Saturday, August 5, 1961
Hainerberg, Germany

Wednesday, November 8, 1989
Portland, Oregon

In one week, the Berlin Wall will be built. How does this affect the six-year-old girl, Missy Robicheaux, into whom Sam has leaped? According to Ziggy, Sam isn't there to stop the building of the Wall, but to prevent World War III from beginning over its building.

Summary & review by Dermot Devlin of the former quantumleaping.com:

In this book, Sam leaps into Missy Robicheaux, a six-year-old American girl who is living in Germany at the time the Berlin Wall is erected. She is living in Germany because her father is a Major in the Air Force based in Hainerberg.

Not long after Sam leaps in is he faced with a stressing situation. Missy's mother regularly screams and hits her along with Missy's brother Tom. Sam is being hit now and as he is a child the pain is more that what he usually would feel and he is too small to defend himself. Sam is never felt so scared him his life. What right has any parent to abuse a child in this way?

Not long after arriving Al is there to tell Sam of his mission, he has to prevent World War III from taking place! This isn't another Lee Harvey Oswald situation (not going into detail for people who have not seen the episode). Something Sam has done since he has leaped in has caused WW-III. Sam has not left the kitchen since he first leaped in.

Novel Title:
Author:
ISBN No:

Quantum Leap: The Wall
Ashley McConnell
1-85283-881-7

After long deliberation, Al and Ziggy figure out what Sam's original mission is. Unfortunately it isn't as clear-cut as they would like. It is a 50/50 chance of one mission of the other. In both cases, the end result is preventing a death. Whose death will Sam prevent, Jane Robicheaux, Missy's mother who takes an over dose of prescription drugs and alcohol? Or is it Tom Robicheaux, Missy's brother who dies in a fire after he runs away from home when his mother beats and insults him?

Meanwhile back at Project Quantum Leap, Dr. Beeks has taken on a maternal to Missy. She tries her best to shield Missy from the truth, that she is no longer in her own body, but in the body of a 40-something man forty years in the future. For the first time in Project Quantum Leap's history, she is preventing Al from visiting the person who is occupying Sam's body. Dr. Beeks is worried that all this will have a bad effect on Missy. She feels in a roundabout way, this could be viewed as child abuse by Dr. Sam Beckett, something that Sam would never - could never do.

I found this book very enjoyable, but it would not be up there will some of my favourite Quantum Leap novels. A lot of the book was based in the Robicheaux's kitchen and in the Waiting Room at Project Quantum Leap. Although to the book it was understandable seeing how Missy was six years old and would not be allowed outside on her especially in Germany when the Berlin Wall was about to go up, it did leave some scenes to be played out for too long and some to be repeated again.

I congratulate Ashley O'Connell for writing about child abuse in this novel. I know that this was a topic that Donald P. Bellisario and Scott Bakula wanted to do in the television series, but never got to do because the programme was cancelled in 1995. Apparently it was supposed to feature in the sixth series. Ashley did a very good job of showing the stress and fear that both Sam and Tom felt when their mother, Jane, was near. Also in the Waiting Room is showed how long and hard it could Dr. Beeks to finally get Missy to trust her. At the same time is showed possible reasons why Jane abused the child. Although we felt some sympathy for Jane, we could never condone or forgive her for doing such terrible things to her children.

Although I enjoyed the book very much and would recommend it for all Leapers to read, I would say that if you had a chance to read other Quantum Leap novels before this one, ones like Prelude or Random Measures, you should read them first.

Locations:
Hainerberg, a United States Air Force military housing project near Wiesbaden, Federal Republic of Germany.
Portland, Oregon, USA


Name of the Person Leaped Into:
Melissa Renee "Missy" Robicheaux (age 6 and age 34)


Project Trivia:
» Al can see the auras of Sam and the leapee when in the Imaging Chamber (page 30).

» Al refers to Ziggy as a "he" most of the time, but Sam calls Ziggy a "she". However, both switch back and forth throughout the novel.

» According to this novel, Al and Ziggy are the only two people in the complex can who remember the previous pasts.

