JUMP

by Stephen R. Stober

Jeremy Roberts is suddenly a stranger in his own body with no memory of his life. When he discovers he’s entangled in an unsolved tragedy, he must mount a high-stakes investigation to rescue someone he can’t remember.

294 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Stephen R. Stober, Ph.D. has a background in psychology, aerospace and healthcare. He is currently a business owner in Toronto and shares his life with his wife, his two daughters and their dog. Steve has published a number of articles in peer reviewed scientific journals on subjects related to human visual physiology and perception, including the American Journal of Psychology. JUMP is his first novel.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently purchased the Kindle edition of "Jump" by Stephen R. Stober, after hearing great things about this book on Goodreads. I was not disappointed. This book was so unique, a fast paced thriller with a twist that a person/angel can "jump" from one body to another and "become" that person for a short time. When he invades the host, the person goes offline for a period of time, until he leaves the physical body of the host.

Over the years he has jumped thousands of times and explored the minds of people from all over the world. Some of his amazing abilities include mind-jumping, photographic memory capabilities, and the ability to absorb details of his host's life and achieve his objective. His main objective is to bring peace or balance to the family.

Damion Murdoch had lost consciousness and collapsed in a store. His wife, Carrie screams for someone to call 911. At this moment, the "jumper" abandons the body and mind of Murdoch and enters the body and mind of Jeremy Roberts, who is at the scene with his wife Jennifer. He feels dizzy for the first few minutes of transition. He takes time to think about his new life. How quickly will he figure out his objective? Do Jennifer and Jeremy love each other? Do they have children? He can't remember his name and nothing about himself. How did this start? For now he is Jeremy Roberts. The tingling in his hands was the sign the process was beginning. The transition ends when he lands.

Jeremy searches Jeremy's wallet and finds out he is an accountant with two daughters, Jessie and Sandy. He soon learns that Jessie, a veterinary medical student at an Ivy League University, has been missing for three years-a possible abduction. He must help this family, in their time of grief.

I didn't want this book to end...it was so well written and I was totally involved in this thriller. Looking forward to a sequel/movie.
Very impressed with the premise of this novel.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

There once was a television program called "Quantum Leap," with Scott Bakula playing a character who would inhabit the bodies of various persons and then have to deal with the situations of their lives. The premise of this novel is the same. The main character jumps from individual to individual solving problems or dealing with crises in their lives before leaving them for the next situation. At the beginning of the novel he finds himself occupying the body of a man whose daughter had been abducted a few years earlier. The primary focus of the narrative is the effort to find and rescue her. It is a decent premise for a novel, but the story suffers from the poor writing style of the author. The first-person narrative ends up being, "I do this; then I do that; then I did something else..." The most interesting pieces are not the rescue efforts but times when the "hero" remembers earlier "jumps" that impact the current situation.
Much of the action takes place in the city where I live. So it was fun to read about places I know and see all the time. He refers to another nearby city where I have also lived but with an alternate spelling that is not the accepted spelling. At one point, he seems to transplant two thoroughfares from one place to another, which was disconcerting to me, knowing both places. (I assume that was an editing lapse.)
All-in-all, this book had a fun premise with a less-than-perfect execution.

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first started it, I thought "Cool, it's kinda like 'Quantum Leap'!" As I read further, I realized it was only "Quantum Leap" if Sam Beckett was himself and Flash combined.

Jeremy (not really his name, but the name of the person he "leaped" into, but since we never get HIS name, we'll go with Jeremy) had Eidetic memory and the ability to "see" people's movements in slo-mo, so a great many things he accomplished were a little far fetched.

The story wasn't bad, but it had the "ripped from the headlines" feel. I wonder if he rushed it into publication after some of the events of early 2013. The writing was OK, other than the extraneous use of exclamation points. They have no purpose in a story except in dialog, in my opinion. You could argue that since "Jeremy" was telling the story, it was all dialog, but I don't buy it.

[Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a Quantum Leap fan you will probably enjoy this book. There is no Al however, and unfortunately the author chose to include several measures of profanity when the story could easily been told without it. I do not respect this practice and I hesitate to reward the author by purchasing any of their subsequent material. I do understand that many readers are not offended by a splattering of the potty-mouth so if that is you and you liked the QL, MI3 & A-Team shows, this will be a quick read that is hard to put down. The main character/entity is likable, a good guy and apparently ancient. The ending is not abrupt but is predictable and everyone lives happily every after. If not for the language issue, I would give this book several more stars.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started off great. It was an interesting premise and the first bit was quite good. But as it went on, it got rather predictable and sort of.... blah. It sort of felt like the author had worked hard on tightening up the first few chapters, but left the rest of the book a bit rough. It wasn't bad, but it had a lit of undeveloped potential.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

the premise was good but the whole book was pretty predictable.