What do You think about Jumper: Griffin's Story (2007)?
Jumper: Griffin’s StoryBooks like Jumper: Griffin’s Story only come to people a few times in their lives. This book by Steven Gould is a great work of science fiction brought to the public by the good people at Tor Books and published in 2007. This book, though a little old in trends, is a real diamond in the ruff.The book is based on the book Jumper, but other than the abilities of Griffin and some similarities in the villain there are no relations to its predecessor. In a surprising turn of events, Mr. Gould also wrote Jumper the book’s predecessor as well as Wildside, Waves, Reflex, and a few others, including a collection of short stories.Very opposite to Steven Gould’s first Jumper book Griffin is “trained” and taught specific rules and guidelines for his ability. But also contrary to the first book some people know about his ability from thebeginning. Every time he disobeys the rules of his ability he has to move to a new place. He develops friends and life goes on business as usual, apart from the occasional bank robbery or kidnap attempt.This book was the first book I ever read by Steven Gould and when I read it first I was unimpressed. However it seems this book has to be an acquired taste or maybe the reader was just too immature to realize the greatness of this book. This book is largely fast-paced due to the abilities of Griffin. In this book you will love to hate the villain, sympathize, and admire Griffin. I also marveled at how Griffin learned to adapt to his new life.In short I loved this book. Any fan of science fiction or just in search of a good story will love it too. You will not find some subliminal message or some point the author was trying to get across, but undoubtedly someone will interpret it as that. It does not seem that the author was trying to communicate anything but a good story.
—Dominic
This book is probably best seen as a companion to the Jumper movie, and anyone who found that movie enjoyable will probably find something to enjoy in Griffin's Story.Griffin's character certainly takes on a much more developed and intricate background than even the movie's main character, David Rice. In fact, that's what really pulled me into the story more than anything else. I get the feeling that Gould was eager to explore the world he was given from the movie and set out to see just exactly how varied and diverse he could get with setting up Griffin's background.The narration in the audio version is performed well, but the actor's version of different accents seemed too transparent for my tastes. I think what really nagged at me throughout was that the character's inner monologue was spoken in a solid American English accent, yet his voice wasn't.Minor criticisms aside, I was hoping to get more after I finished up the book. It'll be interesting to see if Steven Gould can bring in more new and original story lines to the Jumper universe; I'll be keeping an eye out for them if he does!
—Ian
This 286 book was a may not have been one of my favourite books, but it did have a good plot. Griffin O' Conner is a young and very 'special' boy, as he has the ability to transport or jump to any location he desires, as long as he remembers the location from his past experiences. Griffin has had villains chasing him around and trying to kill him ever since his first incident when he transported in a very public place, alarming a lot of people. The villains eventually find out Griffin is living San Diego so they decide to murder his parents right in front of his eyes. After that terrifying moment, Griffin teleports to Mexico and is forced to live with a Mexican family that found him next to the border. After living with the family for a long time, Griffin realises the villains are onto his traces they arrive in Mexico. Griffin decides a very safe place to go is England sine he has visited many times in the past. There he must live on is own and must try to make a life for himself. While living there he finds a beautiful girl named EV and they end up forming a relationship. But after Griffin tells EV who he actually is, the villains come after EV's family and they kill her father. After the villains killed Ev's father, they took her family hostage, so it is up to Griffin to uncover the truth about the killers of his parents, and to save EV's family.Author Pete Nelson does a good job of showing how after the years Griffin has lived in England, he has developed into a mature boy, which is something I really liked from Mr. Nelson.This book was not one of my favourites in the end, but it was an easy read. I found it kind of boring and the action in it was not as engaging as the other books I have read. I feel like this book would be a good read for any teenagers who like books about kids with superpowers.
—Karlo
