Impulse

By: Steven Gould

Narrated by: Emily Rankin

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

Cent has a secret. She lives in isolation, with her parents, hiding from the people who took her father captive and tortured him to gain control over his ability to teleport, and from the government agencies who want to use his talent. Cent has seen the world, but only from the safety of her parents' arms. She's teleported more than anyone on Earth, except for her mother and father, but she's never been able to do it herself. Her life has never been in danger. Until the day when she went snowboarding without permission and triggered an avalanche. When the snow and ice thundered down on her, she suddenly found herself in her own bedroom. That was the first time.

©2013 Steven Gould (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Black mark on the series

I'll start by saying, I chose to listen to this novel despite other reviews because I didn't want to miss any plot points leading into the 4th book, which looks interesting. This was a mistake. There are no plot developments in this book. Nothing of lasting import happens. I suggest skipping ahead.

Where the first book was about Davey resolving emotional trauma, and the second was about his imprisonment, this one is almost entirely about their daughter and her trials as a teenager. The only problem with this character-centric story is that the character is uninteresting. She is the perfect child in every way. She's good at sports, a genius, beautiful, loved by all, has super powers that she uses frequently in front of people without anyone noticing, and doesn't fail at a single thing through the whole book. In short, she's not a realistic human being.

As other reviewers have said, this is very much a high school drama (heavy on the drama) and has almost nothing to do with Davey and Millie. Not my cup of tea to start with but I have enjoyed such things from time to time. However, the character issues make this a bad book even for that genre. To be fair, there is a good bit of action. Cent does her share of butt kicking but she always wins without effort. There is no suspense. The only bit that piqued my interest was when the NSA came into it but it was over within 15 minutes and nothing came of it. All the more disappointing after I spent the whole book HOPING the NSA would capture Cent to put a stop to her nonsense.

There are other problems as well. Cent has a nemesis that is pure evil to the extent that she has the same problem as Cent's character. No shades of gray. She also has a posse who are all, likewise, one-dimensional. Gould tried to remedy this with an explanation for their behavior at the end but it was unconvincing to me, not to mention disturbing...

Cent discovers that she can use her teleportation ability to manipulate her speed. For one, I have trouble believing that Davey never thought of this, considering it was he who realized decades earlier that teleporting effects frames of relative motion. That aside, Cent uses this ability at literally every opportunity with little regard for observers. Issues with its use are also overlooked. For example, she uses it to gain inhuman bursts of speed running, ignoring the fact that the sudden acceleration would cause her to trip. Moreover, all the effects to her body of high speed impact and sudden acceleration are ignored. This might not be so jarring if the author had not, up to this point, given significant consideration to the physics of "jumping" previously. I had very much enjoyed the attempts to make the physics consistent and this oversight was a disappointment.

Then there's the old problem of the characters having seemingly read and memorized every book in existence and teenagers speaking in very unnatural manners for their age. Presumably, these teenagers converse as the author himself would if he could go back in time. Not only does Cent manifest this but also her boyfriend and, to some extent, her friends.

The narrator was wonderful and deserves none of the blame. She did a great job with making Cent's voice sound like that of a teenager and was pleasant to listen to. The male voices were a bit off but only to the usual degree when mimicking the opposite sex.

I will probably still go on to the 4th book because the synopsis sounds much more exciting but I can't say this one was encouraging.

19 of 21 people found this review helpful

Refreshing!

This book is a good continuation of the jumper series. It introduces new uses of their power and focuses on the teenage daughter of Mili and David. This was my concern about the story. I was afraid it was going to follow the Twilight like highschool teenage angst. The girl who doesn't fit in and cant find love and is generally depressed the whole time till she find a guy to fix her. But it did a refreshing job of breaking a bunch of those stereotypes.

Cent is a strong female character. She finds her own solutions to dangerous situations she finds herself in . A guy doesn't come in to rescue her. She's good at math and science. The whole story is peppered in small daily uses of math and science experiments. I liked that it highlighted math in a positive way. Yes Id agree that Cent is too good at math for her age but were listening to a book about people who can teleport so maybe some suspension of disbelief is required :). There some romance in the book but its not much and fits with the storyline.

