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Ultraviolet: A Cyberpunk Thriller
Can one girl genius save an entire city from a corrupt megacorporation?
In Carmen Zhao's dystopian Baltimore, people can make everything from designer clothes to high-end electronics, right in their own homes using their personal 3D printers. But this has left the city torn between the wealthy elites and the masses forced to work in scrap heaps and recycling plants. Luckily for Carmen, she's on her way to a better life with a rare college degree and a plush office job ...until she gets fired.
Down but not out, Carmen invents something of her a cyberpunk suit that can bend ordinary light into extraordinary machines and weapons. Now as the superhero vigilante "Ultraviolet", she hits the streets to protect her family and friends from spying drones and company thugs, with a little help from a handsome new friend. But when she sees how far the mega-corporations are willing to go to take away everyone's freedoms, Carmen leads a techno revolution that will change her world forever.
Amazon Science Fiction, Superheroes, Cyberpunk, Technothriller, Dystopian, Teen, Young Adult
In Carmen Zhao's dystopian Baltimore, people can make everything from designer clothes to high-end electronics, right in their own homes using their personal 3D printers. But this has left the city torn between the wealthy elites and the masses forced to work in scrap heaps and recycling plants. Luckily for Carmen, she's on her way to a better life with a rare college degree and a plush office job ...until she gets fired.
Down but not out, Carmen invents something of her a cyberpunk suit that can bend ordinary light into extraordinary machines and weapons. Now as the superhero vigilante "Ultraviolet", she hits the streets to protect her family and friends from spying drones and company thugs, with a little help from a handsome new friend. But when she sees how far the mega-corporations are willing to go to take away everyone's freedoms, Carmen leads a techno revolution that will change her world forever.
Amazon Science Fiction, Superheroes, Cyberpunk, Technothriller, Dystopian, Teen, Young Adult
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 23, 2014
2 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Robert Lewis
68 books97 followersJoseph R. Lewis enjoys creating worlds in which history, mythology, and fantasy collide in unpredictable ways. He also likes writing about heroines that his daughters can respect and admire. Joe was born in Annapolis and went to the University of Maryland to study ancient novels, morality plays, and Viking poetry.
www.josephrlewis.com
www.josephrlewis.com
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 17, 2014
A Superhero Straight out of the Occupy Movement
(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Member Giveaway program. Also, minor spoilers below.)
Sixteen-year-old Carmen Reyes Zhao should have been on top of the world. Not a year out of college and just two months after being canned from her lucrative engineering job at 3D printer megacorp Cygnus, Carmen invented something big. Like change-the-world big. Instead of stumbling all over themselves to rehire Carmen, her former bosses are chasing her down. Carmen not only unwittingly violated the Corporate Espionage Act by continuing her research after she was fired from Cygnus - but her invention is so revolutionary that it poses a serious threat to Cygnus's monopoly on, well, everything.
In Ultraviolet, Lewis imagines a dystopia that's so chilling precisely because it feels so real and believable - so terribly possible. The advent of 3D printers led to 30% unemployment in just a few years. Since most people can manufacture their own goods at the push of a printer button, the bulk of blue collar jobs are in garbage and recycling for the feedstock industries - dirty and dangerous work. High school ends early so that kids can go to work at fifteen. Only a "lucky" few teenagers attend college, and those who do don't waste time on "frivolous" subjects like humanities and the social sciences. The turnaround time on an engineer? Six months.
Unsurprisingly, the American government has been bought and paid for by a handful of uber-rich corporations, which craft laws and shape morality to protect their own selfish interests (money, power, market shares). Businesses like Cygnus have a vested interest in keeping people poor, uneducated, and dependent on their products. When Carmen figures out how to turn light (a free resource, as opposed to Cygnus's expensive feedstock) into physical objects, Cygnus claims ownership of her hologram projection suit so that it can bury the tech - and Carmen, in a federal prison. Luckily, she's got an entire armory at her fingertips. Literally. (My favorite is the over-the-top sword and armor based on designs from a video game, Gyroware's Demon Age 3. Lewis has an uncanny sense of pop culture trends, which makes Ultraviolet all the more fun.)
Overnight, Carmen joins the ranks of other criminal scientists. We meet Felix, another ex-Cygnus employee who discovered a new, less expensive kind of aluminum, and was swiftly fired for his ambition, as well as the mythical Dean, who created his own game changer, a recycling machine that spits out feedstock for free. Too bad Carmen and her peers were unlucky enough to be born into a country where inventing tools to help the starving masses lift themselves out of poverty is frowned upon, rather than lauded. (Spoiler alert: in this world, it's America that's backwards. Everyone else already has access to organic printers that make food out of dirt and grass, and has had for four years.) With a little help from Felix and her growing fan base, Carmen sets out to take on not just Cygnus, but the system itself.
