Exo

I’ve read this book about 4 times so far. It’s enjoyable every time. Cent is a great heroin. She has good moral values and tries to do right by everyone involved. I love how the author gives us plenty of opportunities to see people react to her special abilities. It’s very rewarding.There are a lot of technical details that make the story line more believable and interesting. I will probably look into some of the technologies mentioned to see if they exist.I would have given this book a five star rating except for the following complaints:- the author includes bad language, even by the main characters, as though it’s perfectly acceptable to talk like that.- the main characters are sexually active outside of marriage. This is also mentioned as matter-of-fact.- the main characters close friends are in a homosexual relationship with each other. One of them encounter resistance from a parent. The parent is made to appear fanatical. The relationship is depicted as healthy rather than the unhealthy. This is irresponsible of the author and could further normalize an unhealthy cultural behavior that has led to many suicidal and depressing tendencies.

Exo is the fourth book in Steven Gould's Jumper series, and follows the adventures of a family whose members possess the ability to teleport at will. Like the previous book (Impulse), Exo is mostly written from the point of view of Cent, Davy and Millie's daughter. There are few scenes of suffering and violence in this novel, at least compared to the rest of the series' graphic treatment of gangs, torture, terrorism and child abuse. Exo is also far more technical than the other novels, presenting a great deal of detail about the challenges of space exploration. How to remove carbon dioxide and excess moisture from your breathing air, the design of space suits, how to protect against radiation and micro-meteorites, and so on. Although there is a significant subplot related to the adversaries faced in Reflex and near the end of Impulse, the story is really about harnessing the family ability to teleport in order to explore outer space.Steven Gould writes with a lot of heart, but unless the reader is excited about space travel, the emotional connection will be mostly with minor characters in the various sub-plots. If, however, you are the kind of person who dreams of visiting the International Space Station, then there is a lot of vicarious awe in the sections about travel to, and life in, near earth orbit. Personally, I enjoyed the book very much, and have already read it twice.However, Gould may be growing a little too fond of his characters: he can't stand for them to be unhappy for long. While there are challenges and sorrows that Cent, Davy and Millie must face, the most serious are overcome in very few pages. The longer lasting difficulties are relatively minor, at least compared to what was faced earlier in the series.[Spoilers follow]In Jumper Davy had to deal with the death of his mother at the hands of terrorists; in Exo Millie's mother is bedridden due to age and ill health. In Reflex Davy is kidnapped and tortured; in Exo Cent deals with heartbreak over her boyfriend's infidelity. Not to discount the illness of a parent or teenage heartbreak, but the stakes seem to be getting lower. Meanwhile the power of the main character to deal with problems is higher than ever. After all, Cent has the support and instruction of her parents, and has developed a few tricks of her own, while Davy and Millie both had to figure out their abilities by themselves.To liven things up, the Harrison-Rice family needs more opposition. There is a hint at the end of the book that a villain (one who was "jumped" many times over the years and who was just placed in mortal danger) may have acquired the ability to teleport. Now *that* would be a worthy opponent for Davy, Millie and Cent.

Full disclosure, I've met Steve Gould, took a class with him, and have admired his work for decades. One time, I was in a car with him and his wife and the topic of research came up, and I quipped about my own writing that "if it isn't on Wikipedia to find, I make it up." I watched Steve just sag (and I felt terrible!) He obviously didn't think much of that statement. EXO stands as a testament to why. EXO is bursting off the page with the results of his research into real-world space exploration (and a lot of other things, from the military to geography).I've always admired the JUMPER series—books about the only family on earth with the ability to teleport wherever they want, instantly—for how Steve weaves in locales and cultures with aplomb. But EXO goes well beyond even that. There are times, perhaps, when it's a bit much to know the speeds and feeds of space suits and satellite orbits. But that's how the main character, Cent, thinks and it makes sense considering all her [Slight spoilers from here on] new adventures in space. It's clear that space is where her heart, and the author's, are located. The realism of the situations—yes, you can have such a thing even when you're talking about the science-fantasy of "jumping"—is ultra-heightened with the meticulous research.The story, like the last JUMPER novel, IMPULSE, mainly follows Cent. Before, she was navigating high school for the first time after being home schooled. Plus there were nefarious people who want the jumpers. Now, Cent has a goal (space!) and nothing gets in her way. It also leads her into trouble with the same bad guys. Steve can go for long passages of the book without even alluding to that trouble, but when it comes back it helps create a slow build to the last of the book's non-space set pieces. (The slow builds come courtesy of Cent's father, Davy, the original jumper from the novel JUMPER, who is smartly paranoid after his previous capture by the bad guys.)The bad guys have names, but they don't have much presence in the story until those final scenes. It's to Steve's credit that they book can't be put down, even through all that space talk meant for true fans of the astronautical, as waiting for that other shoe to drop with the bad-guys is excruciatingly tense. If I have one complaint it's that the villains don't get much time on screen to be very villainous. But that's a minor point. Not every hero needs a Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom (or Samuel L. Jackson!) chewing the scenery.If you've enjoyed the previous JUMPER books, especially IMPULSE, this is a must read. It'll make you question what you'd do with the same abilities.

Overall I think this book is good. It brings a nice end to the story within the other books. It could have been a lot shorter though. There are parts that explain way too much about how things work or how they are put together. I'm a techy and I still tuned out at parts. It's also too bad the action is over so fast. Third best in the series though. Better than impulse.

This book takes the original Jumper story into the next generation with his daughter exploring how far she can build on the concepts explored in the previous books.This is the 4th, and so far, final in the Jumper series.1st : Jumper2nd: Reflex3rd: Impulse4th: ExoThis series is definitely on my recommended reading list.

Another great addition to the Jumper series. The next step in the evolution of Jumping seems like what Davy would have done if 'THEY' had never come after him.The story is great with just the right mix of old & new characters. The technical aspects were a bit daunting. It could have 'dumbed down' a little bit and still had the impact realism the author is going for.I'd say that the main thing that kept from giving the novel a 5/5 was that it took a long time before the author revealed what Cent's plan was and the antagonists appeared in the story.

Steven Gould is one of those authors whose books I will grab without even bothering to read the jacket. And this one, the latest in his Jumper series (the novels, not the execrable movie), doesn't disappoint. Hard to see where he's going to go from here, though. I think this may be the last.

Except for too much technicality, which made me see them in real but also hard to picture the processes throughout the whole....