Jumper: Griffin's Story (Jumper) (original 2007; edition 2008)

This book is pretty good except that it is very confusing. Unfortunatly i would not reccomend it. ( )

Jumper Girffin’s Story

Rating: Proof that even with a good idea writer can disappoint………………………..

This is a book about a man who can teleport. A society who murders his family when he is only ten years old, He runs from them and it is cat and mouse fame they get involved wit until he decides to fight back. Yet it may sound silly, but also sounds like a fun science fiction. So I gave it a try. Here’s my review on Jumper: Griffin’s Story………………………………………….

First off let me explain something. Jumper is a novel written by Steve Gould. He also had a sequel to it called reflex, In 2007 the Bourne Identity director adapted it into a movie that made a fair amount of movie at the box office. In the movie he made up the character Griffin. He was not in the books, but Steven Gould loved this character so much from the movie, that he decided to write a novel prequel to movie focusing on Griffin. So this book is based off of a character that was made for the movie, which in turn is based off of his first book. Confusing? Yeah. A bit………………………………………….

So who is Griffin? Griffin is a British teleporter who has been fight against the palidins for years. In the movie he would grab some and drop them off of a building or teleport some into a shark tank. He throws a bus at Roland and then appears behind him with a flame thrower for god’s sake. He cares only about his self and vengeance. He has flaws and shouldn’t be likable, but he is. I guess he falls into the Jack Sparrow and Mal Reynolds character category. But I thought the back story would be great,……………………….

The book starts out with Griffin as a little kid. His family had been moving from one place to another so no one can find them. They didn’t want the palidins to find where he’s at. And Griffin is a typical kid ( who can teleport). But he teleports in public on accident one day and that night the palidins kill his family. So if course he jumps away.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,​

From there on the story kind of just bounces from one thing to another. It focuses on life an growing And for what is being promoted as a action novel. . It really doesn’t have much action in it. There are only two or tree encounters before the climax. There’s no real drama. Griff’s always hiding and has no friend, but the characterization is so shallow. I can’t even feel sorry for him……………………………………..

So in the last three chapter , he meets a girl. A girl he really likes and I don’t want to give much away here, but I think any one who wants to read this book should know what kind of pathetic climax it has. The palidins do some bad things to this girl and her family. And tat the end of the book, he doesn’t have a fight, or try to get revenge. He just snaps. He goes crazy…………………………………………………………. ​

So the problems with this book. Where do I start? They stated briefly who this society was in the movie. But the book gives you nothing. You don’ have a clue of why they are doing this. Once again it’s a action book with out action. It has no emotion or depth. And it is a really weak back story. Actually there’ a total absence of story. I think Steven Gould hurt the character from the movie by writing this book. Lastly when it begins to get a little entertaining, you begin to get into you find your self on the last page of the book wit a cliff hanger.

My rating is one stay only for those who are really really curious and no one else. If you want to know Griffin’s Story, go rent the Jumper DVD. You’ll lean more there than you do in the book. For some who like the original Jumper novel, this truly is a disappointment, but then again. I have seen worse…………………………

1/2 smoothie out of four

P.S. I if you like reading then may be you should check out my book website Lelue’s Realm at http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/ ( )

LIKED

As my first jump into YA science fiction, this was a great introduction. Gould's characters are believable for the given situations, and the point of view of the young character works well for the story. In a way, this reminds me quite a bit of the Harry Potter books, though the central character is more physically solitary, and the premise is based in science fiction instead of fantasy. On the whole though, I would say that fans of one will enjoy the other. Another interesting tidbit is that while this is the third book in the series, it was the first to be written after the movie went into production; as a result, Gould made the choice to write the 'science' to go hand in hand with the movie, not the earlier books. Still, this isn't a book "of" the movie--it's a stand alone piece of science fiction that draws you into the series with no need for interested readers to have read the earlier books.

In the end, highly recommended to fans of YA science fiction/fantasy of YA action/adventure. I'll be searching out the rest of the series. ( )

I read the original "Jumper" a long time ago, and only recently discovered that there was a sequel (Reflex), and this book, Griffin's Story, which is the movie tie-in. I didn't see the movie, but I loved Jumper when I read it, so I checked this out of the library. I enjoyed it a lot. I was very drawn in to Griffin's story, and like another reviewer, liked the fact that when characters spoke a different language (albeit briefly), sometimes Griffin translated the words, and sometimes he didn't. I thought that lent an air of authenticity to the foreign lands he traveled through. The one problem I had with the book was that I felt Griffin was written as much older than he was supposed to be in the book. The story is told in first person, and Griffin is 9 at the beginning of the book. He had been homeschooled by educated parents, so I'm sure he would have been a bit more educated and well-read than the average 9 year old, but if I hadn't been given his age at the beginning I would have assumed him to be around 15, maybe. People he met were always being surprised by his young age, but I just thought it would have made more sense if he had started out as, say 12, instead of 9. Small point, though. The book was great. ( )