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Customer Reviews (55)

Reflex
I did not order "Reflex", I ordered a book on "Reflux" for a family member who was struggling with it.Imagine my surprise when they called to thank me, but were puzzled by it.It looks like you folks had a system failure in your shipping dept.

Tightly-plotted, action-packed sequel that surpasses the original
Although it took a while, it's a good thing that Reflex, the sequel to Steven Gould's Jumper, came along. The main problem with the first book, despite the appealing premise, was the lack of a plot-moving conflict until late in the story. Reflex redeems the series (can it be called that?) by getting the action started very early on and the book thrills almost until the last page. Like the first book, Gould spends a considerable amount of time on speculation and experimentation concerning Davy's teleportation ability, but unlike Jumper, it doesn't become the main concern of the book.

Reflex opens ten years after the end of the last book. Davy and Millie are married and the former is doing occasional work for the NSA, sticking to ethically acceptable missions. Davy is drugged and kidnapped to a secret location by a shadowy organization that appears to have great influence in political and economic affairs, and ties to the NSA. They chain him to a wall to prevent him from teleporting and implant a device in his chest that is used to both torture him and condition him to do their bidding. Gould does a great job coming up with a method for his seedy antagonists to stop Davy from teleporting away when unchained, and at the same time, forcing Davy to cooperate with them. The more you learn about the system, the more ingenious it seems.

Meanwhile, Millie uses her newfound teleportation power to search for Davy. Through contacts in the NSA, FBI and witnesses of Davy's kidnapping, Millie pieces together many clues that lead her very close to where Davy actually is and put her in danger as well.

Gould's writing in this sequel seems to have grown up along with his characters. Gone are the angst-filled moments that Davy frequently had in Jumper and the writing style is generally more reader-friendly and less cringe-inducing (Jumper was definitely Young Adult, while Reflex seems a bit more mature). For some reason, I particularly enjoyed that the chapters alternated between Davy and Millie's point-of-view. Whereas Jumper lacked any well-developed antagonists, Reflex has a few, most notably Hyacinth Pope, the femme fatale that kidnapped Davy and antagonizes him with threats of abuse and seduction. All in all, Reflex was an exciting read. The polish and development of this book makes Jumper seem like it was written solely for the purpose of getting Reflex made. Although I haven't seen the movie Jumper, it's pretty clear they made major changes to give the story a better plot and more action than the first book had. Instead of going to all that trouble, I think they should have skipped Jumper and made a movie from Reflex. It would have been more of a spy thriller than a sci-fi blockbuster, but there are plenty of moments for action and CGI effects (and it would have been truer to the source material). The experimentation with teleportation, the human element of Millie searching for her husband, the interesting baddies to root against and the solid plot of Reflex would have made a much better choice for movie adaptation, just as these elements made Reflex a much better book than Jumper.

[Disclosure: This review also appears on [...], a site for review and discussion of creative works.]

Slow and Torturous
In this "feel-bad" novel sequel, Davy is kidnapped and put through Pavlovian conditioning by a mysterious evil organization.His wife spend tens of pages in depressed angst, but learns to jump as well.What I liked about the original jumper was the constant stream of discovery, the emotion of hope.None of that is present in Jumper:Reflex, instead a long sequence of characters I liked from the first book suffering dominate the novel.

I found the writing poor, overly self-reflective (not a plus for tortured characters), and while things happen near the end, they don't make up for a slow and bad beginning and middle.If you skip from page 50 to about page 150 you will miss nothing and will enjoy the book much more than I did.

Not quite as good as the orginal, but a worthy sequel by far
I saw the previews for Jumper and was hoping it would be a good movie. After being sorely disappointed, I sought out the novel and discovered it was nothing like the movie: it was so much better. I inhaled that novel, but I took Reflex at a slower pace. Reflex's pacing is a little slower than Jumper and certain scenes took me a while to get through simply because of the slow pacing, but the overall novel was enjoyable, the action was great, the conflict between David (I refuse to call him Davy) and his kidnappers was the more enjoyable parts for me.

Also, (I don't really consider this a spoiler) I enjoyed the role reversal of the woman saving the man. Despite being a heterosexual male, I'm a bit of a feminist and like it when women accomplish the same thing as men in action settings and this novel has that. It is a very refreshing change.

One of the things it took me a while to get used to was the fact that the first novel is told in first person and the second is told in third with the chapters alternating between David and Millie. I would've rather have had Reflex be told from a first person point of view (even it was Millie's), but I understand completely why Gould didn't do that with this novel and eventually got over it as I was too busy being entertained.

If you liked Jumper, you will this this novel. If you haven't read Jumper, you probably should for this one.

Dear Mr. Gould
Please, in the name of decency, write another novel in your series that picks up where Reflex left off -- in your own, original storyline -- and forget about the abysmal film adaptation and almost equally abysmal "Griffin's Story." Because no author should be forced to write fan fiction in his own universe.Mmmkay? At the very least, make something up about the movie timeline being a parallel universe to your first one.

As for Reflex itself, all the positive commentators here were right on the money.This is me adding my "aye!" ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (36)

Hated the ending, but liked the book.
I really did like the book, but the books ends at the climax of some great action. I know he says "Always keep them wanting more" but really?

Skip this one and read the first two in the series instead
Having read the first two Jumper books by Steven Gould, I was interested in seeing if this book would fit into the continuity of the books or the movie adaptation (which departed from the books significantly). Apparently, it's the latter, much to the detriment of the book. It's quite unfortunate actually, that this book and the movie seem to overwrite the events of the first two books with a completely different story.

Personally, I preferred the world of the first two books, where jumpers were extremely rare, jumping didn't damage the environment around the jumper and bring debris from one location to the next, and most importantly, jumping could not be sensed by "sensitives." On this last point, the book focused a lot of time talking about how jumps could be sensed by Paladins, whereas the movie seemed to completely ignore this ability. Why waste so much time on an issue the movie doesn't even use? The Paladins aren't a bad idea, but they were ineffectual in the book (actually, you find out nothing about who they are and why they do what they do until the movie). The villains of Reflex (Jumper 2) were much more cool and fun.

