Subject: Review of Steven Gould's JUMPER [Minor Spoilers]

From: [email-masked] (Zvi Gilbert)
Date: 22 Feb 94 23:12:32 GMT

Steven Gould's _Jumper_ is a good book for a teen or pre-teen who is
all full of adolescence. The premise is a standard wish fulfilment (what if 
you really could teleport!), it's written in first person so there is maximum
identification with the lead, Davy (male, seventeen, white, middle-class,
shy, bookish... sound familiar?), and Gould attempts to make the whole 
thing take place in a world that's recognizably close to our own. At
the end, after a series of difficult experiences, Davy gets the girl, gets
revenge, and is setting out on his future.

	I don't mean to be perjorative about calling it a teen book; I
genuinely would have enjoyed the book when I was younger, and I did now...
mostly. That said, I think the book has some serious problems, and the
amount of positive press that it has garnered (judging from the back cover
and inside reviews from IASFM, New York Times Book Review, Orson Scott
Card, F&SF, etc.) seems way out of proportion to what the book actually is.  
Accordingly, here's my perspective on the flaws of _Jumper_.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

^L

	The major structural flaw of the novel involves the remarkably
unlikely event on which the entire second half of the novel turns, which
starts Davy's crusade against terrorism. Not only does accepting it require
a suspension of belief that I feel is beyond what we should be expected to
contemplate, especially in a novel that strives for as realistic a texture
as this one, it is also in the wrong place, structurally, and doesn't have
near the emotional impact that it should.  I won't say more for fear of
spoiling the plot device, but it's too much to swallow.
 
	Second, early on in the novel, Davy robs a bank in order to get
money. With his abilities, it's easy, but everyone accepts his endless
supply of cash, and doesn't question very hard why a teenager should have 
so much money and nothing to do. The fact that no-one-- not even his
relatives or girlfriend-- pursues Davy when he fobs everyone off with lame
excuses is hard to accept. 

	Third, the reactions of the US government when faced with someone who
can teleport are ridiculous. They fight and fight to capture him, and then,
quite suddenly, give up. I don't believe in the benevolence of the US
government towards someone who is so obviously a threat to world stability;
note a similar situation in Ken Grimwood's _Replay_ for a much more 
believable view of what governments might do when faced with paranormals.

	This novel is quite obviously a nineties novel: every major
character is in therapy or a twelve-step program, and the solution to the
major emotional crisis of the entire book (Davy's relationship to his
abusive, alcoholic father) involves more therapy and more twelve-step
programs... I'm as much a proponent of the positive benefits of therapy as
anyone, but its so pervasive that it's annoying. Are there other ways of
dealing with difficult emotional situations that don't involve such
expensive and middle-class machinations? 

	Finally, I don't think the novel is really science fiction.  The
pseudo-science justifications for Davy's ability to teleport are pretty lame
and don't have the ring of good technobabble that, say, Larry Niven has. What
the novel is, is a better written and more realistic version of the Chris
Claremont X-Men comic book: teenager coming to terms with paranormal
abilities. Though the term is not used in _Jumpers_, Davy is a superhero,
and everything that he does in the novel entirely fits with that stereotype:
his crusade against terrorism (caused by the death of a relative), his
paranormal science-fantasy powers; hell, he even calls his retreat the
Fortress of Solitude. 
  
	I wonder why all these reviewers liked this novel as much as they
did. I suspect that it, like Allen Steele's books which also were praised
excessively, harkens back to the 50s sf that many are nostalgic about, where
everything messy or difficult has a neat solution (for Heinlein, it tended
to be hard work on a farm or the millitary; for Gould it's therapy); where a
young man with exceptional powers-- mental and paranormal-- triumphs over a
difficult situation.  Looked at from this perspective, _Jumpers_ resembles 
Heinlein's _Citizen of the Galaxy_, albeit with less invention, more romance,
and a more realistic frame. The teen in me liked it (I also liked my X-Men
back then), but it's a first novel, and the structural and conceptual
problems detract from easy enjoyment of the wish-fulfillment.

--Zvi
[email-masked]

%A Steven Gould
%T Jumper
%D Copyright 1992; first mass market edition October 1993
%I A Tor Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., NY
%G ISBN: 0-812-52237-0
%O paperback, $4.99 ($5.99 Canada)
%P 345 pp.