Customer Reviews

The Transall Saga

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Transall Saga by Gary Paulson is a great book that anyone should read. This book is full of thrilling adventure and mind compeling events. This book is about a "city boy" named Mark that convinces his parents to let him go camping by himself in the desert. While camping he discovers a strange blue light. He fell through it and found himself in a strange world with many alterations. There are different animals and plants. Colors of things are different too. some how he has to survive in this world, as he is learning he is also growing in many ways. Read this book to find out how he survives in this wilderness. This is an awesome book in my point of view.

I've been an elementary (5th grade) teacher for 9 years and love to read to my students daily. Transall Saga "hands down" has been the "top choice" best book of the year all 9 years running. As matter of fact it has created a love and excitement for students who dislike reading.
I would love to see Mr. Paulsen do us all some justice and get busy writing a sequel. Mark needs to go back to the desert with his scienctific cohorts and show them what he's really made of. Please Mr. Paulsen get busy... we're all waiting for part 2. Also, I can't believe a producer hasn't pick this story up for a movie. I have read the "Hatchet series" and love it. But Transall Saga I feel by far is his best adventure!

Now I don't read much, in fact I almost hate reading! But I saw this book and a decided to read it because I have to read a book for school. I started to read and it started out with action and that made me read more. Each page I read, I wanted to read more and more. It had a lot of action and the story had several exciting twists and turns. It starts out like this. A boy convinced his parents to let him on a hiking trip alone in an old military missile range in the dessert. He rarely goes on trips and he mostly reads hiking magazines. Mark, the boy, starts to sleep after a long days hiking when a fireball falls right next to him and flickers out. He goes to investigate and sees this strange blue light. He thought it was some old military experiment. He goes to touch it. Suddenly, a rattle snake snaps and he falls into the light... He awakens and searches his hand for bite marks from the snake...Nothing... He looks at his surroundings and finds himself to be in a field. He walks a bit and finds himself sinking in quicksand! He manages to get himself out and lies down. Suddenly, he feels himself getting pinched by the red bug creatures! He shook them off and took off his clothes to see if they're all of. Ant then a buffalo creature comes by he climbs up a tree but the buffalo creature took one of his boots and ripped his shirt to shreads. He climbs down, puts onhis remaining clothes and moves into a jungle. He meats a creature that looks like a cross between a teddy bear and a monkey. At night he hears the noises of the jungle and a loud howl. He gets used to the jungle. One time when he was out hunting he saw a puddle of something on the ground...Blood... He heres shreaks outside and tries to find them. He sees a wolf creature, a.k.a. the howling thing clawing at someone in a tree. Mark shoots an arrow in the back of the animal. It turned around and attacked... And that's just the beginning. Read it for yourself. You'll love it, I did.

As an avid fan of Gary Paulsen since fifth grade, I look forward to and usually enjoy all of his books. "Transall Saga" was no exception.
When Mark goes out on a hiking trip in the desert, he is enveloped in a strange blue light and transported to what appears to be another world. He's injured in the ordeal, and must recover while trying to stay alive. Once he's well enough to move around more freely, he makes discoveries, namely monkey-like creatures and fruit...as well as evidence of people. One day, he is captured by and enslaved by a group of indigenous people. As time progresses, Mark takes on other roles in the comparitively primitive society, and discovers something rather unsettling about his new world.
The premise of "The Transall Saga" is a tried-and-true one, as is Paulsen's adolescent, male protagonist. Fans of Gary Paulsen will notice similar themes to his other books, but they don't detract from the story.
My only real criticism is of the ending. It was very abrupt, and didn't clean up all the loose ends. For that reason alone, I gave "The Transall Saga" four stars instead of five.
Recommended audience: fans of survival fiction, science fiction and/or speculative fiction.

What can I say. I've read about 17 of Gary Paulsen's books in the last few months and this is the only one I wasn't crazy about.

The idea is interesting-- it's standard sort of scifi fair; boy whisked away mysteriously to an alien world where he has to fight to fit in-- but the book is way too short to cover all the ground that Paulsen has lined up. As a consequence there's no character development, and scenes flip one to another without much to connect them at times.