Exciting, original, and fast-paced, Ultraviolet is a highly enjoyable read - and one with a distinctly anti-capitalist bent. It's hard to watch more than just a few minutes of Fox News - the utter contempt for the working poor, the defense of corporate welfare, and the demands to treat corporations as people, except when it comes to punishing them for criminal activity - and not think of Cygnus and its ilk. When Carmen and Felix set up camp in an abandoned Baltimore suburb, the Occupy Our Homes movement sprang to mind. Millions of people eking out a miserable existence while the one percent gets rich and then richer and then obscenely, unfathomably rich. Ultraviolet is the best kind of science fiction - one that challenges existing power structures and entreats the reader to imagine a different way of life.
And oh, how it turns American nationalism on its head! Presumably at the megacorps' request, the American government has closed the internet, thus blocking citizen access to potentially revolutionary information: Carmen's hologram projector, Dean's recycler, and the much-coveted food printer. Whereas citizens from Canada ("I hear the Mounties shoot Yankees on sight now") to Nigeria are independent and self-sufficient, acquiescence to corporate demands have all but ruined America. Yup, we're still exceptional in this 'verse - but here, American exceptionalism is a mark of shame.
Ultraviolet features a remarkably diverse cast. Carmen was born to a Chinese American father and a Latina mother; while she speaks Spanish, her inability to pick up Cantonese from dad is commented upon in passing. Best friend Mercedes ("Mercy") Ortiz is also Latina, and Felix may be read as Latino as well. (His last name is James, but he's described as having thick, curly black hair.) This doesn't seem like a lot, but the main cast of characters is rather small: Carmen, Felix, Agent Frost, Brian, Mercedes, and Dom.
In the "About the Author" page, Lewis says that he "likes writing about heroines that his daughters can respect and admire, characters who blaze their own paths with bright minds and unbreakable spirits." (Parenting, you're doing it right!) In Carmen and Ultraviolet, Lewis has most definitely succeeded. Carmen is a complex and realistic character. She's flawed, doesn't always look before she leaps, and at least initially is content to play the game in order to ensure the safety of her friends and family. Over the course of the story Carmen grows and matures; she begins to imagine a brighter future not just for her and her own, but for all of humanity. Though she's willing to fight the powers that be, she's plagued by self-doubt: is it possible to fight monsters without becoming a monster yourself?
There's even an especially awesome scene wherein Carmen bests would-be street harassers with her giant ultraviolet sword. Can I get a Hollaback! Baltimore?
The romance between Carmen and Felix is a bit awkward, but in a good way. A realistic and believable way. I hope those crazy kids make it. (The sexy scenes are a PG-13 at most. Pretty tame stuff. Ditto the violence, which frequently veers towards the cartoonish.)
I even love the chapter titles, which are mostly based on industry terms and marketing lingo ("Acquisitions," "Cold Calling," "Early Adopters"). They give little of the plot away yet still manage to impart a sense of story progression.
On the downside, I did find several editing errors (mostly the wrong tense), but nothing egregious. There are also a few plot holes - Isn't Cygnus able to track Carmen's debit card? What about Felix's stolen ID badge? And is any company dumb enough to house all its data in one place, without any off-site backups? - but nothing I wasn't willing and able to overlook. The optimistic, even utopian ending is probably the single most unrealistic part of the story. Still, it fits. Anything else would have felt wrong.
Ultraviolet is my first Joseph Robert Lewis book, but it won't be my last. The dude can write, and I am a sucker for science fiction and fantasy featuring kickass heroines.
First line: "It's easy to remember the day when my whole life changed because that's the day people started shooting at me."
Favorite line: "Africa is not a country, people."
Tearjerkiest line: "This is a new world."
http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/03/26/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Member Giveaway program. Also, minor spoilers below.)
Sixteen-year-old Carmen Reyes Zhao should have been on top of the world. Not a year out of college and just two months after being canned from her lucrative engineering job at 3D printer megacorp Cygnus, Carmen invented something big. Like change-the-world big. Instead of stumbling all over themselves to rehire Carmen, her former bosses are chasing her down. Carmen not only unwittingly violated the Corporate Espionage Act by continuing her research after she was fired from Cygnus - but her invention is so revolutionary that it poses a serious threat to Cygnus's monopoly on, well, everything.