» There is an "observation room" that is elevated at the back of the Waiting Room, with stairs going up to it. Usually a technician occupies the post, watching over the visitor. (However, we never saw this in the show.)

» One of the departments at the project is Supply. Somebody named Nonieha told Tina that they stocked clam chowder because Sam liked clam chowder when Tina complained about them not stocking quick-dry spray for her nails.

» There are cameras in the Waiting Room so that the person in the observation deck can see different angles of the visitor.



Sam Trivia:
» Sam has "long, elegant musician's hands".

» One of four of Sam's dead languages is Latin. Two of his seven modern languages are German (pre-established in "Good Night, Dear Heart") and Russian. He even "translated Suetonius for fun as an undergraduate".

» Sam isn't "particulary bulky, but he was quick and fit and well-trained in several martial arts. He'd never lacked courage."

» Sam hates soft-boiled eggs and loves cinnamon toast.

» Between leaping out of 1961 and leaping into 1989, there is an explaination of Sam in the nexus between leaps, including the voice.



Al Trivia:
» Al tells Missy that he "used to be in the Navy". (When did Al ever retire in the show? He even was wearing his naval uniform in "Mirror Image".)

» In August 1961, Al was learning how to fly Phantoms.

» Al opens a Muy Grande cigar on page 164.



Miscellaneous Trivia:
» The Robicheauxs live at 21 ("Einundzeanzig") Texasstrasse in apartment number five.

» Missy was born in August of 1955.

» Missy's name is in "files ranging from the Department of Defense to the KGB" since her father is in the U.S. Air Force.

» Major Steve Robicheaux is assigned to Camp Lindsay in Wiesbaden, Germany.

» According to Missy, Marta doesn't speak very good English or German (page 37).

» On page 42, there is a reference to "Nuclear Family".

» Jane's identical twin sister, Jeanne, died on August 5 (GMT+0100), from a "terrible wreck", quite probably an automobile accident. Her funeral was the following Wednesday. Jane's family resides in the USA.

» The Robicheauxs are Catholic, as Jane, Sam, and Tom attend Mass on Sunday, August 6, 1961 and Jane asks "Father Jacobs to say a Mass for" Jeanne.

» The Robicheauxs own a Chevrolet station wagon, coloured robin's-egg blue.

» Steve Robicheaux and his family had been stationed at Hickam Field in Hawaii (Tom was a baby), Wheelus, and Washington before Hainerberg. They were supposed to be living in Crestview, where the senior officers lived, but they ended up in Hainerberg, which houses both officers and NCOs (non-commissioned officers). Steve is the highest-ranking officer in the building.

» On page 152, there is a reference to "Trilogy I - One Little Heart".

» On page 249, there is a reference to "Lee Harvey Oswald".



Al's Outfits:
» First appearance to Sam (page 24): "natty red suit with a matching scarlet fedora and a Paisley tie that shrieked against a black shirt."

» Third appearance to Sam (page 64): "he was dressed in a relatively conservative striped gray-and-white shirt and matching silvery gray suit."


Author:
Ashley McConnell


Copyright Date:
1993


Regular Characters:
Doctor Samuel Beckett
Two-Star Rear Admiral Albert Calavicci, USN
Doctor Verbeena Beeks
Gushie
Tina Martinez-O'Farrell
Ziggy


Guest Characters:
Missy Robicheaux
Jane Robicheaux
Tom Robicheaux
Major Steve Robicheaux, USAF
Marta
Walt Davis
David Robicheaux
Paul Robicheaux



Regular Character Notes:
» Description of Tina (page 72): "She was dressed in old-fashioned pink baby-doll pajamas, and her red hair was up in huge rollers, and she looked like anything but an expert in computer architecture. Her voice was high and breathy and suffered from vocal pauses, except when she was presenting professional papers."

» Verbeena has a sister named Anisha, who runs an accounting firm. Anisha is married and has two children, who apparently have graduated and gotten married.

» Verbeena is not a good cook.

» Description of Gushie (page 136): "a somewhat overweight man with a thin mustache."



