(1955- ) US writer, married to Laura J Mixon, who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Touch of Their Eyes" for Analog in September 1980, though he only began to attract wide notice with his first novel – the first volume in the Jumper sequence comprising Jumper (1992), Reflex (2004) and Jumper: Griffin's Story (2007), a Tie to the film {JUMPER} (2008) directed by Doug Liman – which focuses, as do its successors, on a Mutant variety of Homo sapiens with the gift of Teleportation; the hero of the first volume, a Young Adult tale set in the moderately complex present or very Near Future, follows his coming of age in the complex world of New York, and the attainment of some rapport with his talent, while the second follows his young wife's attempts to rescue him from being kidnapped. The melodramatic discovery by teleporters, that they and their ancestors have been involved for aeons in a war against a breed of "Paladins" bent on destroying them, features only in the film Tie.
Of Gould's several singletons, Wildside (1996), also Young Adult, not dissimilarly offers its protagonist a portal to a pristine world, and Helm (1998) also sets its younger-son protagonist on a quest for something like self-discovery, during the course of which, with the aid of some ancient technology, he saves his colony planet. Greenwar (1997) with Laura J Mixon is a Near Future ecothriller; and Blind Waves (2004) is a Disaster story, also set in the Near Future, and detailing the consequences of global flooding due to a 90 foot rise in sea level which happens in a matter of weeks. As with his Hugo-nominated "Peaches for Mad Molly" (February 1988 Analog) Gould's writing is set apart from some of his peers by a kinetic joy in the exploration of his premises. [JC/GS]
Steven Charles Gould
born Fort Huachuca, Arizona: 7 February 1955
died
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