Going in, I knew a fair bit about this story from various sources, and it sounds pretty crazy.
But hearing shit and actually experiencing it are two vastly different things.
So, how will it live up to that hype?
There’s only one way to find out, gang!
This is your official ***SPOILER ALERT***, over 40 years in the making!
I heard about this story years ago and it was described simply as a story about teleportation gone wrong.
Curious, but I didn’t really have any overwhelming drive to seek out and read it based on that description.
Then, at some point last year, Liam O’Brien gave an elevator pitch for it at the top of an ep of 4-Sided Dive that captured my imagination and I knew I needed to read it.
Here’s the story: The Oates family is heading to Mars, via teleportation which is colloquially called The Jaunt, but the dad, Mark, is the only one of the group to have actually made the trip before.
The rest of the family is nervous and the kids, in particular, are asking a lot of questions.
So pops tells them the history of the discovery and development of The Jaunt, and we jump back 300 years through time to see it.
We then follow scientist Victor Carune as he stumbles across the anomaly and tests it out on some mice, with the ones whose brains go through the portal going insane or becoming incredibly violent.
After some experimentation, he finds that sending through mice while conscious leads to madness.
Mark explains to his family that’s why people have to be knocked out to make the Jaunt.
Then we flash back and see a criminal on death row who is promised a full pardon if he takes a Jaunt while conscious, he does and comes through white haired and babbling that “it’s eternity in there” before dying of a heart attack.
This fact isn’t as well known and Mark keeps it from the family.
As Mark finishes his tale, the attendants make their way to the Oates family with the knockout gas and the son, Ricky, holds his breath.
Shit goes beyond sideways from there as it hurtles towards the ending.
I haven’t read a shit ton of Stephen King’s work, but I can tell ya this, gang: I fucking loved this story.
This is a laser focused tale that is so goddamn gripping to the end, where it takes a disturbing turn that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
Is the science of it wonky?
Sure, probably.
But that doesn’t make it any less engrossing or thought provoking.
I read it a week ago and I still can’t stop thinking about the ramifications of instant teleportation taking a potentially years long toll on the mind and, likewise, how much stress that would put on the body.
It’s a twisted slant on time-travel that is a total mind fuck.
This is a story that makes it instantly clear why King has amassed an ever-growing legion of readers.
My biggest complaint thus far with King’s work has consistently been that some of his stories tend to meander a bit away from the point a little too much for my liking.
I feel like his stories are rock solidly good, but with a bit of editing they’d be elevated to greatness.
This needs no work, it’s an absolutely pitch perfect tale, full stop.
Overall: Why this hasn’t been made into a movie yet is incomprehensible to me, weighing in at just 30 pages, in my copy of Skeleton Crew, it feels ripe for the picking.
I think it would be far easier to translate than Dark Tower, IT, and most of his other tomes.
It’s punchy and to the point, with no fat on the bone.
This makes me eager to dive into even more of his work, pronto.
I think I could be the biggest King fan on the planet if all of his work was as streamlined as this.
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And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.