Guest Character Notes:
» Description of Missy Robicheaux in 1961 (page 6): "She was a very pretty little girl. About six, he judged. She had long brown hair, neatly parted and braided, with bangs cut severely across her forehead, and she had lovely violet eyes."

» Description of Jane Robicheaux (page 18): "She was a woman of forty years and average height, not slender and not stocky, her blond hair short and badly permed, her hands red about the knuckles, her dark blue eyes lined, her face ill and tired."

» Description of Tom Robicheaux in 1961 (page 18): "The kid had the same brown hair Missy did, the same violet eyes. He was thin and wiry, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and gray slacks."

» Description of Marta (page 57): "Sam woke the next morning to the sound of a vacuum cleaner next to the bed, and opened his eyes to see a large, square-shaped woman with small, very dark eyes and equally dark hair leaning over the bed. She was wearing a worn, badly made navy blue cotton dress."

» Description of Steve Robicheaux in 1961: "He recognized the man in the blue uniform from the picutre in the bedroom. Steve Robicheaux was tall, thin, athletic, and gave the impression of being at attention even when leaning over to set down his battered leather suitcase..." (pa ge 167-168)
"... and a fleeting glint of shock lit his icy blue eyes for a moment." (page 168)
(On page 80, we finally learn his real name, leaving me baffled at why he was referred to as Frank and Tom previously.)

» Description of Walt: "He was a pale blond boy with nearly invisible eyebrows." (page 107)
"Walt had an ugly grin on his face, not improved by the fact that he'd recently lost a baby tooth in front." (page 111)
"... Walt's blue eyes ..." (page 115)

» Walt "ends up dying of AIDS in about twenty-five years. Contracted from a blood transufsion during some surgery he had in France in the eighties. That tained blood scandal." (page 173)

» Description of Steve Robicheaux in 1989: "He looked up int oa face he had seen before, a face with icy blue eyes netted now in subtle wrinkles, a man tall, thin, athletic, who gave the impression of being at attention even when holding a glass of wine." (page 236)

» Description of Missy Robicheaux in 1989: "It was a fine-boned hand, unadorned by jewelry. The nails were neatly trimmed and unpolished." (page 236)
"Missy had grown up, too, to be a very pretty woman, perhaps five feet, three inches tall. Her hair was short now, brushed back in a style reminiscent of one of Princess Di's, and she wore low-key make-up and delicate gold earrings. She was dressed in a maroon business suit and a white blouse with a frill of lace at the throat. ... Missy's neck was swanlike." (page 238)

» Description of Tom Robicheaux in 1989: "Another man, also tall, thin, and athletic, but a generation younger..." (page 236)

» Missy grew up to become a certified hypnotherapist with a practice in Los Angeles, and is unmarried.

» Tom became an electrical engineer. He is divorced from his wife Jessica and has custody of their twin sons David and Paul, whom he brought to Jane's funeral. "Tom and the kids came in from Omaha." (page 241)

» Description of David and Paul Robicheaux (page 252-253): "David and Paul were about seven, too old to perceive him as Sam Beckett; he greeted them gravely. They both had violet eyes and dark brown hair, family traits shared by their father and aunt. In their case, their hair was slicked back hard, still showing the furrows of combs, and they were identically dressed in blue suits, miniature versions of their father's."



Characters who appeared in the QL television episodes:
Just the regular characters from above.


Personal Review:
This has to be one of the, well, strangest of the Quantum Leap novels that I have read so far. Overall, I'm not extremely fond of McConnell's writing style (at least in this novel). Some of her sentences are way too short and then there are others that run on far too long. Additionally, she re-uses some phrases two or three times in almost identical manners. Sometimes the re-use is good, but for the most part it just seems like a lack of imagination on how to re-write it. The text is also plagued with errors, as pointed out in the Mistakes section below. I don't know how the editor could have overlooked some of them, but errors do seep through (I know from personal experience of working for five years on my high-school yearbooks).