The main thing missing from Griffin's Story is the sense of wonder, introspection and investigation into the nature of jumping that David Rice had in the first two books. Like David, Griffin uses his powers to help himself, but unlike David, he doesn't eventually decide to use his powers to help people (except the ones he has led into trouble himself).

In any case, my recommendation is to skip Griffin's Story and the movie and just read the first two books.

[Disclosure: This review also appears on [...], a site for review and discussion of creative works.]

AMAZING - TOP OF MY LIST-
IT WAS SO RIGHT THAT THIS ABILITY DEVELOPES AFTER THE BOY IS TO BE BEATEN AGAIN.
I LOVED THIS BOOK AND IT IS ON MY ALL TIME BEST READS.

Congo
AmazoniaJames Rollins

The 7th Scroll - Wilbur Smith & most books by Wilbur Smith
Dune
Villa de San Michele etc

This book is great, but
This book is great, but the first one is set on a happier tone. Main character can teleport anywhere in the world and does so when he is 5. At age 9, strange men come hunting for him and murder his parnts, but he manages to jump to safety. He then continues to hide from the deadly assasins that are in intent on removing him from the face of the earth.

Stereotypically a sequel...
Not nearly as enthralling as the original "Jumper", "Jumper Griffin's Story" by Steven Gould was just "OK". It was an enjoyable read but the story always remained at a superficial level for me. The book had indicated that it was driven by the movie. There was not much the book had to offer besides IMHO "same old same old". I think there is a lot more that can be done with the "Jumper" universe. This book failed to explore any of that potential. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (143)

Kindle edition is shockingly bad quality
I bought the more expensive kindle edition (compared to the mass market paperback).

Now the story itself I thoroughly enjoyed. I am reviewing the quality of the kindle edition here.

The quality of the spelling is horrible. Almost every single page at the beginning of the book has a spelling error on it. Towards the end of the book the errors drop off to about one every three or four pages.

The most common error is any word that has a "cl" is now converted to a "d". So you will often read sentences like "The DOCK on the wall showed 8pm". It is jarring and takes you out of the story for a second or two. Sometimes you will get a word that makes no sense and you can't easily guess it either, for example "His wallet was SUFFER and thicker than usual".

It seems this ebook was created by scanning in the pages and using a computer to do optical character recognition, which would explain all the "cl" looking like a "d" to the computer.

If they had even bothered to do a quick proof read they would have picked this up right away as there was an error on the first page already!

The fact that this was the more expensive option is completely ridiculous. It stinks of a cheap scam if you ask me.

I hardly sleept in a week.
I got Jumper and Reflex at the same time, on the rumor that they were way different from the movie but still an even better story.

I almost finished Jumper on the plane during an out and back business trip.
Then I stayed up 2-3am every night for a week to finish Reflex.

All I can say is, I couldn't put them down, and probaly only got about 4 hours sleep each night.
They where that good.I can hardly wait for the third book to come in the mail.I hope it is as good as the first two.

Brian.

Teleporting boy goes to NYC and plans a bank heist
Davy lives with his alcoholic, stingy, abusive father. On one occasion, Davy accidentally "jumps" (teleports) away just as his father is about to beat him with a belt buckle. Seizing the opportunity, Davy runs away from home but finds himself accosted by a quartet of truck drivers. Luckily, he teleports away again. Realizing he has a strange and unbelievable talent, Davy decides to make his way in the world alone. Once in New York City, Davy finds that his age (seventeen years old) doesn't allow him to register for school or work without a parent or papers. In desperation, Davy plans a bank heist that can only be accomplished with his unique ability.

After walking away with a sizable sum of money, Davy lives the high life: living out of hotels, buying expensive clothes and eating at expensive restaurants. Despite having nearly everything he needs only a "jump" away, he discovers that he can only teleport to places he has been to before and can clearly picture in his mind. Backed by his bank heist money, he travels extensively in order to accumulate a large number of teleportation sites. Eventually, Davy puts his ability to use in stopping airline hijackers, but this catches the attention of the NSA, which seeks to understand Davy's ability and use him for their own purposes.

Despite the intriguing concept behind Steven Gould's Jumper, the novel doesn't offer much of a conflict for its protagonist until more than halfway through. While it is intriguing to follow Davy and see how he utilizes his ability, the plot is mostly just watching him figure things out. Much of the novel feels like a thought exercise in the best way to utilize such an ability to benefit oneself or others (within the confines of the mechanics of teleportation that Gould has established). It appears the drastic changes made to the movie adaptation was to create a conflict and a plot, which the book is lacking. Jumper is clearly aimed at a young adult audience, as Davy's angst may come across as childish or simply corny to older readers. Gould's description of New York City, and specifically Times Square, comes across as dated (the area hasn't been that way in over a decade and a half!).

Despite the plain writing style and the sometimes annoying angst of Davy, the book was still interesting enough to keep me reading almost non-stop until I was finished. I guess it was after finishing the book that I realized that I wish more had happened. Make sure to check out Reflex, the sequel to Jumper, for a more action-packed (and better-plotted) story with Davy and teleportation. If anything, a movie should have been made from Reflex, with Jumper only serving as an introduction to the better story.

[Disclosure: This review also appears on [...], a site for review and discussion of creative works.]

Sci-fi aspects not the focus
Jumper follows the life of teenager Davy Rice as he runs away from his abusive father, discovers he can teleport, meets a girl, looks for his mother, and saves people from airplane hijackers. Davy was a likable fully-formed character, but his girlfriend fell flat for me. Actually, aside from Davy, I found most all of the other characters to be dull or annoying. I liked Davy enough, though, so that when something bad happened to one of the other characters that affected Davy, I did feel for them, at least a little.

