— Jim Russo
Jim Russo (born in 1980) is an entrepreneur who suffered a great deal, economically, from the discovery of the Long Earth.[1]
Appearance[]
Jim is described as shorter than Monica Jansson, with well-tended brown hair of a suspiciously vivid hue.[2]
The Long Earth[]
Not long after Step Day, Jim Russo, thirty-eight years old, had the idea to go to California and find the exact location on Sutter's Mill where James Marshall had seen gold flakes in 1848, starting the Californian Gold Rush.[1]
Jim stepped until he got to Sutter West 5. He was happy with himself, happy that everything was going as planned until a couple of Steppers appeared and started mocking him, as he wasn't the first one to have this idea. They told him that gold would rapidly be devaluated since almost every Stepper can have access to his own gold mine.
After a bit of taunting, they all stepped away, leaving an angry Jim behind.
In 2025 Jim was fourty-five years old and had been declared bankrupt three times previously. He was in Portage East 3 where he had founded the Long Earth Trading Company, after having mortgaged his own home.[3] He was accused of tying workers of the company up with punitive contracts and going after them with hired muscle if they reneged, which prompted him a visit from MPD Officer Monica Jansson.
Five years later, in 2030, left bitter after a few betrayals and another disappointment, Jim Russo, aged fifty, is now part of the Humanity First movement and gives a share of his wealth to support Brian Cowley in his anti-steppers campaign.[4]
The Long Utopia[]
By 2058, Jim has become too much trouble for the corporation he created and was not wanted around the LETC buildings.[5]