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I read a story once about a man who escapes from his pursuers by doing an uncontrolled jump into hyperspace. If I'm not mixing my stories up he was blind but could see through the eyes of other sighted people/animals nearby. He was able to see through his pet but it dies and he thinks he's finished - he's blind and lost in hyperspace but there's a rat on board which he eventually catches by turning off gravity and then he can see through the rat's eyes. He works out how hyperspace operates and can hop back to where he came from.

Can anyone remember the name of the story and the author? I enjoyed it when I was a kid and would like to read it again.

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    The quintessential story about personal teleportation (does the word “jaunt” ring a bell?) is The Stars My Destination. Seeing through other people's eyes reminds me of The Four-Hour Fugue, also by Alfred Bester. Neither involves rats, so I'm probably on the wrong track altogether.
    – user56
    Commented May 29, 2011 at 23:23
  • Thanks, Gilles - I checked both those refs and no luck :( I remember one more thing - he stole a spaceship to do the jump and he took a large chunk of the spaceport's tarmac with him when he jumped.
    – john
    Commented May 30, 2011 at 0:36

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After some significant Google Fu-lery. I've located your novel.

Night Walk

But I know, that doesn't sound like it at all. So here is something from elsewhere:

Bob Shaw's novel Night Walk imagines a system whereby the wormholes' topology is so complex that Earth has been reduced to sending out millions of probes in the hope that some will, by chance, emerge at a comfortable spot. The chain of portals required may be hundreds of jumps long. And the nonlinearity of null-space means that if you stray from the established route, you are lost for ever. When this happens to the novel's protagonist, he makes a heroic effort and -- with the help of a rat he finds on his spaceship -- manages to work out the super-complex topology, enabling him to get home.

I can't imagine a better match for what you described. :)

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