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Steven Gould, Jumper: Griffin's Story
Gould's Jumper shares character names and a basic premise with the film, so anyone going to the tie-in edition is likely to get a little confused. I presume the sequel, Reflex, is similarly askew. But good to see it wasn't suppressed. Meanwhile, there is the comic prequel, and this prequel authorised by Gould's own writing: the story of Griffin, the best character in the film.
Griffin first jumps at the age of five, panicked by something at the Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford, and his family move to California. The secret cannot be kept forever, and Griffin's family are killed, leaving him to fend for himself. The rest of the book is a mixture of his trying to survive, several failed relationships destroyed by what are eventually named as paladins, with Roland as the big bad in name. It's only at the end that Gould captures the vocal patterns of Jamie Bell's twitchy performance.
That being said, it's a gripping read, and a YA read that pulls no punches in sex, violence and swearing. It pulls off the remarkable task of not contradicting the original novel whilst fitting in with the film. There are a couple of glitches, possibly caused by editing, in terms of Griffin calling it a subway rather than an underground train (but then he's grown up in the US) and I'm not sure why he can use pounds, shillings and pence. (It's also coy about the date - but it's clearly set in the decade leading up to the film.) A throwaway mention of Griffin's North Country accent perhaps explains Bell's rather wayward accent.
I'm glad I decided to track this down - it was fun.
Gould's Jumper shares character names and a basic premise with the film, so anyone going to the tie-in edition is likely to get a little confused. I presume the sequel, Reflex, is similarly askew. But good to see it wasn't suppressed. Meanwhile, there is the comic prequel, and this prequel authorised by Gould's own writing: the story of Griffin, the best character in the film.
Griffin first jumps at the age of five, panicked by something at the Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford, and his family move to California. The secret cannot be kept forever, and Griffin's family are killed, leaving him to fend for himself. The rest of the book is a mixture of his trying to survive, several failed relationships destroyed by what are eventually named as paladins, with Roland as the big bad in name. It's only at the end that Gould captures the vocal patterns of Jamie Bell's twitchy performance.
That being said, it's a gripping read, and a YA read that pulls no punches in sex, violence and swearing. It pulls off the remarkable task of not contradicting the original novel whilst fitting in with the film. There are a couple of glitches, possibly caused by editing, in terms of Griffin calling it a subway rather than an underground train (but then he's grown up in the US) and I'm not sure why he can use pounds, shillings and pence. (It's also coy about the date - but it's clearly set in the decade leading up to the film.) A throwaway mention of Griffin's North Country accent perhaps explains Bell's rather wayward accent.
I'm glad I decided to track this down - it was fun.
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