Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

JUMPER
by
STEVEN GOULD
Jumper hardback cover Jumper (1992)
An ALA Notable Book of the Year

Book club edition hardcover
344 pages
cover art by Romas (left)

2002 Starscape paperback
252 pages
cover art by Vince Natale (right) 		Jumper starscape cover
From the inside cover of the hardback:
       Davy can teleport.  He first discovers his talent during a savage beating delivered by his abusive father, when Davy jumps instantaneously to the safest place he knows, his small-town public library.  As his mother did so many years before, Davy vows never to go home again.  Instead he sets off young and inexperienced, for New York City.
       Davy gradually learns to use and control his powers, first for sheer survival in an environment more violent and complex than he ever imagined.  But mere survival is not enough for Davy.  He wants to know if there are other people like him.  He needs to know if his mother disappeared so completely from his life because she, too, could Jump.  And as he searches for a trace of anyone else with powers like his own, he learns to use his abilities for more than escape and theft.
       A young man with nothing to lose, and the ability to go anyplace he wants, can help a lot of people.  But he can also make a lot of trouble, and sooner or later trouble is going to come looking for him.  The one way Davy can think of to locate others who can Jump is to make himself visible to them, but if he does, the police will surely find him too.

From the back cover of the Starscape paperback:
      Davy lives alone with his father.  But the truth is, it isn't much of a home.  When things get so bad that Davey decides he has to run away, his big question is, Where? And how will he live?
      The magical answer: anywhere Davey wants!
      Davy discovers he has the power to "jump" from one place to another.  Not just a few feet.  But hundreds, even thousands of miles! And as Davey explores his new power he learns that the world is literally his for the taking.  But there are consequences, too, as Davey will learn.

Read for group discussion on June 28, 2000
Amy's Short Summary :  Jumper - Steven Gould

This book tells the story of Davy Rice, an eighteen year old who discovers that he can teleport when he escapes his alcoholic father to the safety of the Stanville Public Library.

Davy runs away to New York City, where he can't get a job since he doesn't have the proper ID.  But he can jump somewhere if he can remember it clearly.  So he gets money another way.  At a Broadway play, he meets Millie, a vacationing college student from Oklahoma.  She finds his idle rich lifestyle unusual.

Davy looks for his mother, Mary Niles, who disappeared some six years earlier.  There turns out to be many things a jumper can do, although some gather unwanted attention.

summary written by misuly@aol.com
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan 8 Amy 7 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri 7 Barb 6
Aaron - Cynthia 7
Kerry 7 Jackie -
Richard 6    
Jumper (2008) - the movie
Directed by Doug Liman.  Running time 88 minutes.  Stars Hayden Christensen as David Rice;  Rachel Bilson as Millie Harris;  Samuel L. Jackson as Roland Cox;  Jamie Bell as Griffin.
Our book group has also read the following books by Steven Gould:
-- Blind Waves   in June 2001
Bibliography:
Steven Gould (1955-     ) is a US writer.

Gould's first novel, Jumper (1992), is an young adult SF adventure about a teen who can teleport.  It was an ALA Notable Book of the Year.  Reflex (2004) is a sequel to Jumper.  Jumper: Griffin's Story (2007) tells the story of a character from Jumper the movie, and is a tie-in for the film.

Wildside (1996) is a young adult novel about a boy who finds a door into an alternate Earth, one in which humans do not exist.  Wildside won the Hal Clement Award for Best Young Adult Science Fiction given by the Golden Duck Foundation, and was on the American Library Association Best Book List, YA division.

Greenwar (1997), an eco-thriller, was written by Gould and his wife, Laura J. Mixon.

Helm (1998), is about a new civilization created by humans on the planet Agatsu after the earth is devastated.

Blind Waves (2000), is a SF thriller that takes place along the Texas gulf coast after melting Antarctic ice has drowned much of the world.

Links:
Our book club's page for Blind Waves by Steven Gould
Green Man Review Steven Gould, Jumper
The SF Site: A Conversation With Steven Gould and Laura J.  Mixon (2000)
Locus Online: Steven Gould and Laura Mixon interview (1997)

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 This page was last updated October 23, 2008