Author: Mark L. Van Name
Cover Artist: Stephen Hickman
Publisher: Baen
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: 2007

One Jump Ahead by Mark Van Name is a wonderful little sci/fi adventure. Funny how I don’t read much sci/fi compared to fantasy and mysteries, but this year, the books I’ve most enjoyed have been in the sci/fi camp. Anyone who likes John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series will love this series by Mark Van Name. I’d say I even liked One Jump Ahead just a bit better because I connected with the main character, Jon Moore, better. The creativity in this book gets extra points–there’s some use of animal characters that I really appreciated. There weren’t many female characters, but those that were in the book were fully developed and not stereotypical.

Jon Moore is an ex-soldier. He takes an odd job now and then, but he has a lot of personal reasons for keeping a low profile. When he gets involved in a simple operation to rescue a kidnapped girl his life gets complicated in a hurry. I guessed some of the plot details from the hints very early on, but it doesn’t spoil the story. It adds a dimension of suspense. As you read, you’re wondering, Am I right? Is this going where I think it is? Uh-oh, getting deeper here. This could turn out badly for the main guy…really badly.

Jon has a couple of unusual abilities that don’t seem at first to be useful, although the quirkiness of them makes them interesting. He can talk to machines—drink machines, washer and dryers…anything plugged into the technology network. Of course, it’s debatable just how much good it does the character to learn what drinks anyone is ordering—the “personalities” and lack of “intelligence” of the machines adds humor to the story. I really enjoyed this aspect.

This is a great adventure with interesting and well-developed characters, including a spaceship AI with a sarcastic personality. I liked that the main character didn’t spend time drowning his sorrows in booze or getting involved with typical bimbos. If I had to nitpick, there was one spot when the main character let his guard down where, frankly, the danger was obvious. Even though it’s a first novel, I deducted points for it, meanie that I am.

Also on the down side, y’all know I really have issues with torture scenes and there was one section that contained such. I’ll give the author points though–it wasn’t overdone; he kept it to the standard hands-off kind of stuff. I still skimmed that section, and I’d have liked it to be shorter, but there was nothing dwelling and it focused mainly on the main characters personal nightmares.

On the plus side there were several spots where the character stopped–and noticed the waves on the beach or the strange beauty of unusual woodwork. This sort of thing added depth to the character and the world building without being intrusive or boring.

For non-sci/fi readers, if you like Frederick Forsyth’s Avenger you’d like this book. Fans of Forsyth that haven’t ventured into sci/fi would do well to start here. Some excellent reconnaissance setups and “infiltration.”

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Topics: Baen, Mark L. Van Name, One Jump Ahead, Stephen Hickman