Overall, the story itself is a very controversial one: child abuse. I could see the television series itself would have had troubles getting an episode based on the novel aired. It's an intruiging story to read, seeing the abuse happen and how the children end up growing up 28 years later. It seems in the beginning that Sam is there to stop World War III from beginning and prevent Jane Robicheaux from continuing to abuse her children. What a leap! It turns out that the only reason World War III became a possibility was because Sam had leaped into Missy in the first place. By helping Marta, he immediately stopped the WWIII possibility.

After that, he has to chose between saving Jane or saving Tom. Why not save both? That's what he does. It seems simple enough, but for some reason, it's written as though it's an impossibility, at least at first. He basically stops the abuse since Jane goes into therapy for 12 years, but the twist is that he has to stop Tom from starting to physically abuse his twin sons, leaping back into Missy in 1989.

Having leaped into 1961 with the Berlin Wall going up and then 1989 with the fall of the Wall is a really neat historical aspect of this story as well. I also liked one small line on page 210: Al paused. "Verbeena, couldn't Ziggy show her something? Captain Planet or something?"
"Captain Kangaroo, perhaps," Ziggy said firmly. "It's from that period."» Dean Stockwell supplied a voice on "Captain Planet". I suspect that McConnell was aware of that fact!

This novel is a great QL story, fitting in well with the rest of the QL universe. However, I don't feel McConnell has a great grasp on the characters of Sam and Al, at least not compared to the original TV series and the fan-fiction that I have read, as well as the other novels I've read. There are certain things that they say or do that just don't fit with the characters pre-established in the television series.

I did enjoy the presence of Verbina Beeks. She's one character that I wish had been used more when they began showing more of Project Quantum Leap at the end of the series. The unfortunate thing is, her lines were cut out of "The Leap Back"! Oh to find the remains on the cutting-room floor!

I found the absence of Donna and Sammy Jo to be unsettling. This novel is copyrighted 1993, and even mentions "Trilogy I" and "Lee Harvey Oswald", so I find it surprising that even if they didn't have a minor role that their names aren't mentioned. Most of the PQL scenes were Al and Verbina discussing the leap, or Verbina in the Waiting Room with Missy. There were some other cases of blatant ignorance, such as how the Imaging Chamber and Waiting Room look, some of which was pre-established in "The Leap Back".

Wrapping this up, I must say it's a great novel to read, even if you aren't a QL fan. I give it a 7.5/10.



Best Line:
» Page 70:
"Things as big as nuclear wars," Al said firmly, "take the cumulative actions of individuals to start. And the cumulative actions of individuals to stop. One person can stop the cumulation."



Best Scene:
In my opinion, the final scene is the best. We have Sam invoking Tom's memories of Jane's abuse, and Steve is right there to see the re-enactment, still denying anything bad ever happened.



Worst thing about the novel:
I'd have to say the typographical, grammatical, capitalizational, and punctuational mistakes are the most off-putting, being the fact that this is a novel and not an audio/video version. Story-wise, I think some of the inconsistencies take away from the main story (such as Al not knowing who Walt was and Steve Robicheaux's three first names).



What the heck?:
» Shortforms used: "PX", "NCO", "G.A.O.", "MAC", "MP". The author shouldn't assume that everybody knows what these stand for, since they weren't used in dialogue. (PX = a complex where military personnel and their families go for supplies; NCO = non-commissioned officer; MP = military police)

» "Milking machines were a bitch to clean." "She's fu*king insane!" Do you really think that Sam Beckett would use these phrases?

» Where was Donna? Where was Sammy Jo?

» How did Al know Walt's name?
Page 108: "We want to see your panties," the blond boy sneered.
"Oh, no," Al groaned. "This is Walt Davis, Sam. He's bad news."

» How does Ziggy know the intricate details of Marta's departure?
Page 124: "Ziggy says that she finishes the dishes, goes down to her room, packs, and disappears. Nobody ever hears from her again."

» Sam spills his drink twice in the novel, once early on (a glass of milk), and the second time at dinner with the major (a glass of water). This is one of many repeated phrases/situations that don't seem to be cleverly reworked.

