Welcome to Show #21!
The Ninjas discuss the 1992 fantasy novel, Jumper by Steven Gould. This is a story that both Summer and Dave have fond memories of reading many years ago when the story was originally published, and time has not diminshed the story.
We also talk a little about the feature film that’s currently filming in Ontario, starring Hayden Christiansen as Davey, and Samuel L. Jackson as NSA Agent (replacing the FBI agent), Michael Rooker as Davey’s dad, and Rachel Bilson as Millie. With Doug Liman directing and David Goyer handling the screenplay, this movie should not suck. I, for one, will be getting a ticket to see it, when the time comes.
Books mentioned:
Link: Steven Gould
Link: IMDb: Jumper (2008)
Link: Wikipedia: Jumper
Not dead. Resting? I’ve...
Hey, guys,
great podcast. Obviously I’m biased. Also talking back a lot when you guys would “wonder” things.
I blogged it here though this will be moved off of Blogger and onto our new site http://www.eatourbrains.com this weekend.
Love to do that interview Summer and I discussed.
Best,
Steve
Hello,
I know this wasn’t the topic, but what is David’s gripe with Spider-man 2? Just curious.
wlg
Hey guys.
I continue to be really pleased with the stuff you’re churning out, and it’s really great that Steve himself was listening in and provided additional insight. However, I must confess that I was a bit disappointed with both this and another recent podcast in which you appear to have eschewed discussing the specific relevance that the book or movie in question (in this case, Jumper) might have had within the broader “historiography” of sci-fi and fantasy. In a sense, Jumper is recent…but you guys never explained why you thought it deserved a comment over or above other books of its time. I know this maybe doesn’t sound generous, but this lack of additional context also seems to be linked to shorter podcast times; half an hour for this show, in which we basically found out that you all liked the book and…goodnight. By contrast, earlier shows sometimes ran for over 60 minutes with some really great discussion included. Sorry for pointing this out…but I want MORE, not less!!
I’ve said before that anything over 10 years old is fair game for us to talk about, and Jumper was first published 15 years ago.
The “10 years” line was set because I wanted to cover older and newer things, but not too new. There are some very good stories out there that are less than 20 years old that went out of print very fast, possibly too fast.
Things go out of print faster these days, or just plain aren’t available on DVD… there are a number of good TV shows out there that are problematic for us to cover because they aren’t easily available.
I thought Jumper deserved comment because it was one of the first first-person fantasy novels I’d come across, and it was probably the only one that really worked well at using that POV. It hasn’t quite had the time to develop a history of influence yet, but it may yet do so.
As for show length, it’s harder when there’s not much to argue about
I’ve been making the calls on most of the books, because Joe just isn’t familiar with any of the classics, with little or no knowledge of the authors, and almost no reference for the stories, and Dave wants to read everything.
I try to pick stories that aren’t too hard to find, and most of the time had an influence on me when I was a younger reader and sometimes it works out.
Sometimes I pick something that I haven’t read, or haven’t read in a very long time, and Joe hates it and wants to yell about it.
Which is why I like getting suggestions from you guys, the listeners and fans.
As for longer shows, it depends on what we talk about, and how much time we have when we get together to talk.
You know, I wasn’t too interested in either the book or the movie before hearing this, but now I kind of am. Of course, with a backlog of books some 300 titles long, that’s not going to be anytime real soon, espeically now that I’m in college.
Excellent show once again, guys. I’ve been listening for awhile now, catching up as I can, and wanted to ket you know that you inspired me to get this book before listening when I heard you were going to discuss it. As a high school English teacher, I’m always on the lookout for interesting books to recommend to my students. This one’s PERFECT!
I agree that teenagers LOVE discussing the ins and outs of ‘how’ something works and testing boundaries (in SO MANY WAYS), and Gould captures this curiosity quite as Davy tries out his powers. I enjoyed his tests at free fall especially. Wouldn’t we all like to fly, even if it’s just for a few seconds?
Given the continuing strife in the Middle East, this also works as a brief primer on why things are so messed up over there. Gould’s symposis of Muslim factions is once again perfect for a teen who may want more of an understanding of the sectarian violence without wading through in-depth news analysis and such. Again, kudos to Gould.
I snagged Reflex at the bookstore last night, so we’ll see how well Gould can continue
I have been looking in the used book stores since I heard the podcast trying to find the book. Now that the movie is coming out, does anyone know if the new tie-in is the same book or different content?
http://www.amazon.ca/Jumper-Movie-Tie-Steven-Gould/dp/0765357690/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203450056&sr=8-5
The original 1993 version is still difficult to find it seems.
Thanks.
As far as I know, the new re-release should be the same as the original book.
We received a copy at the studio, but Brian currently has it… we can ask him if it’s the movie novelization or the reprint of the original.