The Transall Saga

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The Transall Saga is a novel by Gary Paulsen. It is a survival story like most of his other books, but with a science-fiction, post-apocalyptic setting, published in 2002.

[edit] Plot summary

Mark is a boy who is hiking through a mountainous area called the Magruder Missile Range and sees a mysterious blue beam of light. He approaches it and falls in after being bitten by a rattlesnake. When he wakes up, he is in a field of red grass and is approached by a strange buffalo-like animal who chases him into a jungle.

Mark has nothing except the clothes on his back and some survival tools, so he uses his innate survival skills as an attempt to live in the jungle. He gets food by eating a coconut-like fruit, and he makes a shelter of leaves and branches in a tree. In this jungle, he encounters a very tame monkey-like creature, whom he names Willie, and Willie becomes a sort of pet. Mark believes that the world he landed in is an alien world with many similarities to Earth. While exploring the forest, he finds an arrowhead and tracks which he follows to find some creatures like humans but shorter and with webbed feet. After observing these people for a while, he follows them, and finds their camp.

Finding their tribal and primitive ways too warlike, he soon decides to leave. The next morning, he is taken prisoner by a more advanced, metal-weapon wielding race. On the path to slavery in their village in the mountains, he saves his friend's, Leeta, life. He escapes slavery only to return and warn the village about an impending attack from their enemies. By so doing he wins his freedom and official entry into their tribe. After these events, and many more, including meeting the mysterious, masked leader of these people (The Merkon), he comes to discover that this world is the dark future of the planet Earth. Following a world-wide plague and nuclear holocaust, the planet Earth's nature and people have been altered. Mankind has started over. The adventure continues as he searches for the mysterious light, a way home, and a way to save the future. After he returns to his own time, Mark becomes a doctor, working tirelessly to cure the disease that would wipe out humanity.

Works of Gary Paulsen

Brian series: Hatchet • Brian's Return • Brian's Winter • The River • Brian's Hunt Tucket series: Mr. Tucket • Call Me Francis Tucket • Tucket's Ride • Tucket's Gold • Tucket's Home • Tucket's Travels World of Adventure Series: Captive! • Curse of the Ruins • Danger on Midnight River • Escape from Fire Mountain historical novels: The Quilt • Alida's Song • Soldier's Heart • Nightjohn • Sarny comical books:The Amazing Life of Birds The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech • Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day • The Glass Cafe: Or the Stripper and the State; How My Mother Started a War with the System That Made Us Kind of Rich and a Little Bit Famous • The Boy Who Owned the School • The Schernoff Discoveries • Harris and Me other: Canoe Days • The Beet Fields • The White Fox Chronicles • The Transall Saga • The Rifle •The Tent • Dogteam • The Car • A Christmas Sonata • The Monument •The Haymeadow • Woodsong • The Night the White Deer Died • Canyons • The Winter Room •The Voyage of the Frog • The Island • The Crossing non-fiction:How Angel Petersen Got His Name • Caught by the Sea • Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books • Father Water, Mother Woods • My Life in Dog Years • Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers