[.ca] Jumper (ISBN 0765342286)

Excellent but ...:
This is being sold on amazon.com for 7 bucks, but it's 28 bucks at amazon.ca. What gives? This is getting ridiculous.

Jumper brings you right into the book:
Steven Gould has made the perfect book! A book With actoin, suspense, and love. Its about a boy whos father abuses him for the littleest things. When he finaly runs away he gets picked up by a so called fiendly trucker. He takes him to a resteraunt and gets him a big breakfast. But after about a half an hour they pull off to a desreted turn off. There are a couple of pick up trucks there and nothing else. The driver gets out of the car and tells him that he wants him to meet a couple of friends of his. The next thing he knows hes beinged raped. But when they start taking his clothes off he some how telaports him self hundereds of miles back to his house. Then every things starts to unfold and he finds out that he can only telaport to places hes been. This book is suited for about the ages 13 and older. it deals with real life problems that teenagers go through.

Entertwines crafty sci-fi, romance, and endearing characters:
Normally, when you read a novel that is heavy science fiction, there is not enough room in the plot to add romance. Although people say that romance in today's world amounts to how much sexual themes a book is loaded with (and believe me, this book is no exception; its not for young kids), but the romance that takes place in this book is very real with the consequence our young protagonist David Rice deals with; his deadly secret of teleportation. Hence the name Jumper. He can jump to anywhere he wants, but only where he remembers. The plot is pretty predictable; he gets rich, gets a girl, fights a little bit of crime, and falls in love with the girl. But to describe the romance and action of this book in one simple sentence would not pay homage to the hard work put into the writing of this story. There is sex in this book, as well as the prospect of rape, but the sex is not out of enjoyment, but out of endearment. Its very gently described too, and your head won't be spinning like it does when you watch a graphical sex scene in a raunch teen flick. Steven Gould writes with eloquence, passion, and sometimes the passages brought tears to my eyes. I actually could feel the characters' woes, problems, and feelings. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but while a picture is swept away in your thoughts very easily, strong words will stay in your heart forever, and Steven Gould accomplishes just that.

EXCITING AND IMAGINATIVE:
I have long been a fan of Steven Gould but amazingly enough until just recently I haven't read his first novel JUMPER. I was not disappointed. Did it have a few little flaws? Yes. Did it sound like an advisement for psychotherapy, you bet. But for the most part I didn't care, it was still one heck of a story. What would you do if you were seventeen and could teleport? Rob a bank? Probably. Have some fun? Yes. In fact Davy, the teleporter in this story, is probably quite a bit more reserved than would have been a certain seventeen year old I knew some years back. This is a story for young adults, emphasize the adult please. I've seen a considerable number of poor reviews based on the premise that JUMPER was unexpectedly too racy for young children. It's not. There is no graphic sex, it's all implied and what is there is integral to the plot. This is a story of reactions. How someone would react to finding he has a strange new gift. It doesn't dwell on the mechanics of teleportation it just gives it to you as an established fact and this works very well. No need to develop new natural rules and try to convince us it really could happen, it's a story, believe and enjoy! Anyway JUMPER is no prizewinner but it is as darn good story and I certainly enjoyed it and would RECOMMEND it whole-heartedly.

Deserves ten stars!:
loved this one. The idea of a person being able to teleport from place to place is not new, but it still has the power to fascinate. Just think, what would you do if you could jump from one side of the world to another just by concentrating upon a photograph of your destination? David Rice can do just that as he learns quite by accident during a moment of heightened stress when his abusive father attacks him. We follow David as he learns what he can do, but not why he can do it. This frustrates him until he becomes distracted by other events. He robs a bank, gets a girlfriend older than him, finds his estranged mother, loses the girl, loses the mother, gets the girl again, tracks down a bunch of terrorists.... phew! David sure is busy in this book and I love it! Oh yeah, he makes a fool out of the FBI and police at nearly every turn... great! Jumper is simply great fun. Once you pick it up, you'll not want to put it down until the last page is read. When you've finished it, you'll want to put it somewhere safe. I guarantee you'll want to read it again. Mark E. Cooper Author of The Warrior Within (ISBN: 094512200)