The story itself was ok. No, it wasn't bad at all, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The book is much more a YA book about a boy learning how to take care of himself and deal with his painful past than it is a science fiction story. I felt the teleportation was a a bit awkward in the story. It seemed like Gould wanted to write a realistic YA story, but thought that might be too boring so he threw in teleportation. As such, the teleportation seemed more like a gimmick than a fully integrated part of the story.

If I had read the book under the proper expectation (main focus on YA story, not sci-fi), then I might have enjoyed it a lot more. Overall, Jumper was a decent book, though far from spectacular.

Not at all like the movie..
The main Characters are pretty close.. Davy, Dad and Millie.. but the movie is very Sci-Fi and the book is really about a Davy dealing with a bad home life, an abusive alcoholic father, a mother who left him behind (with that abusive dad) to save herself, and how Davy uses his Jumping, involving himself in political issues (I'm being vage here not to give any spoilers away)I liked that the book held more character detail (as they always do), but I like the movie's version of the story with the guys hunting Davy, vs the political stroy plot of the book, which is so not Sci-Fi. I think it's really weird they would re-print the book cover with pics from the movie.. all the pics show places/character that are not in the book!.. all this said, I liked the book, but was disappointed in the direction the plot took... probably beacuse I saw the movie first.. I dont know if I would have liked the book more if I'd read it before seeing the movie.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Way Better Than My Expectations
This really surpassed my expectations. I mean, it was marketed as a young adults' book, but I thought the concept sounded fun. I was in for a pleasant surprise when I found a real page turner with great characters and a really interesting storyline.

Don't let the cover art fool you, this book is a lot more cerebral than two kids being attacked by a mammoth, sabre tooth tigers and a helicopter. In fact, the charm of this book is that there are no Ridley Scott-type theatrics and "our heroes in peril" situations.

Steven Gould may spend too much time on very detailed descriptions of various contraptions rigged by our hero Charlie, but once I skimmed through them, I was really happy with this book.

One final note, as an aviation enthusiast, I loved all the flying.

Satisfied customer
I am very happy with this book.It is one of the best.I was well pleased with the service I received.

Propaganda that fails to deliver on the promise of its concept.
Look at the cover of this book! It's a Jurassic Park during the Pleistocene Epoch, complete with an Apache helicopter! How can you possibly screw that up? Here's a cover that just SCREAMS adventure, thrills, danger, and the unabashed display of nature's raw power versus man's greatest technological achievements!

If only the book actually had any of that in it!

Enter Charlie, a fat kid with the emotional fortitude of steamed broccoli, and about the same level of intelligence. Okay, so maybe that's not the case on that last part: he IS a pilot, and he's able to spit out tons of random facts (the kind of stuff an author could find with the help of Google) about aviation, so whatever he says, we have to agree with him. Plus, he's in love with a chick who can't see him because she's too busy porking a guy who drinks harder than most Union Jacks you know.

Charlie inherits his uncle's old farm. Inside the barn is a gateway that leads to a parallel Earth where mankind never "evolved". (First red flag). Pour in a lot of thinly disguised environmental sermon monologues about how pristine the world is, and how Charlie feels like "every puff of exhaust smoke" from the truck he drives over there is a sin, blah, blah, blah...that doesn't stop Charlie and his friends from tearing up the ground and building airstrips so they can go all over the place and try to find gold and get filthy rich. What's that called? Capitalism? OOPS! Sorry! Didn't mean to say that! Besides, money is only evil when the non-green people go hunting after it.

Halfway through the capitalist gold-rape of the Wildside of Charlie's barn, we learn all kinds of things, like: Charlie's a Boy Scout. One of the guys in Charlie's circle of friends is gay, and Charlie is super supportive of that (because now he gets to have sex with the girl who used to be dating the gay guy. Sex. Boy Scout. Sex. Boy Scout.) Also, the military (EVIL! EVIL MILITARY!) finds out about Charlie's gateway to the 'Wildside', and they decide to take it from him. Now inject more sermons about the Constitution and stuff, and how if the government controls the Wildside, they'll just--sniff, sniff--POLLUTE IT AAAAAAAAAARGH! The next fifty pages or so are full of completely impossible scenes where a bunch of high school turds outwit the United States Marine Corps.

The preaching is so thick you CAN'T cut it with a knife. You can't cut it with a machete. You might not even cut it with chainsaw. Whatever you need to cut it, I don't know, because after I finished this book, I didn't sell it; I didn't trade it on [...]. I straight up trashed it.

It takes a special kind of crappy for me to throw away a book.

Keep in mind, I read this after reading three of Gould's other novels. This is the one I was most excited about. Gould's failure to deliver on the promise this book had is not only tragic, it's downright offensive. Instead of being my favorite book off his list, it helped me to decide never never never never never to read anything by him again so long as I shall live.

Which is the Wildside
I started Wildside last night and finished it this morning.Wonderfully written with a satisfying balance of technical flying jargon in the beginning to set the stage for the later piloting skills of the main characters.

With the acceptance of the gate everything else follows realistically.Normal for the SF genre.Nice descriptions of sights, sounds and feelings.Also nice plot twists right to the end.

Definite 5 star recommend to the young and adventurous of any age.Yet another great book by a wonderful story teller - Steven Gould.

Wildside
If you enjoy science fiction you will love this book!It's great for all ages!! ... Read more

Product Description
After global devastation, the last remnants of Earth sent a handful of colonists of a distant terraformed world to give humanity one last, desperate chance. Unable to provide the technology required for an advanced civilization, the founders instilled in the colonists a strict code of conduct and gave them a few precious imprinting devices: glass helmets that contain all of Earth's scientific knowledge.

