Jumper
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4.6 • 25 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Written in the 1990s by American author Steven Gould, Jumper tells the story of Davy Rice as he escapes his tortured childhood to explore the world via teleportation and find his long lost mother.
At seventeen the world is at your feet… especially if you can teleport.
David Rice barely remembers his mother. She left his alcoholic father when Davy was very young. She left Davy too, and since then all of William Rice’s abusive anger has been focused on his young teenage son.
One evening, as he is about to receive another brutal beating, Davy shuts his eyes and wishes to be safe. When he opens them again, he finds himself in his small town’s library. Slowly, he realises he is very special, he can teleport.
Armed with his new power, Davy sets out with new purpose: he will leave his abusive home and find his long lost mother. Davy’s confidence grows as his skills do, but they also draw unwanted attention and soon Davy finds that he too is hunted.
Reviews
‘[Gould’s] warm, delightful and compulsively readable novel displays assured storytelling skill.’
Publishers Weekly
About the author
Steven Gould is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Jumper: Griffin’s Story, as well as several short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been on the Hugo ballot twice and the Nebula ballot once for his short fiction. Steve lives in New Mexico with his wife, writer Laura J. Mixon and their two daughters. As he is somewhere between Birth and Death, he considers himself to be middle-aged.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gould makes an auspicious debut with this playful and moving look at a hallowed science fiction concept: teleportation. Gould gives us no teleportation chambers, no shimmery beaming a la Star Trek , no worries about mingling one's own molecules with a fly's--here only one person can teleport, and he has no idea how he does it. David Rice, age 17, first ``jumps'' spontaneously in order to escape his abusive father. Having run away, he learns to control his strange talent, using it first to survive on the street and then to set himself up comfortably via bank robbery. Gould does not focus on moral implications so much as keep the plot moving quickly. David searches for his long-lost mother, meets and woos a girl, enjoys the pleasures of a leisurely life in New York and (despite his best efforts) eventually runs afoul of the authorities, who of course want to understand his powers and then put him to work for them. Short fiction has earned this author a reputation in ``hard'' science fiction, and he applies similar logic to teleportation (though he glosses over some points to make the story work). His warm, delightful and compulsively readable novel displays assured storytelling skill.
Customer Reviews
Good read but feel the movie is better
Really enjoyed the book, but felt they really added to the story with their additions. A lot of spelling mistakes in this Ebook, maybe someone can go back through and re edit? Ie when describing what Davy is or if there is other, the word teleport is used rather than teleporters. Other than that thoroughly enjoyed.
Enter than the film
Towards the end of the book, the plot becomes a bit complex, but stick with it, it is well worth the effort
Enjoyable, but full of spelling mistakes
I found Jumper to be a quick and enjoyable read. Not exactly deep, but interesting. I was slightly put of by the spelling mistakes. It seems like this digital copy was OCR’d from a paper book. Words like ‘marry’ are misspelt as ‘many’, where the two ‘rr’s look like an ’n’.