In Ultraviolet, Lewis imagines a dystopia that's so chilling precisely because it feels so real and believable - so terribly possible. The advent of 3D printers led to 30% unemployment in just a few years. Since most people can manufacture their own goods at the push of a printer button, the bulk of blue collar jobs are in garbage and recycling for the feedstock industries - dirty and dangerous work. High school ends early so that kids can go to work at fifteen. Only a "lucky" few teenagers attend college, and those who do don't waste time on "frivolous" subjects like humanities and the social sciences. The turnaround time on an engineer? Six months.
Unsurprisingly, the American government has been bought and paid for by a handful of uber-rich corporations, which craft laws and shape morality to protect their own selfish interests (money, power, market shares). Businesses like Cygnus have a vested interest in keeping people poor, uneducated, and dependent on their products. When Carmen figures out how to turn light (a free resource, as opposed to Cygnus's expensive feedstock) into physical objects, Cygnus claims ownership of her hologram projection suit so that it can bury the tech - and Carmen, in a federal prison. Luckily, she's got an entire armory at her fingertips. Literally. (My favorite is the over-the-top sword and armor based on designs from a video game, Gyroware's Demon Age 3. Lewis has an uncanny sense of pop culture trends, which makes Ultraviolet all the more fun.)
Overnight, Carmen joins the ranks of other criminal scientists. We meet Felix, another ex-Cygnus employee who discovered a new, less expensive kind of aluminum, and was swiftly fired for his ambition, as well as the mythical Dean, who created his own game changer, a recycling machine that spits out feedstock for free. Too bad Carmen and her peers were unlucky enough to be born into a country where inventing tools to help the starving masses lift themselves out of poverty is frowned upon, rather than lauded. (Spoiler alert: in this world, it's America that's backwards. Everyone else already has access to organic printers that make food out of dirt and grass, and has had for four years.) With a little help from Felix and her growing fan base, Carmen sets out to take on not just Cygnus, but the system itself.
Exciting, original, and fast-paced, Ultraviolet is a highly enjoyable read - and one with a distinctly anti-capitalist bent. It's hard to watch more than just a few minutes of Fox News - the utter contempt for the working poor, the defense of corporate welfare, and the demands to treat corporations as people, except when it comes to punishing them for criminal activity - and not think of Cygnus and its ilk. When Carmen and Felix set up camp in an abandoned Baltimore suburb, the Occupy Our Homes movement sprang to mind. Millions of people eking out a miserable existence while the one percent gets rich and then richer and then obscenely, unfathomably rich. Ultraviolet is the best kind of science fiction - one that challenges existing power structures and entreats the reader to imagine a different way of life.
And oh, how it turns American nationalism on its head! Presumably at the megacorps' request, the American government has closed the internet, thus blocking citizen access to potentially revolutionary information: Carmen's hologram projector, Dean's recycler, and the much-coveted food printer. Whereas citizens from Canada ("I hear the Mounties shoot Yankees on sight now") to Nigeria are independent and self-sufficient, acquiescence to corporate demands have all but ruined America. Yup, we're still exceptional in this 'verse - but here, American exceptionalism is a mark of shame.
Ultraviolet features a remarkably diverse cast. Carmen was born to a Chinese American father and a Latina mother; while she speaks Spanish, her inability to pick up Cantonese from dad is commented upon in passing. Best friend Mercedes ("Mercy") Ortiz is also Latina, and Felix may be read as Latino as well. (His last name is James, but he's described as having thick, curly black hair.) This doesn't seem like a lot, but the main cast of characters is rather small: Carmen, Felix, Agent Frost, Brian, Mercedes, and Dom.
In the "About the Author" page, Lewis says that he "likes writing about heroines that his daughters can respect and admire, characters who blaze their own paths with bright minds and unbreakable spirits." (Parenting, you're doing it right!) In Carmen and Ultraviolet, Lewis has most definitely succeeded. Carmen is a complex and realistic character. She's flawed, doesn't always look before she leaps, and at least initially is content to play the game in order to ensure the safety of her friends and family. Over the course of the story Carmen grows and matures; she begins to imagine a brighter future not just for her and her own, but for all of humanity. Though she's willing to fight the powers that be, she's plagued by self-doubt: is it possible to fight monsters without becoming a monster yourself?
There's even an especially awesome scene wherein Carmen bests would-be street harassers with her giant ultraviolet sword. Can I get a Hollaback! Baltimore?
The romance between Carmen and Felix is a bit awkward, but in a good way. A realistic and believable way. I hope those crazy kids make it. (The sexy scenes are a PG-13 at most. Pretty tame stuff. Ditto the violence, which frequently veers towards the cartoonish.)
I even love the chapter titles, which are mostly based on industry terms and marketing lingo ("Acquisitions," "Cold Calling," "Early Adopters"). They give little of the plot away yet still manage to impart a sense of story progression.
