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.