Once in a generation, the heir to the province of Laal begins the arduous training required to survive the imprinting of the Glass Helm and acquire the knowledge of the lost Earth. But Leland de Laal, the youngest son of one of Agatsu's greatest leaders, has climbed the forbidden rock spire where the Helm is kept and donned it, unaware that its knowledge has a terrible price. To an unprepared mind, it brings madness, agony, and even death.Amazon.com Review
In Helm, Gould spins the tale of Leland de Laal, theyoung son of a shrewd but minor nobleman on a world far from Earth.Leland, disobeying his father's edict, dons a helm of ancient power,an artifact brought from Earth centuries ago.Gradually, he gainsaccess to knowledge implanted in his mind by the helm, only to findthat he is no longer alone in his head.He absorbs the martial-artsdiscipline of aikido, but before he can come to terms with either hisnew powers or his growing affection for his overlord's daughter, he issubmerged in betrayal and war on many fronts.His homeland's worstenemy seeks the helm, ready to use it to subjugate the world. In this,his third novel, Steven Gould has whipped up a smooth fantasy story,seasoned with science-fictional elements, romance, and a lot ofhigh-kicking action.He continues to explore the coming-of-age theme,as he did in his previous two novels, Jumper and Wildside. --BlaiseSelby ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Ho-hum Story Lacking Real Punch (and an editor LOL)
The story is a very interesting premise, but it feels like it could have been so much more.

Feels like the author got some serious myopia concerning the aspect of martial arts.I mean, seriously, with this incredible premise it seems such a waste to devote 80% of the book to the martial arts aspect. Granted, it was cool, but you can only eat so much cotton candy before you want steak.

The story just lacks real emotional depth and real plot.The plot is the standard 'The One' type story, boy coming into his powers sort of thing.Fine.No problem.But the setup of the 'Barbarians at the Gate' aspect just comes off as flat and superficial along with the climax.

Seriously, the ending of this book made me want to throw the book across the room.

I mean, I just can't stand it when characters do something just for the sake of doing it.

I just can't put my finger on why this story lacked the 'gravity' it should have had.I mean, that gravity is in the prologue, but is missing from the main story.

hmmm...Now that I think about it, a much better book treatment would have been if the author backed up 300 years to when the colony was founded and the Calvinists destroyed most of the Helms/knowledge, that would have been much more interesting and had more 'gravity' then this story.

anyways, Overall, great premise, but the story just lacked 'gravity'.It should have been so much more, but just wasn't.

Lastly, the writing is very good, very well written, but the editor should be fired.

One of the best books I've read in a while
This is one of the best books that I have read (and reread). I've read it at least three times since I got it.I have read hundreds if not thousands of books over my lifetime and at this point in time I think I would place this book in my top-20 or maybe even my top-10 list of best books.

I really liked the martial arts aspect of this book.I have had an interest in the martial arts for years and I really appreciate books like this.I know very little about aikido but I thought the aikido scenes were one of the best parts of the book.I also liked the "battle" scenes.I thought they were very well written and entertaining.The characters were also very interesting.

I have one complaint about this book...the fact that Mr. Gould made two of the major characters lesbians.Thankfully, he didn't make the lead character a homosexual or I wouldn't have been able to read this excellent book.And to be fair to the author, he didn't concentrate on or write about the physical/sexual acts of any of his characters whether they were hetero or homosexual.This absence of dwelling on the physical side of their "relationship" and the fact that they were not the main characters allowed me to read this book with great enjoyment.However, I believe their being homosexual was an unnecessary addition to the book and it kept me from being able to recommend it or loan to some of my more conservative friends and relatives.

Would like to see a sequel
Gould is just a great Author, Jumper was not a one hit wonder. There are similarities in his themes, young boy given an enhancement, an an ability, high moral compass, etc.

another Heinlein-ish winner from Gould
An interesting book, almost as much in the Heinlein juvenile mold as Wildside. Some of the story is a little too cliched (especially the extended "teen becomes a responsible man through martial arts training" subplot). But it avoided rehashing the most overused cliches by having the residents of the planet be quite well aware that they are descended from a high tech society that they no longer understand, instead of the usual "magic of the ancients" garbage. They just don't have the economic or educational base to rebuild it, although they are trying.

It also had a few surprises, especially in the way it ended. It wasn't quite a twist ending, but it left me saying, "I didn't see that coming, even though I should have". I like that.

The main character is just a little too likeable to seem entirely real, although perhaps he has an excuse because we never really get to see what he was like before he imprinted himself with a new personality. And he's also just a little too lucky to be entirely real, but that's sort of an occupational hazard for heroes. If they weren't lucky enough, their stories would be nasty, brutish, and short.

The romantic interest is also a plus-mark for the book. She's smart and capable, and when she does end up being the princess-in-peril she pretty much manages to rescue herself instead of waiting for our hero to come along and save the day.

Anyway, if you like Heinlein (especially if you also like Jumper and/or Wildside), you'll probably like Helm.

Pretty good. Pick it up!
Nice bit of science fantasy with medieval storyline will hook you in and give you hours of good fun read. Stephen knows how to write and this book is well constructed. Without going into detail, this book should satisfy those who are looking for little bit of science and medieval story.

Worth paperback money, not hardback. ... Read more

Product Description
The author of Jumper returns with a near-future SF novel, set in an America whose coastline has been drowned by melting Antarctic ice.

In the world where hundreds of millions of people have been displaced from their homes by the Deluge--a hundred-foot-rise in sea level from melting ice caps--Partricia Beenan is lucky. She is still an American citizen with the right to live on the continent, unlike so many "wetfoots" whose homes lie deep under the waves or the refugees from nations now completely under water.

But Patricia's father chose to live on a floating city of New Galveston, instead of following his congresswomen wife to Washington, and go into the underwater salvage business. Now, several years after his death, it's Patricia's business and her city. She's a wealthy woman, on the city council, well known to local INS commander and the New Galveston police.

But none of that will help Patricia when she stumbles across a recently sunken freighter that has dozens of bodies chained up in its hold and clear evidence that it has been fired upon by an INS ship.