On the downside, I did find several editing errors (mostly the wrong tense), but nothing egregious. There are also a few plot holes - Isn't Cygnus able to track Carmen's debit card? What about Felix's stolen ID badge? And is any company dumb enough to house all its data in one place, without any off-site backups? - but nothing I wasn't willing and able to overlook. The optimistic, even utopian ending is probably the single most unrealistic part of the story. Still, it fits. Anything else would have felt wrong.
Ultraviolet is my first Joseph Robert Lewis book, but it won't be my last. The dude can write, and I am a sucker for science fiction and fantasy featuring kickass heroines.
First line: "It's easy to remember the day when my whole life changed because that's the day people started shooting at me."
Favorite line: "Africa is not a country, people."
Tearjerkiest line: "This is a new world."
http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/03/26/...
October 20, 2015
I overall thought that the general feel of the book was good because sure there were a couple of negative points. Which were that there wasn't much world building, nor that much background information, which makes it hard to know whether it was an alternate world or set in the future. There was also the fact that while the book talked about specific things that were encountered these gave it a fell that the world wasn't too different from ours technology wise since all we know of it's advanced technology is the printer .
Apart from that though I thought that the book was very realistic in how a mega-corporation controlled the government and technology for fear of losing power rather than allowing people better standards of living. As I could see that happening. The world detail was brilliant in that each scene was detailed so that you had a good idea of what the places looked like and imagine how things played out. There was also good character design in that while the two main characters were Carmen and Felix other people were portrayed with body language and emotional state estimate. Carmen being the main character was portrayed well with hopes, dreams, the events of the previous 8 months and generally being fleshed out. With Felix not so much but there were clear reasons for what he was doing and why they wanted to be together since they were the two whose goals were the same to bring freedom to the people. That is the end of my review it is quite scatterbrained but that is who I am and how I explain things.
Apart from that though I thought that the book was very realistic in how a mega-corporation controlled the government and technology for fear of losing power rather than allowing people better standards of living. As I could see that happening. The world detail was brilliant in that each scene was detailed so that you had a good idea of what the places looked like and imagine how things played out. There was also good character design in that while the two main characters were Carmen and Felix other people were portrayed with body language and emotional state estimate. Carmen being the main character was portrayed well with hopes, dreams, the events of the previous 8 months and generally being fleshed out. With Felix not so much but there were clear reasons for what he was doing and why they wanted to be together since they were the two whose goals were the same to bring freedom to the people. That is the end of my review it is quite scatterbrained but that is who I am and how I explain things.
January 13, 2015
Lend with Amazon Prime, one book free per month, this is for January 2015.
While the ending is a bit too clean and cozy, this is a top-notch read.
In the tradition of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Homeland, this is set in a not too distant future, and focuses mainly on the influence the advance of 3d-printing will have, while in the grip of big corporations, even with rampant copying of designs and information somehow restricted in the internet of the USA. While not all is too realistic, due to the focus of one (later two) game changing invention, it is gripping and fast paced.
The main heroine is a good person and I really like her. Little time for romance, and sex only hinted at late in the book.
For me this is a clear 5star, and although it lacks the depth of books of Daniel Suarez, fans of that author and of Doctorow should check it out.
And I would really like to see this filmed. As this is neatly concluded, no trilogy or sequel in sight (would pick that up instantly, though).
Highly recommended near future SF.
While the ending is a bit too clean and cozy, this is a top-notch read.
In the tradition of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Homeland, this is set in a not too distant future, and focuses mainly on the influence the advance of 3d-printing will have, while in the grip of big corporations, even with rampant copying of designs and information somehow restricted in the internet of the USA. While not all is too realistic, due to the focus of one (later two) game changing invention, it is gripping and fast paced.
The main heroine is a good person and I really like her. Little time for romance, and sex only hinted at late in the book.
For me this is a clear 5star, and although it lacks the depth of books of Daniel Suarez, fans of that author and of Doctorow should check it out.
And I would really like to see this filmed. As this is neatly concluded, no trilogy or sequel in sight (would pick that up instantly, though).
Highly recommended near future SF.
April 21, 2014
Wow! Just wow! Loved this one! Lewis is one of my favorite authors so I was extremely happy to get to read Ultraviolet.
Lewis does an amazing job of bringing his characters to life. I really get attached to them. Ultraviolet is told through the main character, Carmen's, eyes. So obviously she is the character we get to relate to most. She is fierce and strong, but these qualities aren't so apparent at first. Following her on her journey that brings them out is a page turner that had me from the beginning and didn't let go.
