Hopscotch [Hardcover]

Kevin J. Anderson (Author), Bruce Jensen (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 2002

Suppose you could switch bodies with another person? What exciting new experiences would you choose to explore? What forbidden desires would you indulge? Suppose someone stole your life–how far would you go to get it back?

From New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson comes a pure adrenaline thriller of hijacked identities, elusive motives, and deeply buried secrets–a disturbing, thought-provoking excursion into a sleek, hedonistic society where nothing is your own...not even your soul.

Hopscotch

For a fee, Eduard Swan will swap bodies with people in distress–those facing surgeries, emotional crises, moments of unpleasantness or discomfort they can’t or would rather not deal with. Eduard will experience the suffering for them. It’s a lucrative business, and in a world in which no one is required to feel any pain, there is no end of clients. But someone doesn’t want to play by the rules. Someone doesn’t want to return his body. And, unfortunately for Eduard, that someone is one of the world’s most powerful men. Now Eduard has no choice but to steal back his life.

He has the perfect alibi–or so he thinks. For even in a world where you can hopscotch from body to body, you always leave a trail. And following that trail is a relentless dispenser of “justice” named Daragon, a childhood friend, now a zealous and ambitious agent of state security, who won’t let old friendships stand in the way of doing his duty.

When Eduard goes on the run, hounded at every turn by Daragon, his only hope is two other childhood friends: Garth, a tormented artist who gains success beyond his wildest dreams, only to discover the terrible price of fame; and Teresa, a spiritual seeker who risks losing her own body to a fanatical religious cult as she embarks on a harrowing quest to find her true identity.

Moving from underground hopscotch pleasure bars to the highest enclaves of power to a seamy underworld of illegal Phantoms, ancient minds who steal younger bodies in a quest for eternal life, Eduard and his friends seek the meaning of identity in a society in which appearances mean everything–and nothing–and where everything is relative...even murder.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Hopscotch, evolution has provided humankind with the ability to swap bodies. All this hopscotching creates a corrupt, decadent society where just about anything goes and immortality is just one more body swap away. Bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson follows four twentysomethings: Garth, a driven artist; Eduard, an unfocused roustabout; Teresa, a self-destructive seeker of spiritual solace; and Daragon, a driven G-man who alone is not blessed (or cursed) with the ability to hopscotch. The four make their way through a dizzying reality where only their close friendship can be taken at face value. Daragon's inability to hopscotch results in his knack for revealing the true person behind the face, no matter what the body, a skill that propels him to the top of the Bureau of Tracing and Locations--a many-tentacled organization dedicated to finding people in a world where looks are always deceiving. Daragon's meteoric rise brings his three friends under the omnipresent gaze of his mentor, the novel's antagonist Bureau chief Mordecai Orb--a looming nemesis whose influence eventually corrupts them all.

Anderson, the bestselling author of novels set in the Star Wars and X-File realms, as well as coauthor of Dune: House Corrino, ventures into new territory with this clever premise, which provides a multifaceted backdrop to his foursome's travails, though at times he wanders a little far afield, leaving behind two-dimensional characters whose simple motivations offer little for the reader to care about. --Jeremy Pugh

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Anderson, author of numerous novels set in the Star Wars and X-Files universes, offers a dizzying, body-swapping plot that interlocks four central characters in a constantly shifting maze of confused identities and even more confusing chases upon chases. Emerging from Falling Leaves monastery and the care of motherly female monk Soft Stone, four orphan "Swans" take on the raging hedonism of a society whose absorption in virtual reality triggered the ability to "hopscotch" between bodies. A passion for painting drives talented artist Garth; the search for life's meaning possesses uncertain, questioning Teresa; risk taking impels impulsive Eduard, whose lucrative but risky business is feeling others' pain for them; and calm, reasonable Daragon, who inexplicably cannot hopscotch but who can "see" true identities, joins the powerful Bureau of Tracing and Locations headed by malignant Mordecai Ob, the nemesis who over the years tries to destroy them all. While body hopping makes for strange and improbable bedfellows, the device tends to disrupt the intersecting plot lines as much as the author's often trite dialogue and simplistic motivations. Nonetheless, Anderson poses a question sure to frighten his readers: what if those virtual reality games aren't so innocent after all? The unsettling, kaleidoscopic jacket art perfectly complements the text. (Feb. 4)Corrino (Forecasts, Aug. 20).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; 1St Edition edition (January 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553104748
• ISBN-13: 978-0553104745
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,718,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson has written 46 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's your basic Kevin Anderson novel, July 19, 2005

By 

ZombiKitty "zombikitty" (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hopscotch (Hardcover)

At some point in the future humans learn how to swap bodies with one another, and very few people lack this ability. Sometimes, however, someone will swap with someone else who decides that they don't want to swap back. Against this backdrop, we find five friends who were raised together at an orphanage by monks, and we see how far they are willing to go for one another, blah, blah, blah, blah. The main core of three include an artist, a guy who swaps his body for money with people having surgery or other unpleasant ordeals, and a girl on a major quest to "find herself." The decription of the plot beyond that on the book jacket is inaccurate, by the way.

