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I read a book from my TBR pile since I killed my Kindle. I've had the Kindle for 2 years now and a couple weeks ago, it slid out of my hand while I was lying in bed and never worked again. I did all the advice listed online, contacted customer support, who said, basically, "It's dead, Jim." They offered me a discount on things I had no interest in. So I decided I would just get another one exactly the same, even though the name had changed to "keyboard". But I dragged my feet and Amazon announced the new series of Kindles so I pre-ordered a Paperwhite.
The book I read, which was awesome, was Reflex by Steven Gould. It's the sequel to Jumper which was one of my favorite books when it came out. I didn't particularly like the movie. This book, however, was a lot more reminiscent of the first book.
There was only one aspect that I didn't like. Davy, the main character from the first book, is married in this book and his wife wants children, but he doesn't. Plot happens and at the end of the book, he's been having unprotected sex with her, but didn't know. I hate that. Men shouldn't have to ask, "Are you still taking the pill?" every time they have sex in order to find out their wives have stopped taking it. That should be a mutual decision that is discussed beforehand. I don't hate that she talked him into trying, I hate that she didn't tell him they were trying already.
What I liked about the book was that Davy's wife grows to understand him and his choices where before she'd been sort of unclear on how and why he drew the lines he did.
But we'll be honest, this was a book that reiterates the origin story of most superheroes, "With great power comes great responsibility." And it was sort of the grown up version of that. Jumper showed us a teenage Davy who grew up, somewhat, while we watched, through the exploration of his abilities. Reflex shows us what happens when someone who is already an adult gets similar abilities. I'm afraid that I've grown old and experienced, so a lot of how Davy handled things in Jumper seems kind of immature now, but which seemed very resonant at the time.... the adult characters in Reflex reflect the older me a lot more.
I suspect the author grew up some between the two books.
Now. I am not recommending this book. I mean, if you like science fiction and thrillers, you might like it. But I can't say. Jumper was so near and dear that it's possible that I liked this just for its recreation of that experience. Jumper is in the top 10 books ever, for me. Right book, right time. I've re-read it as an adult and found myself frustrated with my inability to smooth things out for Davy and my younger self with the knowledge I've hard won since, but I didn't have that visceral disappointment the way I did with Anne McCaffrey's works when I re-read them after understanding what that really meant instead of glossing over it.
I liked Blind Waves sort of, but hated Helm. So I'm still a little mystified as to why we're expected to have author loyalty since even my favorite authors have such mediocre averages. I'm starting to suspect that most authors don't have multiple books in them. So writing one great book means nothing about the next ones. Past performance is not an indicator of future success. I will, however, be ordering the third Jumper book, Impulse.
The book I read, which was awesome, was Reflex by Steven Gould. It's the sequel to Jumper which was one of my favorite books when it came out. I didn't particularly like the movie. This book, however, was a lot more reminiscent of the first book.
There was only one aspect that I didn't like. Davy, the main character from the first book, is married in this book and his wife wants children, but he doesn't. Plot happens and at the end of the book, he's been having unprotected sex with her, but didn't know. I hate that. Men shouldn't have to ask, "Are you still taking the pill?" every time they have sex in order to find out their wives have stopped taking it. That should be a mutual decision that is discussed beforehand. I don't hate that she talked him into trying, I hate that she didn't tell him they were trying already.
What I liked about the book was that Davy's wife grows to understand him and his choices where before she'd been sort of unclear on how and why he drew the lines he did.
But we'll be honest, this was a book that reiterates the origin story of most superheroes, "With great power comes great responsibility." And it was sort of the grown up version of that. Jumper showed us a teenage Davy who grew up, somewhat, while we watched, through the exploration of his abilities. Reflex shows us what happens when someone who is already an adult gets similar abilities. I'm afraid that I've grown old and experienced, so a lot of how Davy handled things in Jumper seems kind of immature now, but which seemed very resonant at the time.... the adult characters in Reflex reflect the older me a lot more.
I suspect the author grew up some between the two books.
Now. I am not recommending this book. I mean, if you like science fiction and thrillers, you might like it. But I can't say. Jumper was so near and dear that it's possible that I liked this just for its recreation of that experience. Jumper is in the top 10 books ever, for me. Right book, right time. I've re-read it as an adult and found myself frustrated with my inability to smooth things out for Davy and my younger self with the knowledge I've hard won since, but I didn't have that visceral disappointment the way I did with Anne McCaffrey's works when I re-read them after understanding what that really meant instead of glossing over it.
I liked Blind Waves sort of, but hated Helm. So I'm still a little mystified as to why we're expected to have author loyalty since even my favorite authors have such mediocre averages. I'm starting to suspect that most authors don't have multiple books in them. So writing one great book means nothing about the next ones. Past performance is not an indicator of future success. I will, however, be ordering the third Jumper book, Impulse.