I blame the YA publishers for this, by the way. As Tamora Pierce has noted, it took Harry Potter to convince them that kids' attention was longer than a gnat's. And I'd be willing to bet that they required Gary to keep his word count down, which is a darn shame because I would have loved to have seen this book fleshed out.

In any case, let me add a caveat that if you are in the mood for a fast-pace adventure without anything of weight to slow you down, you might like this. [If I were to give an equivalent it would probably be the old Robert E. Howard "Conan the Barbarian" books-- minus the fur clad babe on the cover.]

But if you like "The Haymeadow" or "Sarny" give this one a miss, or check it out at the library.

Pam T~
one of the moms at booksforkids-reviews

When I first read this book in the 6th grade, I wasn't keen on reading it. It did not look interesting. But once I started reading it I could not stop. (I am 12 years old) It has alot of action and exitment and once you start reading it, you wont want to stop. I have been reading this book over and over and it seems to get better every time! A 13 year old boy called Mark fell into the light and had to adapt to this new world called transall. When he finally meets people on this world, he finds out that he is in the distant future on Earth. Read this book and find out how he will get home!

This book is quite a change from all of the other Paulsen books, although it retains Paulsen's usual underlying theme of survival in the wilderness. Yup. And I'm afraid that several of the other reviewers were misguided or perhaps confused, as the book is not overflowing with "goar"; nor was the main character-Mark-on Mars. I found this novel captivating and entertaining. I enjoyed Mark's attitude that he aquired on Transall, which is the name of the world Mark is mysteriously transported to after falling into a bizzare blue light. This book has a satisfying ending and leaves the reader both awestruck and contemplative.

The title of the book I read is called Transall Saga, written by Gary Paulsen. I really enjoyed reading this book ultimately, because the whole thrill of the main character's survival on a planet that he just so happened to warp on. Every significant method or strategy Mark uses to survive on this planet mesmerized me and kept me in suspense. I kept asking myself, "What is he going to do next, what is he going to do next?" For the past few years of my life this book has been the only one that has kept my interest. This is a little piece of evidence of the book: When Mark camps out in the canyons he spots a mysterious blue light just over a boulder and falls into it, warping him into another world. As he is unfamiliar with the planet and its surroundings, he uses magnificent methods to survive. As you read more of the book, after he has gone through the warp, you get a sort of feeling that you're at a tropical rain forest because of the imagery. If you enjoy science fiction or your favorite genre is associated with science fiction, then you'll definitely love this book and will find it very intriguing. My name is Peter and I hope all of the viewers out there had taken a look at my review thoroughly and hopefully you will read Transall Saga sometime in the near future.

This book was recommended to me by my 12-year-old niece. She enjoyed it and convinced me to move it up on my reading list. I'm not sorry I did. While this is not Paulsen's best work, it is an enaging story that kept me captivated right through the end. When, 13-year old Mark falls into a mysterious beam of light while on a solo camping trip, he is transported to what seems to be a solitary jungle-world. He eventually discovers he is not alone and becomes involved at several levels with the native peoples. He learns some of the local languages, lives through being a slave, transforms himself into a hero, gains friends, and falls in love - basically he grows up - under very trying circumstances. Mark's story is interesting not only for the adventure but also for the growth that can be seen in Mark. I was kept wondering right up until the end whether he would make it home or not and whether I wanted him to or not.

This book is the best! If you haven`t read it you have to. A boy named Mark decides to go on a camping trip across an abandonned missle range. When he sets up camp for the night a strange light appears. Mark wonders into the light, BIG MISTAKE! He was transported to another world, or it seemed. This world is inhabited by many strange species of animals. He meets these people who live in tribes. Since he`s pretty big compared to them, he`s considered a leader, almost. He meets another human like him. His name is the Merkron, and he is wierd. The Merkron is like the god of the world which the tribes call the Transall. Mark ends-up killing the Merkron because the Merkron is trying to kill him, and escapes his soldiers. But one day the soldiers find Mark and corner him, but all of a sudden the light appears again! I`m not tellin you anymore because your going to have to read it to find out.