Palmer, David
Entry updated 16 February 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1941- ) US author whose first story, the impressive "Emergence" in Analog for January 1981, was expanded as Emergence (fixup 1984), a Young Adult tale which attracted some notice for its depiction of a Post-Holocaust America suffering the consequences of a nuclear World War Three, and for its juvenile heroine, who represents a superior form of Homo sapiens (see Superman) and whose transcribed voice dominates the tale; some found her obnoxiously reminiscent of the narrator of Robert A Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (December 1965-April 1966 If; 1966). The novel won the Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Memorial Award. A belated sequel was Tracking (July/August-October 2008 Analog; 2019).
Palmer's taste for protagonists whose special gifts legitimize their behaviour also helped shape his second novel, Threshold (1985), in which the Galaxy is saved; it was the opening of the planned trilogy To Halt Armageddon and was followed, again belatedly, by Spēcial Education (2019); a third volume has not appeared. [JC]
see also: Psi Powers.
David Reay Palmer
born Chicago, Illinois: March 1941
works
series
Emergence
- Emergence (New York: Bantam Books, 1984) [fixup: pb/Jim Burns]
- Tracking (place not given: Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press, 2019) [first appeared in July/August-October 2008 Analog: pb/Sherry L Palmer]
To Halt Armageddon
- Threshold (New York: Bantam Books, 1985) [fixup: To Halt Armageddon: pb/E T Steadman]
- Spēcial Education (place not given: Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press, 2019) [To Halt Armageddon: pb/]
links
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