The collection kicks off with a piece of Cold War Americana pierced by the uncanny: “10¹⁶ to 1?”. It's the 1950s and young Ray lives for superhero comic books. Playing in the woods near his Long Island home one day, he discovers an odd man, a man who seems to know the future. Ray's life twists sideways in the aftermath, and through that transition Kelly gives readers a twisted piece of Golden Age American loosely reminiscent of Jeffrey Ford's “Shadow Year” or Harlan Ellison's “Jeffty is Five” .
Some sf stories tell of aliens, and some are alien. “Lovestory” is the latter. Readers are dropped into a truly alien domestic scene, and afterwards must put together the clues how family, maturation, and social structure function. An alien child is born, and as it enters its tweens something disrupts its upbringing as a family member chooses to move in with the true aliens, humans. Not sure the underlying commentary fits, but when alien is alien, what does? “Feel the Zaz” is Hollywood AI absurdity that as of 2026 is so much closer to reality than fiction. It lays out, in story form, the cheapness of entertainment reality when AI can imitate anyone or anything.
A peculiar piece of cyberpunk, in “The Prisoner of Chillon” a journalist becomes trapped in the Swiss Castle of Chillon. Its eccentric, paraplegic owner is full of surprises, making for a Bruce Sterling-esque selection, up to and including the fact it is more vignette than story. That being said, the parallels to Byron's poem are clear. A great base, Kelly would later develop it into a novel (Wildfire). “Unique Visitors” is a short piece, another vignette in fact, which goes Rip van Winkle sf style (millennia!), and asks: Does history truly matter over such a span?
“Candy Art” is nice little story with more than meets the eye. It tells of a woman in a relationship with a candy artist who finds himself in the classic male predicament: fear of commitment. Making matters worse, her dead parents are uploaded to a puppet who lives with her. The story is not trying to be prophetic regarding the increased virtualization of relationships, but it is. “The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum” tells of a person seemingly caught in an Einsteinian purgatory—a space travel reality blurred by virtual reality, warp speed, mortality, and c. The piece excellently captures the urgency of imminent mortality. A rare, 4th-wall breaking story, “Hubris” describes a man who goes on a date, a date with a surprise for both the man and the reader. Experimental story that doesn't overstay its oddity.
Another story that would later be developed into a novel (Look into the Sun), “Glass Cloud” is the story of the worn and weary architect named Philip who struggles to get his magnum opus, the titular glass cloud, complete. Time and money are short, not to mention his wife has been behaving oddly. Things change, however, when the visiting alien race, the Messengers, come with a radical offering, a once in a lifetime experience, but one that just might right his ship. Rightfully developed into a novel... “Proof of the Existence of God” is a one-off, horror-ish tale of a group of university researchers tricking gullible students into believing they can travel forward in time. They strap students to a tricked out dentist's chair and attach electrodes, selling the experiement. But one test subject does proceed as planned. This story can only be read once, but that read is edge of the seat.
Another horror-tinged tale but one that is ultimately existential, “The Cruelest Month” is the tough, emotional recounting of a professional woman who inadvertently causes a tragedy when her life becomes too good. “Chemistry” portrays hedonism in a gig society—thirty years before it became the norm. Two poor, female roommates lament the lack of options in their dating lives due to too much time online. So they head to a local swingers club where one signature and many chemicals later, their night is spun away, and maybe more.
An odd, almost indescribably piece, “The Pyramid of Amirah” is the surreal story of a tweener who has somehow become part of a religious ritual in which she is stuck inside a pyramid with a supply of junk food to sustain herself. Surreal vignette of puberty? Don't know... “Fruitcake Theory” is Christmas through the simple eyes of a rooster alien. Yes, you read that correctly. Closing the collection is a tribute to Cordwainer Smith and Alfred Bester. Far, far future, “Undone” is the story of a woman who escapes her space enemies by traveling a couple million years into the future, only to discover she didn't truly escape. So, she needs to settle down and start a family. The story contains backwards syntax, like listening to a cassette in rewind, but likewise a large dose of wacky sf.
In the end, Strange but Not a Stranger is another solid collection from JPK. And as with all JPK collections, it sits adjacent to mainstream sf&f but is not mainstream. The stories use most of the familiar modes—cyberpunk, aliens, space opera, etc., but spin them in ways that often aim to poke and prod the human condition. That being said, I would consider this, by only one or two hairs, the weakest of JPK's four major collections to date. Call it a sophomore slump. Theme doesn't always come through as strongly, and there are a few one-offs. Regardless, average JPJ is still better than the average market. First time readers are encouraged to check out Think Like a Dinosaur first.
The
following fifteen stories are contained in Strange but Not a
Stranger:
10¹⁶ to 1?
Lovestory
Feel the Zaz
Unique Visitors
The Prisoner of Chillon
Candy Art
The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum
Hubris
Glass Cloud
Proof of the Existence of God
The Cruelest Month
Chemistry
The Pyramid of Amirah
Fruitcake Theory
Undone
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