Patricia's evidence of a rogue operation within the INS brings her together with Thomas Beckett, a government investigator assigned to the case. Romance blossoms while they pursue and are pursued by the killers, into the heart of the conspiracy.Amazon.com Review
Steven Gould's Blind Waves is one of those books that makes you hold your breath a lot. This SF thriller takes place along what's left of the Texas Gulf coast after melting Antarctic ice has drowned much of the world. In New Galveston, a floating city, our plucky heroine Patricia Beeman uses her submarine to do salvage and inspection work. But when she stumbles upon a sunken ship full of freshly dead immigrants, she gets tangled in a dangerous web of politics, hatred, and corruption. Enter Commander Thomas Becket of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now an armed force bigger than the Navy). Patricia and Thomas band together to beat the bad guys, and the adventure that follows delivers on all counts. Plenty of tense underwater action and zingy plot twists will keep thriller fans turning pages, while snappy dialogue, a delightfully budding romance, and homages to Shakespeare and Dorothy L. Sayers add literary flair. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Popcorn for the Brain
As a near-future adventure story, this book was great.The action was fun, the technology interesting, and the story fast-paced.The relationships between the characters, however, were shallow and unrealistic.They progressed rapidly with no apparent development, and more than once I found myself wondering if the romantic scenes had been inserted as an afterthought.

The bottom line is that the romance didn't keep me from enjoying the action, but if it had been my motivation in reading the book I would have been quite disappointed.

Very strong science-fiction adventure
This is a fine piece of near-future science-fiction, written by an author with a great eye for details.Gould is a strong crafter of characters, and it is very easy to get caught up in both of the principal characters.Post-ice-cap-melting Galveston and Gulf of Mexico, some lucid projections of the impact on culture and technology, all create a backdrop for some great adventure and character interaction.Gould's "Helm" and "Jumper/Reflex" books are stronger, but only just.Would like to see more stories in the "Blind Waves" universe.Definitely a keeper.

A Tom Clancy novel for enviromentalists
So, Tom Clancy novels a little too conservative for you? Sick and tired of reading about Middle-Eastern Terrorists or Shifty-Eyed Chinese supervillains? Well this is the book for you! In Blind Wave (no idea why it's called that), the bad guys are White Supremacists. A choice which is simultaneously daring in the current Conservative Political climate, and also very politically correct.

What's also politically correct is the setting - a world where the ocean has risen by a hundred feet, exiling ninety percent of Earth's population to the ocean. The result is a society with similar problems to our own, but also radically different. The main focus of this book is on illegal immigration, and the people that interact with illegal immigrants on a daily basis. Fortunately Steven Gould, bless him, stays away from any political bias or judgements while weaving his tale.

I was about a quarter of the way through before I warmed up to the characters. There isn't much "depth" to them, but they're likeable enough to keep you turning the page. Like Clancy, there are plenty of good descriptions of submersibles and life under the oceans to keep you engrossed.

In summary, this book isn't a page-turner, but it's certainly worth a look if you're looking for a more Left-Wing Tom Clancy-style novel.

Pretty good read
I was afraid this was going to be a "global warming" politics book, since the premise is that the ice caps have melted and wiped out the coastal areas of the world.But in reality it is a "whodunnit" with an interesting scenario in an alternate near-future.

It is also an unlikely love story, which I felt the book dwelled on more than it needed to (for what I assume is the intended audience anyway) and also distracting was the rather gratuitous use of the Spanish language without translation.I'm cool with the usage, it adds to the book - but making me try to figure out what was said via context was distracting.

On to the good parts of the review.The book starts off at a pretty fast pace, and you are quickly drawn in to the mystery.It has a fairly large cast of characters that are easily kept up with due to the skillful writing style.The end is not predictable, and fairly interesting.

I prefer Reflex to this book, but if you like Reflex this book will probably appeal to you as well.

Loved it
Stephen Gould has written some of my favorite books, including Jumper and Wildside. Both of these are considered `young adult' fiction, of for no other reason but that their protagonists are all `young adults', and the themes revolve around growing up kinds of things.

Blind Waves deals with adults, adult themes-though nothing particularly dark or explicit-and tackles some global near-future issues, in particular the consequences of global warming and rising sea levels. It doesn't spend much time analyzing or agonizing over the things that led to this state of affairs, but just sets the story within that context and spins out a cool yarn about intrigue and dastardly machinations among those policing illegal immigration in the flooded southern US. Plus there's a love story between the two main protagonists; which is kind of at the heart of it all and provides the thread that holds it all together.

I just like Blind Waves. It's the kind of book you re-read when you're not in the mood to tackle anything new and potentially problematic, and you just want something light, and yet not shallow and definitely entertaining.

Till Noever, owlglass.com, Author: KEAEN, SELADIENNA, CONTINUITY SLIP. ... Read more

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The most entertaining and enlightening writings by the beloved paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and celebrant of the wonder of life."Nature is so wondrously complex and varied that almost anything possible does happen....I rejoice in [its] multifariousness and leave the chimera of certainty to politicians and preachers."—from Ever Since Darwin

Upon his death in 2002, Stephen Jay Gould stood at the pinnacle among observers of the natural world, recognized by Congress as a "living legend." His prodigious legacy—sixteen best-selling and prize-winning books, dozens of scientific papers, an unbroken series of three hundred essays in Natural History—combined to make Gould the most widely read science writer of our time. This indispensable collection of forty-eight pieces from his brilliant oeuvre includes selections from classics such as Ever Since Darwin and The Mismeasure of Man, plus articles and speeches never before published in book form.

This volume, the last that will bear his name, spotlights his elegance, depth, and sheer pleasure in our world—a true celebration of an extraordinary mind. 20 illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

The richness of Gould's legacy
This is a very useful selection from the writings of the late Stephen Jay Gould, with an excellent introduction by Steven Rose. It does not correspond exactly with my choice of Gould's best and most important pieces, but it's hard to criticise the editors when Gould's output was so large and varied. It is certainly a good starting point for anyone who is new to Gould, and will no doubt lead them to look at his other work.

Gould's output falls into four main areas. Firstly, there is his contribution to evolutionary theory: he developed (with Niles Eldredge) the theory of punctuated equilibrium (linked to the concept of species selection); he emphasised that evolutionary history consists of a branching bush, not a ladder of progress; he argued that chance (or rather "contingency") plays a large part in evolutionary history; he contended that not every feature of an organism can be explained by functional adaptationism; and he showed that organs can often be adapted and used for purposes which are different from the ones they first evolved to perform.

