Exo: A Jumper Novel

This series is kinda going downhill IMO
Book 1: Teleportation, evil government body. 5 Stars
Book 2: Teleportation, evil private sector body. 5 Stars
Book 3: Teleportation, evil teenagers? Ends with evil private sector body. 4 Stars
Book 4: Teleportation....... And Space. Not the cool exciting faucets of space. But the ho-hum, "Lets explain how each and every part of my space program is put together and what it is made of, and where I got it." part. No lie, entire solid chapters on equipment and testing said equipment.

It's kinda cool to think about the applications of this unique ability in space but damn. No excitement whatsoever. Then in the last two chapters the author throws us a bone and give us our (now easily defeated) evil private sector body.

TL;DR: Like the title says. Left Turn for the Series. Feels like it could be a good set up for something. But I have a feeling it could be skipped entirely once the next one comes out and you wouldn't miss much.

Went in expecting more light action with some superhero-y aspects. Was curious about the blurb mentioning orbital mechanics. Was utterly surprised by the really good and well-researched "hard" SF plot. I sure hope this series gets a 5th book!

I have absolutely LOVED all the books in the Jumper series, but this one fell a little flat to me. I just wasn't as pulled in and didn't feel like there was much story. Even when the bad guys made a move, it was over so quickly that you barely had time to get worried! The good news is, if you like a lot of sciency-talk about space, you're in luck because there is a LOT of that. However, it was a fun direction to take, in the whole "what could teleporters be capable of" realm.

(Spoilers are contained in this review) Let me preface this by saying I love the Jumper books. All of them. Davy's discovery and journey was a breath of fresh air and a unique book. The introduction of the Daarkon group provided an antagonist that truly made my teeth grind while reading about Davy's imprisonment in Reflex. I truly loved these books. That said, I wish this was one of them.
This book read like more of a technical manual for building your own spacesuit than a novel. 90% of the book reads like this. The Daarkon group is wrapped up in about 20 pages (read as an ebook), rather than providing any kind of peril, any kind of fight or conflict. I give it three stars only because of what this series has meant to me and the potential of what this book COULD have been.

Everything here followed impulse logically but in the style we've become accustomed to from the series. Multiple storylines that all meet by the finish, plus a hint of another possible book. Please write book 5!

Amazing storyline. The scientific detail was interesting at first, but it felt overdone at times. Gould is a superb world creator and he makes the reader really care about his protagonists. Clearly among the best novels this year!

Amazing storyline. The scientific detail was interesting at first, but it felt overdone at times. Gould is a superb world creator and he makes the reader really care about his protagonists. Clearly among the best novels this year!

The bad guys remain uncharacterized, unknown motives - exploit their talent - type of reasoning.
Half the book is about a DIY space station. If it weren't for the Jumper franchise, i don't think I would read it. Their family remain the only teleporters around. Millie's ability to jump was never really explained. Romantic plot lines rather thin. Author likes to inject homosexual themes - recall wildside in passing into his stories. Then he does not expand on it. It's like a brush stroke to add highlight. Appealing to PC? Not as good as previous books.

I really gave some thought to giving this book only one star. I've read all the other books in the Jumper series and enjoyed reading them all. Not so with this book. Although there was plenty of jumping involved, way too much time was spent on the various problems and preparations being made for space travel.

The first books were definitely more riveting involving the capture and eventual escape of the Jumpers. The books seemed to progress through the realization that jumping could be done and then the various problems to be avoided. This book, in my opinion, was written solely for monetary gain. It could have been a good story if handled differently. The couple of instances that were a little suspenseful ended rather quickly and could have been drawn out to provide at least a little more interest.

I pre-ordered this book with the anticipation that it would as good or better than the others. I was sorely disappointed.

After two great Jumperverse novels, one great movie tie-in Jumper novel, and one pretty good Jumperverse novel about Davy's and Millie's daughter, Steven Gould has finished the series - I hope - with a book that is almost more textbook than a novel. The author's attention to detail, sense of drama, and ability to work out believable courses of action for determined characters faced with dramatically unusual situations are here almost entirely trumped by his fascination with science.
I hope Mr. Gould has gotten this out of his system. Every artist missteps now and again. Directors Kubrick, Hawks, Ford and Ang Lee, to name a few, have turned out a turkey at least once in their careers. After a run of so many excellent novels - including 7th Sigma, Helm and Wild Side - Mr. Gould has roasted us a turkey that's stuffed, basted and over-cooked with so much hard-science seasoning that when the reader comes to one of the very few chapters that actually serve up a measure of conflict (the essence of all fiction and drama) the actual flavor of meat comes as a pleasant but all-to-brief shock to the palate.
It feels like Mr. Gould was tired of his characters, though fascinated by the technical challenges of Cent teleporting into space. If the idea of chapter after chapter of problem solving regarding space suit materials, air supply, the effects of vacuum and low gravity on the human body, mylar, kevlar, air filtration, the math of satellite positioning and velocity vs acceleration appeals, then this is the book for you.
The big hook that Mr. Gould gave us in Reflex - the powerful mysterious agency or group or conspiracy or individual behind the attempts to kidnap and use our heroes, is given short shrift here, dealt with and disposed of over the course of a few pages. This is unfortunate as Gould took great pains to set up a truly scary and mysterious Big Bad in the excellent Reflex, and an integration and eventual exposure of this Big Bad's machinations with Cent's extra-planetary aspirations could have resulted in a much much better book. Perhaps Mr. Gould was tired of his Jumperverse, or uninterested at this point in his life in working out a more complex plot structure which would challenge his characters to act and react, to extend themselves and grow as Millie and Davy did in Reflex, in ways that reveal who they are while keeping us on the edge of our seats.
I hope that this signals the end or at least a long break from the Jumperverse for Mr. Gould. I hope that he takes a deep breath and jumps into the amazing world he began to create in the wonderful 7th Sigma (perhaps his most creative and original book), and continues that story at the top of his form, integrating brilliantly-executed world-building, story, mystery, surprise, challenge and character evolution in the detailed, richly textured and dazzling manner in which he excels.

I enjoyed the other books in the Jumper series but this one was very dull. The plot has two elements. The daughter uses her teleportation power to fly in outer space. The family are pursued by the same evil people as in prior books. There are no surprises here. There are a couple of subplots involving romance and friends, but they are only a small part of the book. Technical descriptions of space suit engineering and other space technology are almost endless. At least a third of the book is boring technobabble. It sounds realistic but it's boring. Perhaps the author is described cutting edge technology but it's still boring.The book should be at least 100 pages shorter. I doubt I'll buy another book by this author.

Another excellent sequel to Jumper! The copyediting was mildly distracting ("islet" instead of "eyelet", "aid" instead of "aide", a few random confusions between "to" and "too", and a chapter title with the wrong character's name) but I still read through the book in a single, highly enjoyable sitting.

Now if only Mr Gould would write a sequel to "Wildside"...