» Why would Al need to ask about hesitation of the name Walt? He already knew how Walt treated Missy: he witnessed it!
Page 209: "Walt's shed," Missy replied. "He likes to go play with Walt." There was the slightest possible hesitation when she mentioned the name. Al made a mental note of it. He would have to ask Sam if there was any meaning to it. And Ziggy, who was being suspiciously silent. The computer had undoubtedly scanned its banks for the name "Walt" among all American dependents resident in Wiesbaden in 1961, and narrowed down the identity to a specific individual, already; it might even be able to speculate about the reason for the hesitation.



Quotable Quotes:
» Page 5: And the emotional reaction was easy to identify. Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, he decided it was anger.
Never, in the opinion of a good-natured quantum physicist, a very constructive emotion; one he had always felt faintly ashamed of. But this was one of those rare occasions when even Sam Beckett felt anger was fully justified. With a muttered curse, he let fly with a spinning kick at thin air.
And landed on his rump, tangled in a rag rug.
He'd been right the first time. Anger was not a constructive emotion.

» Page 14: you could take the physicist out of Indiana, but you couldn't take the farm boy out of the physicist.

» Page 19:
"Major Robicheaux's quarters, Tom speaking, may I help you?" he recited breathlessly. Sam blinked. So Missy's brother was named Tom. Sam's own older brother was named Tom, too. Interesting coincidence. And this was Major Robicheaux's quarters. And a ten-year-old answered the telephone in a way that would put many a professional secretary to shame.

» Page 21: His idolized older brother Tom, the Vietnam vet, had... survived the war? Been killed? In one version of the past, Tom had died. But he thought he had a wisp of memory of being the best man at his older brother's wedding, and if that were so, Tom must have lived. He remembered Leaping into a member of his brother's squad. He thought he saved him. Had he really? Did Tom die later?
He never knew when he changed things if they stayed changed or not. Maybe that was why he kept on Leaping—to get the past nailed down the way it was supposed to be.
Supposed to be for what? So that Sam Beckett could get several doctorates, and design a hybrid, neurocell computer named Ziggy? Why did he do that? So that he could Leap into past lives and straighten things out so that he could get several doctorates, and....
It was circular logic, and it offended him.
The only explaination he'd ever been halfway happy with was that the timeline that contained Sam Beckett wasn't as real as the ones he Leaped into and changed. He was making himself possible. Making some specific event possible, possibly something besides the creation of Ziggy. Maybe he'd created Ziggy to correct something that had gone wrong in his own past. Tom's death, maybe?
If Tom was still alive, and Sam was still Leaping, it meant that there was something else. And he couldn't remember what it might be, or even if there was anything at all.
Every time he Leaped, he was supposed to change something, put something "right." Fix a disaster, however minor or major, in someone's life. He had it down to a science now: he Leaped; shortly thereafter Al popped in with the link to Ziggy the computer and told him what Ziggy thought was supposed to change; he changed it, and he Leaped again. Except when Ziggy was wrong, of course, which happened more often than not.
But change had to be made. He and Al had speculated that success had nothing to do with whether he Leaped or not, but if he wasn't supposed to change something, what was the point of Leaping at all? Or he might try and fail, and Whoever or Whatever was controlling the Leaps might send him somewhere Else to try again. If that was so, then there did ineed have to be a Plan, a Final Purpose to his dizzying journey through the last forty-some years of history. And every failuter meant even more Leaps until whatever, in the greater scheme of things, finally got straightened out, and he could go back to being Sam Beckett in Sam Beckett's body and Sam Beckett's time. He wanted to go home.

» Page 24:
He wondered whose Plan it really was, who decided what this time he needed to be six years old and female in order to fix whatever it was. God's? Fate's? Ziggy's? Sheer random chance? No; if it were chance, he wouldn't have to change anything in order to Leap again. There had to be some reason, some design to all this.
Most dreadful possibility of all, was it really his <i>own</i> design, and he had programmed Ziggy to do this to himself?
What was so terribly wrong with Sam Beckett's life that he would take it upon himself to change the universe? As far as he knew, or remembered, he wasn't an egomaniac to that scale, casually altering other people's lives to fit what <i>he</i> wanted. Was he?

