Quantum Jones

Zine
Title:	Quantum Jones
Publisher:	Dapplewood Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Sharon Wells
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1990
Medium:	print
Genre:
Fandom:	Quantum Leap/Indiana Jones
Language:	English
External Links:
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front cover, Sharon Wells

flyer

Quantum Jones is a 97 page crossover novel with Quantum Leap and Indiana Jones. Its subtitle is, "The Search for the Golden Doors."

The Series

It is part of the "Sam Beckett: Man About Time Series":

• Quantum Jones
• Star Leap
• "Double O Sam" (planned for 1992, but never written)

Summary

From FYI Adzine #12:

'Quantum Jones' is an action packed adventure that sends Sam from a sleepy college town to the tower peaks of the Himalayas.

From a flyer:

Sam Beckett has had some pretty strange Quantum Leaps, but this is the weirdest yet! What's this? Sam Beckett has leapt into the body of Indiana Jones? But that can't be? It's before his birth date, and all the rules say it can't happen!

Sam is swept up into an adventure that takes him from Indy's sleepy college town to the snow covered Himalayas in search of the mysterious Golden Doors. Here are some tidbits about his adventure in Quantum Jones - The Search for the Golden Doors· and how Sam deals with high adventure.

Reactions and Reviews

One out of five stars. The first of a series "Sam Beckett, Man About Time", catchy title. This is OK, but takes some liberties with the premise that I don't like very much. Sam is leaped back before 1953, into Professor Indiana Jones in the 1940s. The sole justification for this seems to be so that Sharon can write in a gimmick of Sam and Al seeing each other in black+white, like an old movie. Cute, but unnecessary. The story could easily have been set 10 years later, especially since she makes a major point of Indy not aging, having drunk from the Holy Grail. Al even meets an unchanged Indy in 199?

Imagine someone dying on your doorstep and sending you on an action-packed adventure spanning two continents and into the unknown ... Those of us following the adventures of Indiana Jones are accustomed to this scenario, but disoriented Sam Beckett is not. He is thrown into Jones' body by cosmic forces which want him to find a message only he can see in the Himalayas. If you can handle the slight - ah, glitch in the premise - that Sam has been thrown back into 1944 just before D-Day, then you will enjoy this story. The characters are in character and there are enjoyable plot twists as well as all sorts of intriguing new characters. Sam has dozens of 'quantum quandaries', including the fact that he only perceives AI as black-and-white, and AI perceives him the same. It gives the - ah, episode - a real old-movie flavor, as does Sam's perception of his surroundings, in which he translates real people into movie stars and so forth. Add a complex, intriguing plot, and this was very enjoyable, despite a few inevatible plot holes. But what else is new in either of these shows, which invariably play fast and loose with history, the occult and time travel? This is the first in Sharon's "Sam Beckett: Man About Time" series, and I would recommend it to any "Quantum Leap" or "Indiana Jones" devotees.

I picked up the zine "Quantum Jones: The Search for the Golden Doors." It deals with Indiana Jones where Sam is Jones. Not only did the story portray each character very well the story itself was intriguing. I couldn’t put it down, I recommend buying a copy.

I also have seen a copy, and was not nearly as impressed. In fact, I couldn't force myself past the 20th page, finding the logic severely flawed and the characterization flat and off-center. In the interests of keeping things neutral I have loaned the copy to a impartial third party who will be doing occasional reviews for me, and you should find her opinion in the next issue of TIC. In the meantime, if anyone else is desperate enough for QL fiction to try it.

This is my favorite single QL story of the ones I've read so far. The prose style is accessible and engrossing, the plot works, and the story is full of interesting touches for both QL and Indy fans. Writer Sharon Wells disarms the "continuity cops" (of which I am one) right away by acknowledging, in and out of the story, that Sam isn't supposed to leap to a date before 1953. Sam does it anyway in this stay, and Wells makes it work, and work well, even though we never really get an explanation of how it happened.

I particularly like the odd glitch that develops in the transmissions between Sam and Al, and the way the story is the same kind of erudite, death-defying, fun roller coaster ride as the Indiana Jones movies themselves. I don't much like the interior art, or the big mystical experience that takes place toward the end (gotta have one of those; this is Indiana Jones — sort of!). But even these are pretty decent overall, and the prose is very good also, except for a tendency toward said-bookism ("coached," "encouraged," "exhaled," "breathed," etc.). On the other hand, that's perfectly acceptable, even expected, for a pulp novel, the literary equivalent of the Indiana Jones movies. It works. It all works, and I heartily recommend it.