The author's world building is great. He has multiple series/stories out and it always amazes me when he creates a new world. The world of Ultraviolet is no exception. The 3D printers, the mega-corps, everything. Also he describes the technology in simple terms. Terms that make sense, and could be believed to be invented in the next 100 years. But he doesn't get bogged down in the technical side of the novel and I think that too helps the pages to speed by as fast as they do.
I'm not sure if Ultraviolet is the start of a new series or not. It is definitely a stand alone novel. However I would gladly pick up more stories set in Carmen's world, whether she is the main character or not.
Lewis does an amazing job of bringing his characters to life. I really get attached to them. Ultraviolet is told through the main character, Carmen's, eyes. So obviously she is the character we get to relate to most. She is fierce and strong, but these qualities aren't so apparent at first. Following her on her journey that brings them out is a page turner that had me from the beginning and didn't let go.
The author's world building is great. He has multiple series/stories out and it always amazes me when he creates a new world. The world of Ultraviolet is no exception. The 3D printers, the mega-corps, everything. Also he describes the technology in simple terms. Terms that make sense, and could be believed to be invented in the next 100 years. But he doesn't get bogged down in the technical side of the novel and I think that too helps the pages to speed by as fast as they do.
I'm not sure if Ultraviolet is the start of a new series or not. It is definitely a stand alone novel. However I would gladly pick up more stories set in Carmen's world, whether she is the main character or not.
April 11, 2014
4 stars *light-spoilers*
A fun, fast-paced read that pulled me right in. The story centers around a young teen/woman named Carmen who has master-minded an invention (solid hologram gloves that she calls 'Lux' when she needs to use them, manifesting the tools at her command, which I loved and thought was totally bad-ass, btw) that threatens the powers-that-be and finds herself on the run to survive. Along the way, she ignites a revolution.
Two things would make this story even better:
1) I thought that the story could use more world-building and development and that too much of the basis was founded on the basis of humankind's dependence on one technical product (3D printer). For me, sci-fi has to pass the 'plausibility' & 'believe-ability' factors for my interest to truly be pulled in.
2) And, although I enjoyed the heroine's adventure, I struggled to believe the voice was that of a woman or young woman or a teenage girl. I just kept hearing a sixteen year-old guy? The voice wasn't feminine to me.
A fun, fast-paced read that pulled me right in. The story centers around a young teen/woman named Carmen who has master-minded an invention (solid hologram gloves that she calls 'Lux' when she needs to use them, manifesting the tools at her command, which I loved and thought was totally bad-ass, btw) that threatens the powers-that-be and finds herself on the run to survive. Along the way, she ignites a revolution.
Two things would make this story even better:
1) I thought that the story could use more world-building and development and that too much of the basis was founded on the basis of humankind's dependence on one technical product (3D printer). For me, sci-fi has to pass the 'plausibility' & 'believe-ability' factors for my interest to truly be pulled in.
2) And, although I enjoyed the heroine's adventure, I struggled to believe the voice was that of a woman or young woman or a teenage girl. I just kept hearing a sixteen year-old guy? The voice wasn't feminine to me.
August 4, 2016
[Ultraviolet] by [Joseph Robert Lewis] was a fun fast paced read. The main character Carmen is a very independent young woman who just wants to make a better life for her and her parents. She has played by the rules but apparently the rules change to benefit the rich corporations.
She becomes a heroine to many people when she decides to fight back but also puts those she cares about in danger. With the help of another victim of the corporate greed she works to make a change for those she cares about.
The questions that Carmen struggles with about where is the line between vigilante and terrorist adds a very humanistic twist to this story. I also love to see strong women protagonists. For too long girls were always the weak and helpless in need of rescue. I am glad to see that changing.
She becomes a heroine to many people when she decides to fight back but also puts those she cares about in danger. With the help of another victim of the corporate greed she works to make a change for those she cares about.
The questions that Carmen struggles with about where is the line between vigilante and terrorist adds a very humanistic twist to this story. I also love to see strong women protagonists. For too long girls were always the weak and helpless in need of rescue. I am glad to see that changing.
April 20, 2014
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fast-paced read - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved the heroine being a strong independent female. It was a great book with a flawless storyline and well developed characters. Can't wait to read more from this author!
This was a fast-paced read - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I loved the heroine being a strong independent female. It was a great book with a flawless storyline and well developed characters. Can't wait to read more from this author!
September 17, 2014
It was engaging enough that I wanted to know how things turned out for Carmen and Felix. But I felt no compulsion to read it obsessively from beginning to end. Carmen in no way read like a 16 year old girl. I did like the world-building and felt it was a fairly realistic, believable future.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews