Matas, Carol
Entry updated 13 March 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1949- ) Canadian author, most of her work being directed to Young Adult readers, with a strong interest in the dramatizing of Jewish/Israeli issues. A considerable portion of her work is of sf interest, starting with her first novel, The DNA Dimension (1982), whose young cast is suddenly transmitted into a heavily regimented DystopianParallel World sequestered Underground after a terrible war; the survivors are Eugenically governed through Genetic Engineering. Her first series, the Fifth Perception sequence beginning with Fusion Factor (1986), follows its young protagonist, via a Time Machine, into the future on the planet Zanu, whose Technological blandishments conceal the heavy costs of progress; The Edge of When (omni 2011) substantially recasts the series into a single narrative. The Minds sequence with Perry Nodelman, beginning with Of Two Minds (1995), is a metafictional tale whose two young protagonists, wrested from a world where her Psi Powers allow one of them to mutate reality, must persuade the authors who write them, and who have transferred them into the deracinating world of Winnipeg, to permit them a happy marital ending. The protagonist of the Freak sequence beginning with The Freak (1997) survives an illness and gains Psi Powers; a similar structure governs the Miranda sequence beginning with Cloning Miranda (1999), which follows its protagonist through the discovery that she has been Cloned, and that the fatal disease she is suffering from has been miraculously cured: but the world itself becomes unstable. Matas's work tends to impart lessons, which are at points sparklingly conveyed. [JC]
Carol Matas
born Winnipeg, Manitoba: 14 November 1949
works (selected)
series
Fifth Perception
- Fusion Factor (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Fifth House, 1986) [Fifth Perception: pb/]
- Zanu (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Fifth House, 1986) [Fifth Perception: pb/]
- Me, Myself, and I (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Fifth House, 1987) [Fifth Perception: pb/]
- The Edge of When (Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2011) [omni of the above three: all texts rev: Fifth Perception: pb/]
Minds
- Of Two Minds (New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1995) with Perry Nodelman [Minds: hb/Drew King]
- More Minds (New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1996) [Minds: hb/Diana Bryan]
- Out of Their Minds (New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1998) [Minds: hb/Diana Bryan]
- A Meeting of Minds (New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1999) [Minds: hb/Diana Bryan]
Miranda
- Cloning Miranda (Toronto, Ontario: Scholastic Canada, 1999) [Miranda: pb/]
- The Second Clone (Toronto, Ontario: Scholastic Canada, 2001) [Miranda: pb/]
- The Dark Clone (Toronto, Ontario: Scholastic Canada, 2005) [Miranda: pb/]
- Who Am I? (Gabriola Island, British Columbia: Fictive Press, 2016) [omni of the above three: Miranda: pb/]
The Freak
- The Freak (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 1997) [The Freak: pb/]
- Visions (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2008) [The Freak: pb/]
- Far (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2008) [The Freak: pb/]
- Tales of a Reluctant Psychic (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2008) [omni of the above three: The Freak: pb/]
Ghosthunters
- The Proof That Ghosts Exist (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2008) with Perry Nodelman [The Freak: pb/]
- The Curse of the Evening Eye (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2009) with Perry Nodelman [The Freak: pb/]
- The Hunt for the Haunted Elephant (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2010) with Perry Nodelman [The Freak: pb/]
individual titles
- The DNA Dimension (Toronto, Ontario: Gage Distribution Company, 1982) [pb/]
- Past Crimes (Toronto, Ontario: Key Porter Books, 2006) [pb/]
links
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