» Page 35:
"I used to be in the Navy," Al confided. "I was an admiral."
Instant skepticism lit the wide eyes. Like any military brat, she knew rank, and the man in front of her didn't look like an admiral. Admirals didn't wear red suits. Only Santa Claus wore a red suit.

» Page 39:
"I should have done something about the Waiting Room before," she muttered. "Every time I think, why didn't we dres up this place a little bit? Why does everything have to be blue and white? Some calico curtains, something in green, would be so nice—"
"Ten stories underground?" Al was completely lost. "Why would you want curtains underground?"
"Never mind, Al."

» Page 52:
It was a boy's body. She knew that. Her brother Tom showed her once how boys looked different. But when she needed to go to the little girl's room, it felt just about the same. She could aim better, though. That was interesting. She played with that for a while, and then she didn't want to go any more and the nurse lady came in and wanted her to take a pill. She didn't want to, though. Mommy took pills a lot. So they gave her a puzzle book instead. That was fun too.
The lady up in the little room was talking to a knob on a stick, sneaking looks at Missy when she thought Missy wasn't watching. The lady was probably talking about her, Missy deduced.

» Page 53:
The Negro lady in the white coat was a doctor, Missy thought, even though she'd never seen a Negro doctor before. She said her name was "Dr. Beeks." Like a bird's beak. Missy had never seen a lady doctor either. She didn't give shots, though, so maybe she wasn't a doctor at all. She asked lots and lots and <i>lots</i> of questions, and sometimes she stuck things on Missy's head and there were wires and a machine that lit up. Her hair was shorter than it used to be. She reached up to feel and the lady in the little room started talking to the stick again. Missy waited. Sometimes things happened when the lady talked to the stick. Sometimes they didn't, but it was fun to watch. Nothing happened this time, though, so Missy just kept on watching to see what she would do next.
That lady had dark hair and dark eyes, like Marta, but she wasn't fat like Marta. Missy wanted to go up into the little room and look around, see if maybe the lady put everything away the way Marta did. Dr. Beeks wanted to know if Missy was going to make her bed, but that was what Marta did.

» Page 54: She thought the man might have been an admiral, even if he dressed funny. Sometimes Daddy didn't wear his uniform too, but he never wore clothes like that. But admirals were Navy, and Daddy said the Navy did funny things, so maybe they had funny civvie clothes.

» Page 75:
"In one sense, Dr. Beckett is independent of us, and the changes he makes are real changes. He could, therefore, end the world. Or prevent the world from ending." Ziggy was fretting now. The psychologist could hear the strain in its voice. "He—and I extrapolate we, though I'm not certain about this—exists independently of the original history. He can change the past—any of the pasts—because none of them are really his own."

» Page 76:
"I'm not certain I understand it either," Ziggy admitted. "The whole concept of time travel is stricly science fiction. It doesn't really make sense at all."

» Page 119:
"They're kids, after all. Kids think that whatever their circumstances are, they're normal. They don't have the experience to know any different."
Sam shot him a glance. Al had said things, from time to time, about his own youthful "circumstances." Sam wondered if the Observer really grew up thinking he was in a normal environment. An orphanage, pool halls, theatre...
Of course, being Al, he would have fled anything resembling a normal life anyway. Al was the type to fill life's cup brim full, slurp it down, and look for a chaser.

» Page 125:
He wished sometimes that it had been his body that Leaped, not just his mind, or soul, or awareness, or whatever it was. It would certainly be convenient in terms of situations like this one.
On the other hand, it would have been hell finding Bermuda shorts to fit.
Maybe in some other timeline it had happened that way, and somehow the clothing problem was solved, but he was in <i>this</i> timeline and had to cope with its limitations.

» Page 127:
Al nodded. "They'd set up pontoon bridges across the Rhine and other rivers, and the military personnel would report for duty. Their wives had two hours to corral the kids and throw everything they were allowed to take into their cars and get to the rendezvous points."
"Over pontoon bridges?" Sam asked incredulously, trying to imagine his mother, Thelma Beckett, driving the Robicheaux station wagon across a pontoon bridge.

