Jumper
By Stephen Gould
This book presents the story of a boy who discovers that he can teleport himself to anywhere in the world. That in itself is a pretty amazing thing to consider. He is faced with a few limitations. For example he can only teleport or “jump” to places that he has been and can clearly remember.
The story that evolves around his new found ability is pretty interesting and actually quite believable because it is surrounding a person with potentially normal problems, with only a few unfortunate but believable ones added to the story.
Overall the story predictably escalates, to some rather less predictable sequences of events. I enjoyed the story because the main character isn’t a superhero that everything goes well for and he acts as I hope I may act in a similar situation.
Besides the primary antagonists in the story who are agents of the NSA he also seeks throughout the story to find a way to reconnect with his abusive father and deal the the death of his mother who is killed by terrorists while trying to build a healthy relationship with his girlfriend all while dealing with being able to teleport to anywhere in the world.
The story is dynamic and a great read. It is pretty interesting if you like mild science fiction set in believable settings. It is a bit older and written to take place in a pre 9-11 society (though aspects of this story deal with issues of terrorism that are almost insightful to our world today).
There is a movie made on the premise of this book, but the story is almost totally different. It is okay, but at times is weird.
The movie and the book are both 3 out of 5 stars.