Secondly, Gould saw that science is a human activity which is influenced by the social, historical and ideological context in which it takes place. His historical biographies of scientists always show them to be products of their times. In this context Gould is also excellent at showing the dialectical interaction between theory and factual evidence in the development of scientific knowledge.

The third area of Gould's work is his lifelong battle against those crude biologically deterministic theories (such as sociobiology and evolutionary psychology) which try to explain away human behaviour as being mainly determined by our genes. An example of what Gould was up against is Richard Dawkins. Dawkins refers to living creatures as "lumbering robots" programmed by their genes. And in an interview published in "New Statesman" (26th March 1999), while discussing cloning, Dawkins said: "Cloning Saddam Hussein would be horrible. Cloning David Attenborough, or someone we all admire, might be fine."

This is the sort of genetic determinism that Gould demolishes. Does Dawkins really think that the nastiness of the dead dictator and the niceness of the admirable Attenborough are simply the result of their genes, and nothing to do with their upbringing, experiences, social circumstances and life-history? Gould has pointed out that nature's clones (identical twins) have already shown us that having identical genes does not mean having the same personality.

Unlike Dawkins, Gould has a grasp of the subtle and complex interaction between our genetic potentiality and the environmental factors which play an enormous part in making us what we are. Gould also points out the real danger of genetic determinism: it suggests that social problems and inequalities are the inevitable result of our biology rather than things that we can put right.

Fourthly and finally, Gould has written about the relationship between science and religion. Gould (an agnostic) believed that there need be no inevitable conflict between the two as long as each sticks to its own sphere and leaves the other alone. Religion should leave science to get on with explaining nature, and science should leave moral debates to religion. I think Gould is on shaky ground here. He is understating the conflict between science and religion; he is playing down the reactionary role that religion still plays in society; and he is failing to analyse the SOCIAL roots of morality. He rightly says that we should not leave moral decisions just to scientists, but I would also say that we shouldn't leave them to priests either!

Nevertheless, even though I am an atheist myself, I do not believe that Richard Dawkins' crude version of atheism is any better than Gould's "softness" on religion. Dawkins is like the philosophers of the Enlightenment in that he thinks that religious beliefs can be dispelled by directly confronting them with rational, scientific arguments. He fails to understand that atheists have to do more than just show religion to be superstitious nonsense: it is necessary to understand its social roots and to get rid of the oppressive and alienating social conditions which make people turn to what Marx, in the famous "opium of the people" passage, called "the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless circumstances." (For more on this see my review here on Amazon of Dawkins' book, "The Selfish Gene".)

Gould is one of my favourite writers. He is not perfect. His writing style (especially in his later books) can at times be repetitive and self-indulgent. But he is always worth reading: he never fails to make you think. I thoroughly recommend this book.

Phil Webster.
(England)

A rich collection, from a masterful essayist
Somewhat oddly, I was introduced to evolution through evolutionary psychology, specifically, through Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works. And, following Pinker's references, I read Dawkins, Dennett, Cosmides, Tooby and that crowd. To put it mildly, Stephen Jay Gould was never popular with these writers so I found myself being suspicious of and vaguely hostile to Gould, despite having read only bits of his work. When I came across this collection of Gould's writings, it struck me how unreasonable my attitude was: partisans never paint a flattering picture of their opponents. I would have to read Gould himself to come to a fair assessment. So I bought the book and read all 600+ pages and I am extremely glad I did.

Gould was without doubt a masterful essayist, a stupendously gifted writer, enormously erudite and capable of making charming connections between seemingly disparate topics. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Gould was one of the greatest 20th century essayists, up there with Peter Medawar and Isaiah Berlin.

That is not to say that I agree with Gould about everything or that I think his work was uniformly excellent. On the contrary, I think "The Spandrels of San Marco" was a travesty (and unoriginal to boot), and "More Things in Heaven and Earth" (his infamous New York Review of Books piece) was just horrendous. Gould's views about evolutionary psychology ("ultra-Darwinism" he called it) and the evolution of the human mind generally were silly. And, the actions of Science For the People - with which Gould was centrally involved - were inexcusable. Moreover, Gould misled the public because he failed to be clear about when he was explaining or illustrating settled science and when he was engaging in partisan debate.

All that said, I don't think we should condemn him too much: it's human to be led astray by one's passionate political and moral convictions. Besides, there is no doubt that nearly anyone has much to learn from Gould and that his essays are, on the whole, delightful, cogent and enlightening. Read Gould (but with eyes open and pinches of salt at the ready).

good compendium
Gould is probably the best popularizer of natural history since Audubon. This is the first collection of Gould's work. Either you love it or you haven't read it...

Doc Ock

Good Overview of Gould
The Richness of Life is a good overview of Stephen Jay Gould's writings, but the individual collections are better.He is a brilliant and original thinker, thought-provoking, and generally entertaining.My only comment that is less than superlative would be on his writing style, which unfortunately is overly academic and not very accessible to the average reader.I think his inability to use smaller words and shorter sentences significantly hindered his ability to influence more of the general public. For example, Carl Sagan was able to communicate very lofty ideas in a simple manner without sacrificing the message.I am of the opinion that almost everything in the world can be explained in such a manner that at least 90 percent of the people can understand it.In many ways, even Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" is more accessible than Mr. Gould's work.Nevertheless, despite this trifling criticism, I strongly recommend all of Stephen Jay Gould's shorter collections, including "The Flamingo's Smile", "Bully For Brontosaurus", "Ever Since Darwin", and the many others.

Good Overview of Gould, But His Individual Collections Are Better
This book isn't necessarily meant to be "The Best" of Stephen Gould. It aims more at giving readers an overview of the main themes of his life's work. So perhaps it suffers a little from having to include the most representative essays rather than the most interesting ones. For sheer liveliness, I think you would be better off to get some of Gould's more limited annual collections, such as "The Panda's Thumb" and "Bully for Brontosaurus." These latter have the indulgence of including quirkier, more exploratory musings.

