
9. Deadly Delivery
10. Knightmare
11. Something Rotten
12. Dead On Its Tracks
13. Toy Trouble
14. Plant People
15. Creature Features
16. The Weird, Weird West
17. Tune Into Terror: Nexus: Virtual Reality with a Bite. The on-line video game that's taken the world by storm. Its fanatical players call it the most incredible battle simulation ever created. Billy Keen doesn't think so. He wishes he had never played it.
After Billy won the greatest Nexus game ever staged online, strange things started happening, from his alarm clock changing the time all by itself, to the dryer burning all his clothes. At first, Billy was annoyed by the simple electronic malfunctions. Then they grew worse, from exploding microwaves—to a terrifying elevator plunge.
Seeking help from his video gaming friends at the University of Fairfield Computer Science Center, Billy discovers the true nature of his technological terror. Now, in the labyrinthine halls of the University Computer Science building, Billy is playing Nexus for real—against a horrifying opponent that could not possibly exist.
And if Billy isn't careful, the game could end with a fatal error.
18. The Fairfield Triangle
19. Bigfoot, Big Trouble
20. Doorway to Doom
21. Under Wraps
22. Dangerous Waters
23. Second Sighting
24. Nightcrawlers
25. Splitting Image
26. The Headless Rider
27. Primevil
28. The Off-Worlder
29. Shadow Chasers
30. Escape From Planet Earth
31. Rilo Buru's Summer Vacation (Unpublished)
32. Shriek (Unpublished)
33. Scariest Show On Earth (Unpublished)
34. From the Ashes (Unpublished)
35. Stamped (Unpublished)
36. Mission Extraterrestrial (Unpublished)
Other works
This series also spawned a 4-part mini-series called Strange Forces. It was like the others in the series, except that it involved some of the main protagonists from the first 10 books published in the Strange Matter series. It also had its own storyline that was away from the rest and was connected in every book, unlike the Strange Matter series where new characters were introduced and new situations were involved each book (save for three).