Reflex » (Reprint)

Steven Gould is the highly acclaimed author of JUMPER. He lives in Albuquerque, NM, with his wife, writer Laura Mixon.

Davy has always been alone. He believes that he's the only person in the world who can teleport. But what if he isn't?

A mysterious group of people has taken Davy captive. They don't want to hire him, and they don't have any hope of appealing to him to help them. What they want is to own him. They want to use his abilities for their own purposes, whether Davy agrees to it or not. And so they set about brainwashing him and conditioning him. They have even found a way to keep a teleport captive.

But there's one thing that they don't know. No one knows it, not even Davy. And it might save his life....

Publishers Weekly

In this delightful SF thriller, the long-anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed Jumper (1992), Gould puts a fresh spin on the classic plot device of human teleportation. Once a teen struggling to escape an abusive father, Davy Rice is now a covert operative for the National Security Agency and happily married to Oklahoma psychologist Millie Harrison-Rice. Enter sudden marital discord over starting a family, and Davy, eager to avoid the issue, jumps from their remote West Texas hideaway to a meeting in Washington, D.C., only to be snatched by an evil organization intent upon forcing "the asset" to work for them. The baffled Millie keeps waiting for her husband to return, until she discovers that she, too, can teleport through space. While Davy spends much of the book a defiant prisoner, Millie learns the joy of jumping. In her effort to rescue her husband, she goes to ground and hides her dangerous new ability from the NSA and Davy's captors. The author's savvy decision to have the couple share this unique ability gives the sequel a rush of new energy, creating dazzling future possibilities for the duo. Though Gould continues to exuberantly press the boundaries of scientific credibility, his gift for placing ordinary people in extraordinary situations against a backdrop of international concerns makes this fast-paced adventure sizzle. At the end, the inevitable question arises: will the next jumper do it in diapers? Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (Dec. 1) Forecast: While Jumper was aimed at a YA audience, a torture scene or two and some sex make this one for adults and mature older teens. Fans of Dean Koontz's earlier thrillers will find much to like here. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.