» Page 130-131:
"I don't think I do." Sam rarely got angry, but when he did it went deep and stayed hot. Usually, the things that got him angry were things that got to Al too—blatent injustice, cruelty to the helpless, senseless waste. Every once in a while, though, the two hit something on which they disagreed on the most basic level. In such cases, oddly enough it was usually the normal peaceful Sam who got angry at Al, rather than the other way around. Al might get excited and wave his arms and yell, but he rarely, very rarely, truly lost his temper at Sam.

» Page 132:
Verbeena was the only person Al had ever told about the shifts in history—the different pasts that he and Ziggy could remember. Verbeena was always a part of their present, and the past she recalled was always the most recent one as if it had always been, but she was a good listener.
... ...
Usually, the changes were very small, sometimes hardly noticeable. The professional aspects—Verbeena being the Project psychologist, Gushie being chief programmer, Al as administrative director and Observer—never seemed to change, perhaps because they were so necessary to Ziggy's functioning. But the personal relationships were subject to flux. This time, Tina and Gushie were married. Since Tina was the current love of Al's life, this made things difficult.

» Page 164: (Al)
"I wish we knew what keeps him from just Leaping back. It's like some kind of wall he can't get over. It's nuts"
"There's something he has to do," Tina said, with an assurance none of the rest of them felt. "When he does that, then he can come home."

» Page 252:
He was Sam Beckett. If Leaping had taught him anything, it was that the important thing was the person you were inside, not outside. It was the person inside who counted. IT really didn't matter if you were male or female, black or red or white, a super-genius or mildly retarded; what mattered was the kind of human being you were. It was, he sometimes thought, the whole point of Quantum Leaping.

» Page 267: "... the fall of the Wall. He could remember being involved in conversations like that, years ago, when he worked on Star Bright."




Mistakes:
Everything that I have transcibed from the novel to this summary is exactly as it is printed in the novel (whenever possible). Below are the mistakes that I found while reading the book.

» Page 1: The heading says "Saturday, August 4, 1961", but August 4 was a Friday.

» Page 7: Single quotation marks are used when Sam speaks here, but the book uses double quotation marks everywhere else ('Oh, boy,' he said.).

» Page 14/112: The words "national anthem" should not be capitalised, since all national anthems have an actual name.

» Page 24: "six years old" should be "six-years old".

» Page 26: Al calls Missy's father "Major Frank Robicheaux".

» Page 26: Sam says that he's never leaped to Europe before. He was in England in "Blood Moon", although this remark may have been written into the novel before the episode aired.

» Page 32: ..."and pushed the handlink control that opened the Door back into the Accelerator.
The Imaging Chamber of Project Quantum Leap looked the same as it always did, an octagonal white room with glowing panels set into the walls."
First of all, why would Al exit the Imaging Chamber into the Accelerator, since we know that the entrance to both rooms come from the Control Room (seen in "The Leap Back")?
Secondly, the Imaging Chamber is BLUE, and so is the Waiting Room. Thirdly, the Imaging Chamber doesn't look octagonal in the show; it should be circular because of the radium accelerator ring mentioned in "The Leap Back".

» Page 33: Ziggy says, "Dr. Beeks is concerned about the possible psychic damage the child": Why, is Al going to read the visitor's mind or something? The word "psychic" should probably be "psychological".

» Page 36: "the ID cars issued in the late nineties.": "cars" should be "cards".

» Page 36: "The Robicheaux's cards": should be "Robicheauxs'", since it refers to both Steve and Jane.

» Page 45: "Tom Robicheaux is not going to leave his post for anything short of Missy's dying. And possibly not even then." This is Steve Robicheaux's second name before even being called Steve.

» Page 47: We see the return of the single quotation versus double quotation: ' "Yes, ma'am," ' Al warned him.

» Page 69: "Ziggy says Tom Robicheaux has the plans in his briefcase": once again, Steve is called Tom.