However this is still a very worthwhile collection - with one exception. When you get about midway through to the essay entitled "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" - skip over it without a backward glance. A typical sentence in this long exercise reads, "The classical and most familiar category of internal channeling (the first, or empirical, citation of constraint as a positive theme) resides in preferred directions for evolutionary change supplied by inherited allometries and their phylogenetic potentiation by heterochrony." Whaaaaa? The editor does warn that this essay was intended for a professional audience. Still, I didn't think Gould was capable of such utterly opaque writing, whoever his target audience, and my opinion of him was accordingly lowered a bit.

Then other tripping points throughout the book are Gould's repeated use of words such as "contingent" and "epitome." He clearly demonstrates his ongoing fondness for "contingency," but usually (although not always) uses that word in its more obscure sense of "accidental." This is contrary to the meaning most of us give the word colloquially, as when we say, "I will marry you contingent on your earning more money." In this more common sense, the word means "dependant upon - following as a logical consequence of" - almost the exact opposite of Gould's frequent meaning of "accidental."

Because of this persistent eccentricity in Gould's vocabulary, I suggest you keep a dictionary handy as you read "Richness." Then you can look up not only the more unusual words he uses so aptly, but also those more common words on which he tends to put his own spin.

This book also makes it evident how rapidly scientific theory is changing and advancing. Gould, who died just a few years ago, says here that Lamarckianism (the idea that we inherit traits our parents acquired) is totally dead. But just recently, the study of "epigenetics" has been demonstrating that what people eat, what chemicals they are exposed to, their levels of stress, etc., can permanently, genetically influence their progeny by affecting what genes get turned on. Lamarck may have been partially right after all.

There is certainly an advantage to having this span of essays assembled here. It shows connections and contradictions more strongly than even Gould himself might have noticed as he wrote these pieces in different decades. For example, in an early autobiographical essay, Gould writes about his youthful renegade support of the Yankees in the middle of a staunch Brooklyn Dodgers neighborhood. His unpopular affiliation earned him a number of savage beatings. He writes these off with an almost "boys-will-be-boys" tone. Violence in this context struck him as being a sign of healthy, energetic team loyalty - an essential rite of passage.

But then in another essay entitled "Of Two Minds," Gould reflects on and deplores humankind's "tendency to parse complex nature into pairings of `us versus them.'" He says this can be harmful, "given another human propensity for judgment - so that `us versus them' easily becomes `good versus bad'" - and we feel morally justified in eradicating the latter.

He doesn't seem to see how the seeds of such dangerous divisiveness were present in those boyhood neighborhood sports partisanships. But in this and so many other ways, "Richness" gives the reader a bird's eye view that was often denied to the author himself. ... Read more

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An unabridged audio collection of the best of the best science fiction stories published in 2009 by current and emerging masters of the genre, as narrated by top voice talents. In Erosion, by Ian Creasey, A man tests the limits of his exo-suit prior to leaving a dying Earth. In As Women Fight, by Sara Genge, a hunter, in a society of body-switchers, has no time to train for a fight to inhabit his wife s body. In A Story, with Beans, by Steven Gould, the role of religion in a dystopian future plagued with metal-eating bugs is considered. In Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance, by John Kessel, a monk, in the far future, steals the only copy of a set of plays from a repressive regime and uses this loot to free his people. In On the Human Plan, by Jay Lake, a mysterious alien visits a far-future, dying Earth in search of the death of Death. Set in the Jackaroo sequence, Crimes and Glory, by Paul McAuley, a detective chases a thief to recover alien technology that both aliens and humanity are desperate to recover. Set in the Lovecraftian Boojum universe, Mongoose by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, a vermin hunter and his tentacled assistant come on board a space station to hunt toves and raths. In Before My Last Breath, by Robert Reed, a geologist discovers a strange fossil in a coal mine that leads to the discovery of a peculiar graveyard. In The Island, by Peter Watts, a woman on a spaceship must decide whether to place a stargate near an alien society that will ultimately destroy it. Finally, This Peaceable Land; or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe, by Robert Charles Wilson, is an alternate American Civil War history in which the war was never fought, slavery gradually disappeared, and Uncle Tom s Cabin was never published. More than 9.5 hours on 8 CDs, read by Tom Dheere, Vanessa Hart, and J. P. Linton. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Get it free
For fans of the Jumper books, this is a little side note that continues with the characters from those books (not the jumper movie characters) I enjoyed it, and liked the main character.But was a little dissappointed in finding that the short story i purchased was available for free at [...] website. ... Read more

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Emma Tooke has devoted her life to Gulfstream, a company dedicated to harvesting clean energy from the sea.To keep her ocean project-station alive, she's risked her career fighting corporate treachery, and her life battling the fury of a killer hurricane.

But suddenly Emma faces a threat greater than she's ever encountered--a band of extremist vigilantes calling themselves "Wild Justice," who consider Gulfstream evil for the hope it raises--that an American energy corporation can be a force for environmental reform.

So Wild Justice has targeted Gulfstream, using an old flame of Emma's to get past her defenses, and the project's.As the clock ticks toward the zero hour, Emma must join forces with a man who may have betrayed her.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Future Aventure
Set in a future when the sea level has risen enough to cause a shortage of land, the story is set on a floating city off the east coast of the USA. Apart form that it is an adventure story.
Lots of corporate self interest with murders and bombs. It is a good read, different from Jumper, the protagonists are older, and it rolls along quite nicely.GREENWAR: AN ENVIRONMENTAL THRILLER

Great idea, okay tale
A thriller. This novel moves Abbey's MONKEY WRENCH GANG (Avon Books, 1975) into the future in a gripping tale of high tech good intentions and environmental activism. The good guys aren't always, the bad guys are really pretty decent, and the reader is left wrestling with subtle shades of grey -- while the characters wrestle with hurricanes, bombs, subversion and office politics.

