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Jumper : A Novel

Jumper : A Novel

List Price: $5.99
Your Price: $5.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Make your imagination explode!
Review: Ever wonder what if.. you could travel with your mind and not just in it? This book tells of just such a possibility. If you re-read books, you will find yourself re-reading this one over and over again, each time discovering something new. Steven Gould shows the fears and the joys of having a supernatural power. This is a must book for all Sci-Fi readers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VERY ENTERTAINING
Review: I love science fiction in all forms: books, TV, movies, theory, etc. Jumper poses a story that I'm all sure we thought about at one time or another - what if I possesed some power that no one else on Earth did. The idea of teleportation has been a staple in the science fiction world, and it continues to be illustrated in this novel. After reading this book I have many times thought about what I would do with such a power, and where it would lead me. I believe the human body (and mind) is capable of much more than we are using it for right now, and who knows if this story couldn't come true. It's a great story for those who love science fiction based in the present rather than the future. I highly recomend it

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great novel from Gould
Review: I've read this book a couple of times now and it is still a thrilling read. It is probably one of my favorite science-fiction novels...

17 year-old David Rice discovers he has a unique talent. He is able to teleport himself to anywhere just by using his mind. He first discovers his ability one night when his alcoholic father staggers into the house ready to give David his usual beating. David, without realizing it, teleports himself to a local library before his father can throw the first punch. After teleporting a few more times, David learns to control his new ability and sets out to make it on his own. In the process, he moves to New York and robs a bank by teleporting into the vault after hours.

Guilt soon plagues him and, not wanting to use his ability for crime, he decides that he will no longer allow his talent to turn him into a criminal. Soon, he finds a girl that he falls in love with and they begin a long-lasting relationship. However, David is scared that he might chase her away if he tells her the truth about himself.

Through an incident involving the death of his mother, David becomes involved in rescuing hijacking victims. However, the U.S. National Security Agency is now aware of David's unique ability and will do anything to capture him and use his power for their own agendas.

Gould's story has you "glued" from page one and doesn't let up until the thrilling conclusion. This little review really doesn't do the novel much justice. This is a great book that allows you to escape into a story that feels like it could be reality.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Much better than I expected
Review: I found this on my brother's bookshelf, and I'd never heard of it or the author despite it being several years old, so I didn't expect it would be that great, but my brother recommended it so I gave it a try.

I was glad that I did. This was a very interesting story, with solid interesting likeable characters, and a lot of depth, which is something that has been lacking in most of what I've read lately. I read this pretty quickly, because it kept me interested, wanting to find out what would happen next.

This wasn't a great book, but it was a good story that was well written, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good story that is easy to get through.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Teleportation Novel
Review: David Rice is not a quick study and he has a lot to learn about life in general. He can only jump to a place he has previously visited, with clear memory of what it looked like. Gould makes you feel sympathetic for this lonely, abused kid who has to deal with some nasty people that are interested in his "gift".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: EXCITING AND IMAGINATIVE
Review: I have long been a fan of Steven Gould but amazingly enough until just recently I haven't read his first novel JUMPER. I was not disappointed. Did it have a few little flaws? Yes. Did it sound like an advisement for psychotherapy, you bet. But for the most part I didn't care, it was still one heck of a story.

What would you do if you were seventeen and could teleport? Rob a bank? Probably. Have some fun? Yes. In fact Davy, the teleporter in this story, is probably quite a bit more reserved than would have been a certain seventeen year old I knew some years back. This is a story for young adults, emphasize the adult please. I've seen a considerable number of poor reviews based on the premise that JUMPER was unexpectedly too racy for young children. It's not. There is no graphic sex, it's all implied and what is there is integral to the plot.

This is a story of reactions. How someone would react to finding he has a strange new gift. It doesn't dwell on the mechanics of teleportation it just gives it to you as an established fact and this works very well. No need to develop new natural rules and try to convince us it really could happen, it's a story, believe and enjoy!

Anyway JUMPER is no prizewinner but it is as darn good story and I certainly enjoyed it and would RECOMMEND it whole-heartedly.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Enjoyable but flawed
Review: "Jumper" is an enjoyable book, and its concept of the boy who can inexplicably teleport to any place in the world is a great one. However, the book becomes bogged down in its melodramatic plot and contrived situations, reminiscent at times of a Danielle Steele novel. Not to mention the sex, violence and strong language at times made me wonder if this was indeed appropriate for the YA market. Well, I read Stephen King when I was a 'tween and I didn't care- nevertheless, I think this book would have benefited from a lighter touch (such as William Sleator provides in his YA sci-fi books). The sheer amount of dysfunction in our hero Davy Rice's life, such as the alcoholic abusive daddy, the long-lost mama who comes back into his life after half a dozen years, the gorgeous older love interest and her likewise abusive ex, the fanatical Arab terrorists who blow up his nearest and dearest, etc., etc... I found myself rolling my eyes at various points in the story. To give an example of the occasional heavy-handedness of the prose, when Davy is reunited with his mother, she urges him to join Alanon, so he can "make amends" and overcome his "arrested emotional development," and describes its 12-step program for several pages. I do hope the author is a highly paid spokesman for Alanon and the AA, as endorsements for those organizations continually pop up in this book.

It's also somewhat dated, which give it moments of unintentional amusement. It was published in '92 but shows signs of being written in the late '80s, as there are mentions of "the arms race," "perestroika," as well as Davy threatening to take his services over to the Russians. There are also no mentions of the internet and wireless explosion- computers are barely mentioned, and Davy does his research via microfiche. The New York depicted in the story is very much the sordid, nasty pre-Rudy Giuliani city of yore, with a Times Square infested by pimps, druggies and streetwalkers, a world apart from its current cleaned-up Disneyfied condition. But perhaps the creepiest part was when Davy whisks his Arab terrorist nemesis to the observation deck of the World Trade Center. Ugh!

Anyway, this is a quick and amusing read for older teens, but I would personally have liked to have seen more science fiction, and less angst and melodrama.


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