I enjoyed the book well enough, but I approached it specifically as a Kevin Anderson book: not particularly deep but engaging enough. He didn't explain the mechanics of swapping, and I can get over that, but there are so many other things he could have done with the whole concept of swapping bodies, both logistically and ethically. The characters were endearing enough, though they were essentially walking, talking sterotypes (broad strokes, broad strokes). But I was entertained, and for that I give it 3 stars.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hopscotch is 40 years old, but that's not necessarily bad., April 19, 2002

By 

Rick "cpto" (East Hanover, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hopscotch (Hardcover)

Science Fiction in the 50's and 60s - like most other fiction in the US - was discrete about sex, to say the least. Thomas Bowdler would have found little to expurgate. And that's exactly what struck me the most about Hopscotch. Not its characters or plot (more about that later), but that it is so eminently a 1960s novel. Hopscotch could have extended and completed the work Heinlein tried to do (and failed to do, I think) with "I will fear no evil." But it didn't.

Sex is important. It divides the human race in two, and each half is somewhat alien to the other. Anderson left a dark veil obscuring this difference. There are a few obligatory sex scenes, but nothing that really delves into the difference between man and woman during them. Perhaps that was Anderson's intent, but it leaves a book that will provoke far less honest discussion than it otherwise would have.

It could be that in a world where you can swap your body with another, everyone is so used to it that they slip on others' bodies like clothes from a closet. I have a feeling it wouldn't be quite that simple. Every closet has clothes that don't fit anymore, and every body has reflexes that your mind accepts naturally. When danger is coming, do you jump left or right? Everyone has a primary preference, and these are often reenforced at an early age. What if your body jumps left when your mind subconsciouly expects a jump to the right? And how do you adjust to different weight distributions between the sexes? Sadly, most of the body adaptation area is missing from the book.

Probably the best parts of the book are Anderson's descriptions of Garth's art, and the reaction of those who see it. I couldn't picture the exhibits or pictures in my mind, but I could picture the reaction of those coming out of the exhibits. That's a perfectly valid tool in a novel.

Less perfect are the characters. They just don't jell. They do things, you say "uh-huh," and go on reading. Characters in most novels much face difficulties and react to them. If the characters are fully drawn, the reader will understand - or at least accept - these changes. Changes in Hopscotch do occur, but I never felt comfortable that they were not doing so via the hidden hand of an author trying to keep a story moving along.

Hopscotch is OK, but it never truely condenses into the fine granularity that makes a novel memorable. It's not a bad book for the beach or some other idle time, but it's not worth buying until the paperback comes out. You will like the story better if you approach it with lowered expectations. You will like it least if your expectations are higher.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What happens when people can switch bodies?, February 26, 2002

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hopscotch (Hardcover)

In the not-too-distant future, humans have developed the ability to switch bodies with one another. Since the opportunities for crime are immense where a criminal can simply use another's body, law enforcement has taken on a powerful role and the BTL is a much feared organization. In an orphanage run by monks, three of four friends learn to experience body shifting. One, however, is incapable of shifting bodies but has the unique ability to see the true identity of a person no matter what body she may be wearing. One of the friends, Eduard, takes on jobs switching bodies for money. When one body switch goes horribly wrong, the four friends become caught in a battle between friendship and the law.

Author Kevin J. Anderson's concepts of human ability to shift bodies (hopscotch), as well as that of the semi-sentient computer/human web that monitors all activities, are both interesting and well presented. Anderson's talented writing keeps the reader involved in the story and willing to suspend disbelief. The characters' lack of real motivation, however, undermines the story. Eduard recognizes the futility of proving his innocence and doesn't even try to do so. Garth achieves success as an artist and doesn't know what to do next (although Anderson's descriptions of Garth's frustration with his success and his need to achieve more ring true). Daragon serves to hunt down Eduard, yet doesn't seem especially motivated beyond this. Even Teresa, separated from her body by a brutal cult leader, meanders through much of this novel.

Anderson's writing, and his development of the idea of body-shifting are both capable enough to make HOPSCOTCH enjoyable reading. I found myself wishing that he had done more with his talent and with the basic premise.