In regards to highlights, the 2007 novel “Jumper Griffin’s Story,” by Steven Gould, picks up before Jumper, the 2008 movie. It’s about Griffin O’Connor, a jumper a.k.a teleporter. With that, Griffen’s family Is on the run from the Paladins, a secret world-wide shadowy organization. Moreover, Griffen winds up wth an undocumented immigrant family in order to survive. Griffen’s story takes off from here.
To start, this novel sees Griffin’s family on the run. They are running from Paladins, a secret world-wide scary organization, which hunts and kills jumpers. The family runs from the UK and winds up in California.
In the book, we learn the family had to escape because Griffin broke the jumper rules. The rule he broke was don’t jump where someone can see you. This jump led to Griffin following rule two: jump if you’re going to be killed or captured, because the Paladins were killing his parents.
The story gets into Griffin’s jumper training as a child. We read Griffin’s father taught him to jump when firing paint gun pellets at him in the desert, in order to be ready to evade real bullets. Griffen’s dad knew he would be in trouble some day.
The story also gets into how Griffin’s parents were killed. Apparently the Paladins found out about Griffin’s jumping at school. From there, the Paladins impersonated local government officials looking for Griffin. Upon discovering Griffin not home, they killed his parents in their home. The Paladins were looking for Griffin to kill him.
After a near death escape, Griffin teleports to the California desert, a place he trained. In the desert, undocumented immigrants find and help Griffin. They are Sam and Consala, who become Griffin’s sort of parents.
At this time, most authorities are looking for Griffin. A local newspaper headline says “Boy still missing after suspected drug slaying.”
Here, Griffen explains to Sam that his family was followed since living in the UK by bad people. However, at first, Sam doesn’t know what to make of Griffin. However, after some time, Griffen shows him his powers, and Sam becomes a believer.
Meantime, the undocumented immigrants look after Griffen. On one occasion, however, Griffen needs food, so he jumps between the California desert and a San Diego Safeway for food.
One thing about this novel is it explores secret organizations. That being said, the Paladins are a world-wide secret organization. However, the Paladins can’t evade Griffen’s neighbour’s who saw multiple assailants leave his California home and those neighbour’s told police. This account spreads all over the radio, newspapers, and TV.
It should be mentioned Jumpers Griffen’s Story mentions Firestarter, the Stephen King movie. In one book passage, Griffen’s dad talks about a girl who is kidnapped by the government to do bad things with her powers. Griffen’s dad tells him the same thing will happen to him if the government ever finds him, so this is why the family must go on the run.
I should say, too, the government fears people like Griffen. The government wants to kill Griffen, because they can’t control him. What the government doesn’t understand or fears, it will kill.
Griffen’s new guardians have some wild ideas about him. Consala thinks Griffen is a demon or possessed. At first anyways, because she is a hardcore Catholic.
Back in the UK, Griffin took karate. He had a suit. He practiced blocks and kicks..Also, he worked on his Kata forms. Later, he resumes karate in the US.
Due to Griffen’s power to go anywhere, he can have dinner any place. Sometimes, he jumps to London or the US. He can eat wherever he wants.
One thing about this book: it’s post modern. For one thing, travel is no longer planes, trains, or automobile, in the classical sense.. Griffin’s jumping hints at a future where teleportation will be the norm, which totally is post modern.
Plus, Griffin’s jumping hints at a future problem for globalization. That is, there will be no more borders to restrict people who can teleport. This movie points to a time when borders, national boundaries, and national groups will have to be reimagined-if that is even possible.
As a teleporter, Griffen’s day is strange, at least to an average citizen. He might skin dive in Mexico. Next, he might jump home to a sealed underground cave in an abandoned California mine. This is a day for a jumper.
This book gets into surveillance. The Paladins, similar to world-wide spy agencies, watch every train station. There are cameras everywhere these days, which law enforcement uses to find people via facial recognition software. The novel touches on the surveillance society.
This book shows that Mexico has their own similar FBI. it’s called the FBI of Mexico, and they are looking for Griffen. In fact, the Mexico FBI wants to kill Griffen too, which they almost do.
Griffen is like a God; this scares the governments.. Griffin O’Connor doesn’t need a travel passport, planes, trains or cars to go places. He doesn’t need to go through customs. Griffen is a futuristic border jumper who can go anywhere he wants without authorities stopping him.
One thing I ask myself about Griffen is Griffin must take responsibility for telling people about his powers and him as a teleporter.. Why? Because this knowledge can get people killed. Griffen treats this knowledge as nothing; as a result, Sam, Consala, his mom, his dad are all dead. Griffen must accept responsibility that the truth can get people killed, which I don’t think he really understands.
That being said, Griffen started out as a child jumper, but by the end of the novel, he’s a man and still getting people killed. This being the case, he has no excuse when it comes to not having a duty of care for his fellow man.
The book shows some advantages of Mexico. For example, you don’t need a prescription to get pain killer meds in a Mexico pharmacy. Bottles of Tylenol, with codeine, are available over the counter.
At the end of the book, Interpol is still after Griffen. But how can Interpol catch Griffen when Paladins have being trying to catch jumpers for hundreds of years. Good luck, Interpol.
Lastly, this novel is like the movie The Matrix. The novel wants us to imagine a world without borders and what that will mean for globalisation, which the Matrix wants us to imagine too. That being said, I think that future was here for a while.
In sum, this novel had some points that stood out to me. One of the points I noticed is teleportation will throw a wrench in globalization, because borders, boundaries, and national groups will be irrelevant. Also, jumping is the farthest you can go in post modernism. Plus, I thought it very interesting this novel touched on the subject of secret shadowy international military groups. Although Griffen’s Story happened before the movie Jumpers, you can watch the movie to fill yourself in on the background, because this book review is what I thought was important to me in the book.