» Page 137: "He didn't actually "go" anywhere when he looked in on Sam; that was the maddening part. He just walked up the ramp, through the airlock and into the Imaging Chamber, and called on Ziggy to trigger the link created by the shared neural network on Ziggy's biochips. In less thatn the blink of an eye, he was "there," wherever Sam was, sharing his perceptions of his surroundings, his consciousness catapulted back to whatever time Sam's was Leaped to. Ziggy had created the "Door" to the Imaging Chamber as a concession to both Sam and Al, so that they'd have a cognitive marker for the transition between the Accelerator part of the Project's Imaging Chamber and wherever Sam was, but it wasn't real."
[We see in "The Leap Back" that the ICD is indeed real, and it separate from the Accelerator Chamber.]

» Page 177: "Sam, nursing the pain of her bruised face and shoulder, ..." [Sam got a sex change?]

» Page 229: "How much more abuse did Missy and her brothers have to put up with ...": Missy had only one brother!

» Page 253: "Something about them echoed the mirror-portrait of their grandmother and great-aunt, who were twins as well. Twinning skipped a generation, as Sam recalled.": Twins _may_ skip a generation, but only concerning the maternal line (i.e. this rationalisation is completely wrong here).

» Back Cover: "six-year-old-girl" should be "six-year-old girl".

» I think that Missy's middle name is supposed to be "Renée", with the accent on the second 'e', given the French name of Robicheaux. (page 8)

» "Gushie" should be spelled "Gooshie", as it is the more common spelling in the scripts and the personal preference of Dennis Wolfberg.

» "Verbeena" is a tricky name since there are so many spellings out there, and from what we know, "Virbina" was how it was spelled in the script for "The Leap Back".


Historical Information:
I have located Texasstrasse as a street in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. It's probably safe to say that Hainerberg was annexed by Wiesbaden. See this link.
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Information About the Author:
Ashley McConnell has written many other QL novels.


Acknowledgments:
The author gratefully acknowledges the support and assitance of Kathryn Ptacek and suggstions and support from Anna Nusbaum, Phyllis Linam, Bill Davis and other habitués of Genie, and Lynn from Northgate Technical Support. In addition, she would like to express a debt of gratitude to her mother, who never, ever threw anything away. This one is yours, Mom.


Author's Note:
The American housing development of Hainerberg, Germany, is a real place. Street names in Hainerberg did consist of street names combined with the German word for "street"—thus, "Texasstrasse" is a real streat, and the apartment building described did (and still may) exist. American dependents living in Hainerberg and elsewhere in the Federal Republic of Germany in the late fifties and early sixties did keep bags packed and ready in case international tensions exploded and evacuation was required on short notice.

The author is not, however, aware of any actual evacuatino alert or drill taking place in Wiesbaden on the date, or during the time period, described. The Robicheaux is fictional, and any resemblance to any real family living in Hainerberg at that time or at that address is purely coincidental.

The quotations which head the chapters are either from actual documents provided by the American military to its dependents, or from the public record of the time.


Summary from the Back Cover:
WHEN YOU'RE UP AGAINST THE WALL, LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK...

Germany, 1961. A rigid world of dangerous politics and strife. The Berlin Wall is under construction. And Dr. Sam Beckett has leaped into the life of a six-year-old-girl...

As Missy, he feels small and helpless. What can a child do to alter the fate of Germany and the world? Sam is about to find out-when he leaps again...into the adult Missy...

On the day the Wall comes tumbling down.

QUANTUM LEAP
THE WALL

Also published by Boxtree:
QUANTUM LEAP: TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
QUANTUM LEAP: CARNY KNOWLEDGE
THE MAKING OF QUANTUM LEAP


Publisher:
Boxtree Limited


Cost:
£3.99


ISBN:
1-85283-881-7


UPC:
9 781852 838812 >


Information Page:
Quantum Leap: The Wall, a novel by Ashley McConnell, based on the Universal television series QUANTUM LEAP, created by Donald P. Bellisario.

First published in the UK in 1993 by Boxtree Limited, Broadwall House, 21 Broadwall, London SE1 9PL

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4

Copyright © 1993 by MCA Publishing Rights, a Division of MCA, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cover art by Keith Birdsong

ISBN: 1 85283 881 7

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman

Phototypeset by Intype, London

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library