Vlog Post with Steven Gould

Photo Content from Steven Gould

STEVEN GOULD is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Jumper: Griffin’s Story, as well as many short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards. Gould lives in New Mexico with his wife, writer Laura J. Mixon, and their two daughters.

      

Series: Jumper (Book 4)
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (September 9, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765336545
ISBN-13: 978-0765336545

Praise for EXO

“The question is, What is she prepared to risk in order to live the kind of life her special gift opens up for her? Like its predecessors, the novel straddles the line between YA and adult fiction; its lead character is a teen, but the story has many adult-themed elements, and its writing seems geared more toward older readers.... Fans of the series should give this one an enthusiastic response.” ―Booklist

“Gould literally raises the bar on teleportation in this sequel to Impulse.... Gould grows more ambitious with every book in the Jumper series. He began by mixing speculative fiction, adventure and bildungsroman, then added in political and corporate thriller; this novel is primarily hard sci-fi while maintaining the other genres. By constantly experimenting with new tropes and extending the limits of the Harrison-Rice family's power to teleport, Gould ensures that each installment remains fresh and enthralling. As in the previous book, Cent's genius and her social skills (considering that she's been discouraged from creating close bonds with anyone outside her immediate family) seem almost more unusual than her teleporting ability, but her character has an intellectual and emotional validity as well as an inherent likability that encourages the reader to overlook those quibbles. There's simply no knowing where Cent and this series are headed next...but it'll sure be interesting to find out.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“In the Jumper books, Steven Gould does a superb job of the old science fiction game of 'what if?'--postulating a change, and then exhaustively examining all the implications.... Cent is a thoroughly modern teenager, intelligent and witty, irreverent and yet insecure. It's a pleasure to see her tackle a new challenge. As usual, Exo is more than a simple adventure story; issues of morality, responsibility, and personal growth suffuse the narrative. With any luck, this won't be the last story of the happy Rice family.” ―Analog

“[Gould's] gift is in writing about extraordinary things in a very ordinary way with humor and matter-of-factness and it's never been on display so much as here…. While Exo is still very much Gould's style, this time I also got a whiff of the space-station worldbuilding of Allen M. Steele and John Verley, and a strong flavor of the old Heinlein juveniles when Robert A. Heinlein wrote engineers as heroes and orbital mechanics as something integral to the plot. Since all three are favorite authors of mine, this is a Good Thing. Gould manages the trick of including just enough science to make Exo fascinating and barely plausible without getting so far into technobabble that I felt lost…. I read it in two big gulps, pulled along by the voices of the characters and the magnitude of what they were attempting, and I closed it wanting to know what would happen next in a very different world. That's a hint, Mr. Gould.” ―News-Journal, Daytona Beach

TEN FAVORITE SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES OF ALL TIME.

• The Abyss
• Aliens
• Blade Runner
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• The Empire Strikes Back
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• The Matrix
• Gattaca
• Brother From Another Planet
• Contact

I see three of these are from Jim Cameron (whom I’m working with right now) but I would pick them anyway. Part of my decision making is which of these would I rewatch over and over and these are all films like that. This was the era of the dirty space ship—a future that was actually lived in. The Abyss is working class SF at its best, depicting actual working stiffs, not scientists and elite government officials. Brother from Another Planet uses the alien lens to examine poverty and racism. Contact is a movie (and book) that is not afraid to examine science and religion side by side. Gattaca is brilliant “if this goes on” sort of SF. While Ripley gets her start in its predecessor, the female action hero really came of age in Aliens. No offense George, but the best Star Wars movie was scripted by a woman and directed by someone other than Lucas. And on that other one: “I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time, like [small cough] tears... in... rain. Time to die…”

EXCERPT
ONE

Cent: Tell him about breaking the guy's jaw—he'll like that

I was breathing pure oxygen through a full face mask and the rest of my body was covered in heavily insulated hooded coveralls, gloves, and boots. The electronic thermometer strapped around my right sleeve read forty-five degrees below zero. The aviation GPS strapped to my left arm read forty-five thousand feet above sea level. I was three miles higher than Everest.

The curvature of the earth was pronounced, and though the sun was out, the sky was only blue at the horizon, fading to deep blue and then black overhead.

There were stars.

The air was thin.

I was dropping.

I reached two hundred miles per hour within seconds, but I didn't want to go down yet. I jumped back to forty-five thousand feet and loitered, falling and returning, never letting myself fall more than a few seconds. But then the mask fogged, then frosted, and I felt a stinging on my wrist and a wave of dizziness.

I jumped away, appearing twenty-five thousand feet lower, in warmer and thicker air. I let myself fall, working my jaw vigorously to equalize the pressure in my inner ears.

Jumping directly back to ground level would probably have burst my eardrums.

With the air pulling at my clothes and shrieking past my helmet, I watched the GPS's altimeter reading flash down through the numbers. When it blurred past ten thousand feet, I took a deep breath and jumped home to the cabin in the Yukon.

Cent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the only people in the world who can. This is not as great as you might think it would be — sure, you can go shopping in Japan and then have tea in London, but it’s hard to keep a secret like that. And there are people, dangerous people, who work for governments and have guns, who want to make you do just this one thing for them. And when you’re a teenage girl things get even more complicated. High school. Boys. Global climate change, refugees, and genocide. Orbital mechanics.

But Cent isn’t easily daunted, and neither are Davy and Millie, her parents. She’s going to make some changes in the world.

You can purchase EXO at the following Retailers:

        

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you STEVEN GOULD AND TOR for making this giveaway possible.

3 Winners will receive a Copy of EXO by Steven Gould.

WEEK ONE

SEPTEMBER 9th TUESDAY JeanBookNerd VLOG
SEPTEMBER 10th WEDNESDAY CBY Book Club DREAM CAST

SEPTEMBER 11th THURSDAY Mother/Gamer/Writer REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 12th FRIDAY The YA Lit Chick REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 13th SATURDAY Frodo’s Blog of Randomness REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 14th SUNDAY MichaelSciFan INTERVIEW

SEPTEMBER 15th MONDAY My Book Addiction TENS LIST

WEEK TWO

SEPTEMBER 16th TUESDAY Fluidwriter RANDOM THINGS

SEPTEMBER 17th WEDNESDAY Coffee and Characters REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 18th THURSDAY Word to Dreams MUSIC PLAYLIST

SEPTEMBER 19th FRIDAY Sabrina’s Paranormal Palace REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 20th SATURDAY Blissful Book Reviews REVIEW & GUEST POST

SEPTEMBER 21st SUNDAY Mom with a Kindle THIS OR THAT

SEPTEMBER 22nd MONDAY Literary Meanderings TENS LIST

jbnpastinterviews