What Fiction are you reading this week, July 13 2025?

[Jeebo]

12. Reflex by Steven Gould

It's the sequel to Jumper, which is one of the most purely FUN novels I've ever read. I've read Jumper about a half-dozen times and I'm sure not for the last time, but I think this is only the second time I've read its sequel. It's fun too, though. I was rummaging through a box of old books looking for something to read a day or two ago and found Reflex there.

Last week I told you I was reading Purgatory by Mike Resnick. I gave it at best a lukewarm review, but I would like to upgrade that to a mild recommendation, because it got better. I did enjoy it. It was a bit of a page-turner, in fact.

— Ron

P.S. — About Jumper, it is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable novels I've ever read, but I'm talking about the novel here, not about that awful movie. Hollywood has an annoying habit of taking way too many liberties with wonderful novels and consequently RUINING them. They tend to forget completely about what made the novel so good. When they're true to the novel, they make wonderful movies from wonderful novels. That's what happened, for example, when they made Andy Weir's novel The Martian into a movie. I read the novel a couple years before I knew they were going to make it into a movie. They were true to the novel, and the result was, a great novel, and then, a great movie. In fact, it's one of those movies that when it shows up on one of the movie channels I get, I can't not watch it.