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Jumper: Griffin's Story by Stephen Gould
01/10/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: TOR/Forge. 286 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $31.00 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1827-5. Buy Jumper: Griffin's Story in the USA - or Buy Jumper: Griffin's Story in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com
I'm not really sure how to categorise this book. It's definitely Science Fiction in a modern day setting. Its use of bad language would probably set it in the young adult to adult than teen market. It's also not a sequel to 'Jumper', a book released in 1992 that has the distinction of being on the American Library Association's Most Banned Books of 1990-1999, which according to the bumf was between Stephen King's 'Christine' and a non-fiction book on sex education. Said book is also being re-released next February so I can probably give a verdict then when it ties in with a 20th Century Fox film release.
In the meantime, author Stephen Gould has stepped back into this reality to follow the life of another character, Griffin O'Connor, who has been able to jump or teleport since the age of five. Luckily, he had understanding parents who instilled in him rules so as to avoid being seen doing it. Griffin has certain limitations. He has to know where he's going and developed a keen eye to draw everywhere he'd been. Teleporting is instantaneous and as he gets older finds he can move larger mass with him.
However, at the age of ten, while abroad with his parents in America, they are attacked and killed. Injured, Griffin teleports to escape and appears in the San Diego desert. Fortunately, he is befriended by a couple there who help him recover and aids them with his talent for a while. Over the next six years, Griff uses his talents to develop and trying to be one step ahead of the people who are out to kill him, not helped by the fact that they are sensitive to his jumps and where to start looking. I have to say that the last two chapters kept me page-turning to the end to see what happened next.
Author Gould has very cleverly developed a story around a growing adolescent and his ability to teleport all from Griffin's perspective. As such, we don't really learn the reason why he's being attacked. If anything, all he ends up dealing with is the assassins who are after him. Whoever they belong to, they are wealthy enough to bribe police and evade capture themselves. Griff is also supposed to be British and apart from calling a policeman 'a bobby', has thankfully not really done anything that is fundamentally wrong with how we speak. Then again, our young teleporter travels the world and if anything, becomes more cosmopolitan and fluent in other languages.
One of the odd things about how Gould deals with Griff is more to do with the rules of teleportation. It's been used occasionally in SF but occasionally I would see the hand of AE Van Vogt's Null-A character Gilbert Gosseyn more than Alfred Bester's 'The Stars My Destination's character Gully Foyle and how he teleported. Griff's dependency on sugary drinks after jumping also indicating that there it wasn't all plain sailing or teleporting.
Saying that, this is a satisfying read and one can only hope that the film does justice for the original book.
GF Willmetts
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