Book Review: Jumper by Steven Gould

Jumper by Steven Gould

Five-star Rating

REVIEW:

It all began when David Rice was seventeen years old and was being abused by his father. Then it was immediately followed when he was almost raped after he ran away from their house. He knew it was teleporting, but he preferred to call it jumping and he considered himself from then as … a Jumper.

Though he knows that he will be alone in the street, he is still willing to pursue running away from his alcoholic father. He is determined to find his mother. But how when the world as if turned its back from him and all he can afford to trust is just his ability being a Jumper?

I knew this book before I bought it not because I heard or knew someone has read this but because I already watched the movie version of this book. But I wouldn’t have still picked this one, though I already watched the movie, if I didn’t fall into loving Orson Scott Cards books. However, given the chance that I already watched its movie, it’s another factor for me to pick this up now that I’m already starting to become obsessed of sci-fi books.

My admiration to Steven Gould is new but solid just because of this book. No matter what they say negative about this book will just be nullified from me. But to study the whole story, it just flow as normal as single thread—no twist and no surprise--just plain. Furthermore, I know that Gould wrote this book without making first a pattern or an outline which basically a way of creating a book I commonly dislikes. Well, what I said above is, I think, a suggestion that I totally admired this book with the way of creating a book I mentioned above. So the realization just came to my mind recently that it’s not the way how the author creates a story nor just how an author fills a story with exploding twists and turns that would make a reader like a book to the extent of dreaming over it, but it is how the author really pushes and masters himself harder at becoming a proficient story-teller.

Teleportation is commonly considered by some people to be at the paranormal line since they say that it’s one of the abilities of extra sensory perception that theoretically work of neurons. Since I’m aware of this thing, the first thought that came to my mind when I read this book is why labeled as sci-fi? But because I haven’t read yet the second book, I’m very much hoping I would find an answer from that book. On the other hand, there was still an associate of scientist’s theory on the things like Davy’s unexplainable landing when he’s doing his jumping that opposes this theory. But all of these theoretical sciences have nothing to do with the reason behind his ability to teleport. So still my question, why sci-fi? Nonetheless, the aura of the book is sci-fi.

One reason I admire Gould because despite of being overused of teleportation in novels, Gould still made out a new dress for it by calling it in different name. I also admire at how Gould really creates a very much normal world and put a special human out of it. In movies, once a superhuman fell to the earth, a super enemy would follow him. But it is very much rare for this like of story that even though the whole theme of the book is fantasy, Gould pulled back still the world in it as normal as he could by creating spark between supernatural and deadly terrorists.

It is also admiring that behind of unrealistic ability; Gould stamped it with realistic situations. The question in our dream that “what if we can teleport” has been successfully answered by Gould through this book. Though I understand why this book is one of the most banned books way back then, I still love it the way I love sci-fi books I read before. As what it says, there is more than to know than page 9. And of course there’s nothing makes a book more popular than being banned just because it is just read by mass of people around the globe.