Interesting yet boring
The motivation for the eco-terrorist' attack is absolutely improbable and absurd. The cardboard characters lack any depth. Read this as a fast comic book type action/adventure only. The technical& science aspects are well done, especially the diving sequences, however the predictable plot and lack of characterization makes this an unsatisfying read.

Fast-paced thriller
This is a dandy adventure story. In the center of all the action is Gulf Stream, an offshore structure dedicated to research and "green" industry. Add a group of ecoterrorists determined to destroy it, adedicated group of employees striving to save it from all enemies includingeconomic difficulties, undercover agents, a hurricane, a bit of romance anda wayward octopus named Louis, and you have the setting for someinteresting action. It has a nice mix of male and female characters, withEmma Took (who designed Gulf Stream) taking the lead. I had some difficultysorting out all the characters at first. And despite the drawings of theGulf Stream, I didn't always know where the action was taking place -- butthat may just be me -- I never could read a blueprint. Overall a satisfyingread which kept me from opening other books, and which would probablytranslate nicely into a film I would like to see.

A good book for an airplane ride or overnight in a hotel
Talk about misrepresentation!Tom Clancy is probably cringing at the useof his name in conjunction with this mildly written, some-what entertainingwork.Totally predictable, with a dismail cliff-hanger (perhaps"ditch-hopping" is better) ending. ... Read more

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A Comprehensive Tool for Stevens Scholarship
Although prohibitively priced, "Critical Essays on Wallace Stevens" provides an accessible starting point for Stevens scholarship for pleasure of for academic purposes.With essays by noted Stevens scholars, Harold Bloom and Northrop Frye in addition to many others, this collection of essays provides a useful survey of the range of views taken by contemporary scholars and usefully illuminates both Stevens' shorter and longer poems. ... Read more

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Every year since 1900 is treated individually on a spread-by-spread basis in this book, highlighted by the personalities who made the headlines that year - the Beatles in 1962, Oasis in 1996, the Spice Girls in 1997. Details are given of the stories that defined the year: the music, television, household objects, and stars, with features on political events. There are snapshot listings of who was born, married, published, celebrated, jailed, murdered and died, and lists of all annual Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammies, and Pulitzer Prize winners. It aims to be a combination of serious history and quirkier items. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very Interesting Read
This is a collection of the most newsworthy events that happened every year from 1900 to 1999, with two to eight pages devoted to each year. It's an interesting survey, and if you read it chronologically it's fascinating to see the events of the century unfold. Even the most famous events are surprising, in a way, in this greater context.

This is a book you can read a couple of pages at a time, or in large chunks such as on a long trip. It reads almost like a newspaper, but if it has a fault, it's that like newspapers, it has some inaccuracies (e.g., it states that the 1989 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area occurred on October 19th and killed 273 people, when in fact the quake happened on October 17th and killed 62). I only caught that because I lived through that event, but it made me wonder if there were any errors which I didn't notice.

Still, it's worth reading as sort of a refresher course in modern world history.

Reliving the Century Year by Year!
A Fantastic Edition with stunning photographs, great stories, records of time-to-time, fascinating headlines, and a great collection for reliving history and defining events. This is a unique guide and a must-have collection. It is definitely a book that one would treasure and love for quite a long time. It has everything from everyday life to popular performances, from great games to successful stars' stories. This is also a great guide to the most dramatic century in history with the most fascinating events in history written on pages.

GUINNESS BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Each year of the century covered.Politics, history, science, sports and pop culture. A fun read. Fascinating facts. Great infotainment. Exceptional value. ... Read more

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This is a "biography of the imagination, " an inner narrative of Sylvia Plath's life and work. Combining psychoanalytical, feminist, and intertextual methods, Steven Gould Axelrod traces what Roland Barthes has called "the body's journey through language." After an introductory look at the roles played by language and silence in Plath's verbal universe, Axelrod explores the ways in which the poet's father -- and father figures, including male literary precursors -- interfered with her imagination even as they helped shape it. He describes Plath's ambiguous relations with her mother and with the two literary forebears who took the mother's place -- Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson. And he examines Plath's doubling relationship to her husband, describing how she eventually transferred her doubling impulse to her texts. Axelrod concludes by suggesting a link between Plath's discontinuous narrative of the double and her personal fate.

Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words offers illuminating and often revolutionary readings of all of Plath's major texts, including such poems as "Daddy" and "Three Women, " her novel, The Bell Jar, and her letters and journals. At once sympathetic and incisive, it offers a compelling account of Plath's creative drive and personal history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Everything you need to know
This book is a terrific combination of Axelrod's interpretations and Plath's life.It does not rest only upon facts, but instead it does a beautiful job of twisting together her life, her writing and herpsychological condition.If you love Plath and her writing, this is thebook for you.It is intelligent and written for people who not only wantto know more about the life of a very troubled and talented woman, butthose who also love her poetry. ... Read more

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Featuring stories to set the mind on fire, this 1994 World Fantasy Award-winning collection includes such tales as "In the Fullness of Time, " "Top of the Charts, " "The Chaff He Will Burn, " "Music of the Spheres, " "The Summer We Saw Diana, " and the title piece. ... Read more

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This major interpretation of the life and art of Robert Lowell exposes the full relationship between the poetry and the personal and national experience to which it is so remarkably connected. Steven Axelrod proposes that the key to our understanding of Lowell's poetic achievement lies precisely in this interpretation of his life and art. Making extensive use of primary sources never before studied by scholars, including Lowell's manuscript drafts of his poems and his unpublished notebooks, essays, and letters, Steven Axelrod adds significantly to our understanding of Lowell's underlying belief that "the artist's existence becomes his art." --- from book's back cover ... Read more

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Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. Second edition of a Brandon/ Hill Medical List selection. Comprehensive, multidisciplinary clinical reference. Previous edition 1991. Increased coverage of blood service organizations. 103 contributors, 98 U.S. DNLM: Blood Transfusion. ... Read more