Not a review but a note: I read this book in tandem with A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was not planned but the similarities of plot were noticeable. I enjoyed that surprise.

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I Liked this book. I really did. The concept was intriguing, the writing wasn't bad, the characters were fairly realistic.

But there were these little thing that ticked me off.

1) Mark's use of expression. In this book, we meet people who speak a language other than English. And Mark learns this language, but he likes to use English expressions of speech. For instance: MArk is training with one these people, named Sarbo. Sarbo tells him to come back first thing tommorow morning. Mark says "Wild horses couldn't keep me away." --now, there are not horses in this world, so there obviosly aren't horses in these people's langauge. But they do have horse-like beasts, which I assume IS in their language. At this point, I assumed Mark was using their word for the horse-like beasts, and the author was just saying horse to simplify for the reader. But no.-- "Wild horses?" Sarbo asks, confused. "It's an expression, Sarbo. It means nothing will stop me from being here." Mark answers.
Not, my first problem. WHY WOULD USE AN EXPRESSION OF SPEECH??? These people are so Primitive, no offense to them, I love them, but expressions of speech are evolved. WHY??? My second problem, if you MUST use an expression of speech, why don't you use their word for their horse-like beasts? Why? Why, Mark?

2) The Merkon. It's not really that I'm ANNOYED, but I hope the author didn't expect me to be surprised by this plot twist.

3) Megaan. So I'm sort of predisposed to dislike people name Megan, and I was pronouncing Megaan Megan while reading this. Also, she was given NO character development other tan: she's the daughter of the village chief. she's hot. And she doesn't like Mark (except she does). That's all I know about her. And yet as soon as we met her I could sorta tell that she and Mark would be a thing, and thus the character Leeta was, for the most part, wasted. ARG.

Even though none of the 'plot twists' in this book surprised me and I found the language to be misused by the main character, the concept and setting of this book were phenomenal and I recommend it to fans of SF/Fantasy or dyst0opia. It's a different perspective on these genres, and was thoroughly enjoyable.

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There's this subreddit "tip of my tongue", where people post half remembered book, songs, movies, whatever, and the rest of the internet chips in and remembers the book for you. It's amazing. I don't know why, but this book, the Transall Saga, shows up on there more often than any other book. My brother has had this book, and most Gary Paulsen books, for years, but I never read any of them but Hatchet. But since I kept seeing it online, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

This book, for all the promises of scifi, is very much like Hatchet. Boy gets stranded in wilderness. Boy must survive in wilderness. This time in some sort of jungle rather than northern forest. But it turns out that the new place he's found himself in (the transportation to the wilderness is the scifi part) isn't empty of people. So he has to learn how to get along and get ahead in the society of humanoids he finds himself in.

The whole book felt like a high fantasy just wanting to break free of the wilderness survival story. I wish that would have happened. It would have made the quest and planet of the apes style reveal at the end more worth it. But I guess you can't expect a Gary Paulsen book without a wilderness story. ( )

Three 1/2 stars? Starts out a sci-fi version of Hatchet, but turns out to be richer than that. Some boys will become more avid readers because of this - belongs in every Middle School library. ( )