Jumper: Griffin's Story | Steven Gould

Jumper: Griffin's Story | Steven Gould | What a let down

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Jumper: Griffin's ...

	Jumper: Griffin's Story Steven Gould Tor Books, 2007 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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Not as Good as Jumper

This is the third book in a set of three so far--all for adult readers. The original book, Jumper, is an incredibly good read. In fact, I've been tempted to recommend it to teens, but never do because of a single graphic and appalling scene very early in the book. (I'm a public school teacher; no NC-17 allowed!) Otherwise, Jumper is brilliant. It reminded me of Ender's Game in that it was such a ride, such a complete, slam-bang STORY. I was therefore pleased to come across Jumper: Griffin's Story, and hoped to like it just as much. I didn't for a couple of reasons.

First, as Steven Gould explains in an introductory note, he has added some plot elements which came from the movie now being made based on Jumper and Reflex. The most important of these elements would have to be the faceless group of people trying to kill off every jumper they can get their hands on. This adds a sort of Da Vinci Code aspect to the plot which I didn't like nearly as well as the kinds of things Gould did in Jumper. Jumper didn't need a mysterious guild of assassins to succeed. It was the very ordinariness of everything surrounding Davey's teleportation ability that made for such intriguing plot developments.

Second, Griffin is less likable than Davey. I appreciate his survival skills and the fact that he has to become tougher in order to evade his pursuers; I like the dilemma that gradually takes over his life as he realizes that anyone who gets close to him WILL get badly hurt or die. But in many ways, Griffin is simply playing out a teenage boy's fantasy life. Think about it: in addition to the power he has to get away and even track and trick the people who try to kill him, Griffin goes where he wants, takes what he wants, does what he wants, learns what he wants, and likes who he wants. This means he speaks French (home-schooling himself), pursues older women, steals everything from cash to technology, quickly learns karate, hangs out on exotic beaches, is cooler than everyone he meets, and yet finds that most of the people he comes across try to meet his needs in some way. (Note that in the first book, Davey also fell for an older woman.)

If it weren't for the deadly pursuit and the jumping, Griffin would simply be a spoiled, unethical rich kid running wild all over the planet. As it is, he's almost as self-centered as James Bond. I will say that at least the author has Griffin grow up pretty quickly, which is helpful because the 9-year-old seems like a 15-year-old anyway.

Of course, teenage boys reading the book would probably get a vicarious kick out of all of this. But somehow, even though Davey in Jumper made similar choices, Davey always seemed like a real and somewhat conflicted person. I was a little less sure about Griffin's humanity, despite the obvious sympathy engendered by his orphan and fugitive status.

The ending's rather dark, by the way, and clearly intended to set us up for another book.

Jumper: Griffin's Story is an action-packed read and might be worth your time; it just doesn't meet the standard set by Jumper. Putting Jumper aside for a moment, I did like Griffin's approach to creating a lair, one of many inventive plot developments. The people Griffin meets and cares for also add a lot to the story. And the unrelenting pursuit creates a suspenseful tone that carries the reader along. So the book does have its strengths.

P.S. I finally read Reflex, which is better than Griffin's Story but still not as good as Jumper. Again, the level of violence and sex in Reflex--including torturous brainwashing scenes--makes it a thoroughly adult read. I suspect that with a movie coming out, kids are going to want to read these books, but some parents might want to think twice about that, especially for younger teens. Griffin's Story is really the only one of the three that could reasonably be defined as a Young Adult book.

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What a let down

I have to say, I'm really disappointed in this book. I have already read Jumper and Reflex multiple times and was excited enough about this book to buy it the day it came out. What a let down.

It's more or less a rewrite of the first two books minus what made the originals, well, good.
The author must have decided he worked hard enough on the past books and didn't need to do any work on this one. He can't be bothered to explain jumping, how the act of jumping can be sensed by certain people and many other major plot points and that's just poor writing. In the past he put a lot of effort into educating the reader about the rules of the jumper world and did it in a way that moved the story along.

In addition the main characters have had some changes. Names have been changed and characters are now about a decade or two more modern which isn't a problem. A serious lack of character development on the other hand is a huge one. The other books took the time so you felt like you really understood the main characters and empathized with them. The new versions are just generic and could have been picked out of any old action book.

On top of that he had to go and make the villains into the "lets all wear black hats and laugh manically" stereotypes. Basically, there's some international organization that seems to go around killing jumpers for the heck of it. All the people in this organization have no problems with killing jumper children or the jumpers' friends and families. At times they even seem to get a kick out of it.

In the old books the antagonists and the organizations they represented, i.e. large government agencies, corporations or terrorist originations, were more realistic. Most of the people in these various groups just had questionable morals and some of them even believed they were doing good when in fact they were doing the exact opposite. They were written well enough that the reader could at least take a few seconds and consider the character's point of view. I'll admit, there were some plain good or evil characters in the old books but now every character fits nicely into one category or the other with no thought required.

To summarize: major plot points are not explained, one dimensional villains and main characters that aren't developed enough to carry you past the rest of the books faults.

Skip this book. Go buy Jumper and Reflex, they are much better. And while you're at it pray the author returns to his senses before he writes anything else.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7

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