Jumping for Joy

So my latest binge read was Steven Gould's Jumper series.

...Except for Griffin's Story which was written as a prequel for the movie.  That book sucked.

Jumper came out in 1992, and I was instantly a fan.  It is a book about a boy named Davy Rice who becomes able to teleport, and how it affects his life.  There are other events that follow that direct his development, and the book just gets better.  It's a 5-star book.

I wanted a book every year like some of the other authors I was reading at the time.  Jumper became one of those books that I would read every year.  And then when our GURPS group started a psionics campaign, I shaped my character around Davy.  My character even keeps a copy of Jumper in every home he has, and often has a copy on him as well.

The sequel Reflex came out 12 years later, and tells the story of Davy's wife Millie.  While it doesn't have quite the same fun behind it as Jumper did, it's still a really good book.

Then there was 4 years of silence, and then a tease with a short story called "Shade".

Last year, he wrote a third book called Impulse, the story of Davy and Millie's daughter Cent.  Yes there's teen angst to it, she's only 16, but there's also the continuing story of Davy and Millie doing their good deeds, tracking those who are hunting them, and dealing with their daughter.

Everything after Jumper is 4-star stuff.  That's probably my perspective because the first one caught my imagination so much, but that is not to say that 4 stars are bad, they just weren't as captivating as the first.

I can only hope that Gould writes more in the series.  Soon.

Multiple Reading

As you can see, I'm reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. But I've been wanting to listen to rock music during my workout, and I just can't read fantasy with music with words.

So at the gym I'm reading Jumper by Steven Gould.

He is not to be confused with Steven Jay Gould.

I think I've said before how much better the book Jumper is than the movie.

But the main influence for reading Jumper again is the hope of playing our GURPS Psionics group again. We've got a few different players, but the background is as detailed as the Fantasy world. And my character is based on Davey in Jumper with the added bonus of teleporting objects to and from himself. And against people with a touch.

I'm very excited about the possibilities of what the other players might create.

It's been a while...

And not much is going on.

Last Saturday, I played in my first Call of Cthulhu game at my local Canadian's non-embassy house in Alameda.

I had a great time, and got to play with two guys I've known for a few years, but never been at the same table with.

We've spent the time since the game describing the trailer for the film the movie could be made into. The trailer idea started from a double 9-mm attack the characters' security head made, and has gone from there. And I keep think it would be really cool to actually make the movie.

And then John recently brought up our old GURPS Psionics campaign. We both miss it a lot. I'm sure he misses the complex plots. I miss playing a global teleporter.

My character was based on Davey from Jumper (the book not the movie) by Steven Gould, but with the ability to teleport others by touching them as well.

If we can get the Steve and Scott re-interested, and Jason and Barton pre-interested, then we may do some of those games as a break from Fantasy.