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Paulsen, Gary

(1939-2021) US author who began publishing in 1966, at first mostly for adults, but who became best known for his fiction for the Young Adult market, where he was a significant figure since around 1980; he was highly admired for his pared-down but subtle style, and for his sensitive evocations of the American wilderness, which is central to much of his work. His first sf novels, beginning with The Implosion Effect (1976), are Space Operas, and although competent do not very clearly prefigure the later author, though a tale like The White Fox Chronicles (2000) – set in a Ruined Earth America where adolescents are trapped in coercive Keeps by the tyrannical Confederation of Consolidated Republics – is propulsive with violence as well as love for the savaged wilderness. The Time Hackers (2006) less relentlessly pits its young protagonists against pranksters from the future who, via Time Travel hijinks, seem to be setting off a Changewar. The bulk of Paulsen's extensive production (more than 200 titles in all) was not, however, sf; and his use of its conventions could be arbitrary. The natural world and its current inhabitants were his patch. [JC]

Gary James Paulsen

born Minneapolis, Minnesota: 17 May 1939

died Tularosa, New Mexico: 13 October 2021

works (selected)

• The Implosion Effect (Canoga Park, California: Major Books, 1976) [pb/]
• The Green Recruit (Independence, Missouri: Independence Press, 1978) with Ray Peekner [hb/]
• The Night the White Deer Died (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1978) [hb/]
• Meteorite Track 291 (New York: Dell Books, 1979) [pb/Alexander]
• Compkill (New York: Tor/Pinnacle Books, 1981) [pb/]
• Canyons (New York: Dell/Laurel-Leaf, 1990) [pb/]
• Amos and the Vampire (New York: Yearling, 1996) [chap: in the Culpepper Adventure series: pb/]
• The Transall Saga (New York: Delacorte Press, 1998) [hb/Jon Paul Ferrara]
  • Blue Light (London: Macmillan Children's Books, 1999) [vt of the above: hb/Steve Kingston and Kim Thompson]
• The White Fox Chronicles (New York: Delacorte Press, 2000) [hb/Aristides Ruiz]
• The Time Hackers (New York: Yearling, 2006) [pb/]

links

• Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 22:15 pm on 19 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/paulsen_gary>