Synopsis:
June 15, 1999
New York City, New York
Las Vegas, Nevada
After leaping back into the present, but into the body of a very rich
and powerful man, Same is in danger of losing himself forever, unless
the Quantum leap team can get him back.
Place
The Leapee’s house. It’s not really clear
exactly where that is, but appears to be somewhere not far from Carmel,
California. Part of the leap is in Las
Vegas.
Name of Person Leaped Into
Joe Powell.
Project Trivia
There are a couple of people with a connection to the Project who could
cause some serious problems.
Ziggy is having some trouble with the
Y2K virus.
Tom Beckett and Donna become Observers
for a short time.
Sam Trivia
Sam is starting to get his memory back.
Al Trivia
Al is 65 years old and it is taking its toll.
He is dealing with the funding for the
Project being in danger again.
Ziggy is playing music that Al finds
very annoying.
Miscellaneous Trivia
Joe Powell and Tom Beckett know each other. Also,
Joe understands more about what is happening than he is letting on. QL episodes Genesis, Lee Harvey Oswald,
Memphis Melody, Norma Jean, A Little Miracle, Miss
Deep South and Mirror Image are mentioned or referred to.
Writers
Carol Davis with Esther D. Reese.
Copyright Date
February 2000.
Leap Date
1999.
Regular Characters
Sam, Al and Ziggy.
Guest Characters
The supporting characters at the Project (Tina, Donna, Beeks, Gooshie)
, Joe Powell, Kevin Maxwell, Barbara (Max) Maxwell, Dove (Joe’s
bodyguard), Marie (Powell’s cook), Tom
Beckett, Linda Beckett.
Guest character notes
Joe Powell is a wealthy man who is planning to run for President, but
he hasn’t come to terms with his wife’s death. Dove
is his bodyguard and he takes his job seriously. Barbara
Maxwell is Joe’s assistant and so focused on her job she neglects her
son until it’s almost too late. Kevin is
Max’s son, and a brat in some ways, but he’s also
just a kid who needs his mom. Marie is the
feisty cook for Powell’s household; she and Dove are constantly at each
other’s throats.
Characters who appeared in
QL TV episodes
Becky Pruitt, her mother Carol and Leon Styles from the QL episode
Killin’ Time are important to the plot, although they are only talked
about in the book. Tom was in the two
Leap Home episodes.
Personal Review
I had mixed feelings about this book. For
the most part, I liked (didn’t love) it. In
general, the writing is good, and the storyline is interesting. I understood the author(s) were attempting to
tie up loose ends, and I did like that Sam got to see his brother and
Donna. The themes of reconciliation and
coming to terms are good ones. However,
I had problems with the way the central characters were portrayed.
Sam is portrayed as a selfish jerk that
only cared about his work and turned his back on everyone. Sam was
rather quirky, and his work was important to him. However,
he was a warm-hearted person who loved his family and cared about the
people around him, probably a little too much sometimes.
The novel seems to be focused on Sam dealing with guilt
feelings rather than what he is supposed to be doing on the Leap.
Al is too crude and foul-mouthed. He was irritable sometimes, but he was a good
person underneath the gruff exterior. He
didn’t swear indiscriminately.
Tom Beckett is a complete horse’s
behind here. The Beckett family wasn’t
perfect or anything, but they loved and supported each other. Tom was the one who encouraged Sam to leave
home and go to MIT and pursue his work in the first place, and then he
turns around and complains about it? That
sounds pretty inconsistent to me.
I initially disliked Barbara Maxwell a
lot. I thought she was the one who was the
selfish jerk here. That was mitigated
somewhat by her coming around and doing right by her kid.
I didn’t get Joe Powell; he had the
potential to be a great villain, but he was too hung up on his late
wife to be a good bad guy.
Dove and Kevin were better; I could
relate to them, although why either of them would want to have anything
to do with Max was beyond me. I
guess love can make you blind.
And then there is the infamous “Sam
never got home” complaint that most Leapers have; however, that was an
issue before this book was published. I’ll
say more about that later.
Best Line
Marie: I am not so old.
Best Scene
The scenes with Marie were amusing. It was
funny how she was so obsessed with having to watch her shows.
Worst Thing About the Novel
I hated that Sam never got home. In
fairness, I should point out that most publishers do have guidelines
that writers are supposed to follow, and Carol has made posts on the
Al’s Place message board saying she couldn’t have Sam leap home. We don’t hear anything about what happens to
Joe either; it’s all left up in the air.
Say What?
What is up with Ziggy here? The idea of
her being sentient enough, even though she’s a supercomputer, to “reach
out” to her fellow computers was far-fetched to say the least. Some of the scenes between her and Al were
amusing, but there was too much about Ziggy and the Y2K virus.
Quotable Quotes
Sam: If he does the Heimlich on me, he’s
gonna crush me like a piece of rotten fruit.
Dove: Marie,
we get two hundred channels on the damn satellite.
Pick one of them.
ISBN Number
0-425-17351-9
Author’s Notes
Carol states in her acknowledgements that this is probably the last QL
novel.
Info about author
I know Carol has a profile on the Al’s Place message board and has made
posts there. I found a little blub about
her saying she was a schoolteacher on the alibris.com website, and I
found several other books by Carol Davis on e-bay but I’m not positive
they are by the same Carol Davis who wrote Mirror’s Edge.
I couldn’t find anything about Esther Reese outside her
work on Mirror’s Edge.
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