Also its nice that the super-powered beings are doing what Id hope people with their gifts would actually be doing in real life. Their not always fighting crime, their concerned with environmental causes and try helping out people in various communities using their gifts to bypass military blockades and getting food to impoverished areas. There are also consequences to using their powers to help people. Things get out of their control that they cant fix and people get hurt because of their actions. So they have to think about how they use their gifts before they act.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

I was impressed!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I certainly would. This story line is good a one. It expanded upon the life of a family which has the ability to go anywhere, anytime, yet also touches on the complexities which comes along with it intelligently. At least to my mind.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Impulse?

I'd have to say learning how the ability to jump was an enabling force for flight as well. I'd love to see this on the silver screen.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

If you think you know all about my power, you may be wrong.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Loved it

This story is so cool. And as far as teleportation is concerned, yhe author weaves it so easily into teenage angst and everyday family life. I love it. It is not a superhero movie novel type of thing. It's a novel about family and values and things they have to deal with. And they happened to teleport. Great story. Listen to Jumper from the first book. You will have a great time.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great new development :-)

At first I was disappointed the narrator had changed.
But when I found out about Scent, the daughter, it made sense. And then I really enjoyed the new narrator :-)
Scent is a great young adult, witty, fear was and fearless. With just the same wonderful attitude and heart as her parents.
This 3rd volume of Jumper was a pleasure to go through, and I am now looking at #4.
I searched many times if there would eventually be a sequel to the Jumper movie. It sure looked like it at the end of the 1st one.
And now, I am not sure as there has been a lot of all the elements of all the books in the first movie.
I still hope. This is a fantastic series :-)

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Just too COOL and FUN

This is just the perfect next book in the JUMPER series. the first 2 were on the dark side and this one lets the light in and is simply a joy to read or listen to. Once again Emily Rankin is at the top of her game reading this story. Emily fully immerses you in the life of "Cent" making you feel all the emotions this young lady is having in the story. You laugh, you cry, you feel Cent's joy and fears as she learns the ins and outs and dangers of being a jumper. That is what this story is about and what Emily Rankin fully projects in her reading. Even though this is the story of David's and Milly's daughter, it isn't a story just for girls. There is plenty of action, intrigue, and witty dialogue to satisfy even male readers. So if you like the "Jumper" series, you will love this book. Get it now, you won't be disappointed!

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Child's Play

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I first read Gould's Jumper when it came out in pb more than 20 years ago. It was a great story and well executed. I found out he had a sequel after the movie "Jumper" came out. The sequel was okay, not as good as Jumper, but well done except for the change in the "Jumper" universe to match that of Griffin and the movie. The change was not for the better.

What was most disappointing about Steven Gould’s story?

I did not listen to the reviewer who complained that this was a child's (young adult) story, after all, I read the first Harry Potter and it was aimed at a similar age. However, this book comes across as a 14 year old girl's pov (I know Cent is 16). If I had really wanted to read a book on teenage angst and the perils of high school gym... well, I wouldn't want to read that story. Unfortunately, after four hours of listening, I don't know that I can go on with it. There's just nothing happening.

I may update this review if I manage to finish the book, but it isn't looking good. For someone who wrote Jumper, this is a total departure.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Emily Rankin?

Yes.

Could you see Impulse being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I don't know, a couple of teenie boppers?

Any additional comments?

In the future, pay more attention to the listener reviews.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

loved it

Amazing series, not what I expect after seeing the movie of the 1st book. which is a good thing.

well done

even though I don't get too much into Teen Angst books, this was still interesting and fun. you would think they would test their abilities just a bit more as well as the transferability of the teleportation skill two Mundanes. I'm sure if this continues we may see more of that, heading for the Nextbook now.

Still a good book

It would have been better without the political crap stuffed in for no reason, but still a fun listen