Jumper: Griffin's Story - Proof That Even With A Good Idea A Writer Can Disappoint

Jumper Griffin’s Story

Rating: Proof That Even With A Good Idea A Writer Can Disappoint.

This is a book about a man who can teleport. A secret society who murdered his family when he is only ten years old. He runs from them and it is cat and mouse game they get involved with until he decides to fight back. Yet it may sound silly, but also sounds like a fun science fiction. So I gave it a try. Here’s my review on Jumper: Griffin’s Story.

First off let me explain something. Jumper is a novel written by Steve Gould. He also wrote a sequel to it called Reflex. In 2007 the Bourne Identity director adapted it into a movie that made a fair amount of movie at the box office. In the movie a new made up the character Griffin was added to the mix. Griffin was not in the books, but Steven Gould loved this character so much from the movie, that he decided to write a novel prequel to movie focusing on Griffin. So this book is based off of a character that was made for the movie, which in turn is based off of his first book. Confusing? Yeah. A bit.

So who is Griffin? Griffin is a British teleporter who has been fighting against the palidins (the secret society) for years. In the movie, he would grab some and drop them off of a building or teleport some into a shark tank. He throws a bus at Roland and then appears behind him with a flame thrower for Pete's sake. He cares only about himself and vengeance. He has flaws and shouldn’t be likable, but he is. I guess he falls into the Jack Sparrow and Mal Reynolds character category. But I thought the back story would be great.

The book starts out with Griffin as a little kid. His family had been moving from one place to another, so no one can find them. They didn’t want the palidins to find where he was at. And Griffin is a typical kid (who can teleport). But he teleports in public on accident one day and that night the palidins kill his family. So of course he jumps away.

From there on the story kind of just bounces from one thing to another. It focuses on life and growing up which is odd seeing how it is being promoted as a action novel. It really doesn’t have much action in it. There are only two or three encounters before the climax. There’s no real drama. Griffin’s always hiding and has no friends, but the characterization is so shallow. I can’t even feel sorry for him.

So in the last three chapters, he meets a girl. A girl he really likes and I don’t want to give much away here, but I think anyone who wants to read this book should know what kind of pathetic climax it has. The palidins do some bad things to this girl and her family. And that the end of the book, he doesn’t have a fight, or try to get revenge. He just snaps. He goes crazy.

And the problems with this book, where should I start? They stated briefly who this society was in the movie. But the book gives you nothing. You don’t have a clue of why they are doing this. Once again it’s an action book without action. It has no emotion or depth. And it is a really weak back story. Actually there’ a total absence of story. I think Steven Gould hurt the character from the movie by writing this book. Lastly when it begins to get a little entertaining, you begin to get into you find yourself on the last page of the book with a cliff hanger.

My rating for this book is this is only for those who are really really curious and no one else. If you want to know Griffin’s Story, go rent the Jumper DVD. You’ll learn more there than you do in the book. For someone who likes the original Jumper novel, this truly is a disappointment, but then again. I have seen worse.

1/2 smoothie out of four