Customer Reviews

Ultraviolet

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This was a surprisingly enjoyable read! I only picked this up because I thoroughly enjoyed Yvonne Navarro's AFTERAGE many years ago and was curious as to what she was doing now. Vampirisim is a disease in which the infected person becomes sensitive to light, has slightly longer canine teeth, and gains some healing powers due to an increased metabolism. Unfortunately, Hemophages, as those infected with the disease are called, also suffer from a shortened lifespan due to the disease. One particularly virulent form of the virus, HPV, led to Hemophages being first separated from others by armbands to actual placement in concentration camps. Rebellion ensued and now the world has humans and Hemophages separated and at war with one another. Violet lost everything when she was infected and is now an assassin for Nerva, the leader of one faction of the Hemophages. She is able to sneak into the Laboratories for Latter Day Defense (L.L.D.D.) and, using technology that masks her disease, steal a suitcase that allegedly holds the human's greatest weapon against the Hemophages. Violet opens the suitcase against Nerva's orders and discovers a child named Six. She tricks Nerva, and then Violet and Six are on the run from other Hemophages and humans. She ultimately has a showdown between the mastermind behind L.L.D.D., Richard Daxus, but I won't spoil the book by revealing more. I don't know how the book compares to the movie but Yvonne Navarro has reminded me of why I enjoyed her book so much in the past.

"UltraViolet" is the latest contribution to an increasingly long list of movies and subsequent movie tie-ins featuring vampires as the central characters. Of late, the "Blade" trilogy and "Underworld" films have also made thier way to the silver screen and books as well.

Though an abundant use of similies grace the pages of this tie-in there is an eveness of style that makes reading flow easlily along. It is, primarily, an action oriented tale alternating between chase and pursuit and fight and slash sequences. As an experienced author, Yvonne Navarro imparts a masterful symmerty in this film adaption put to words. Well worth the read and an excellent addition to a literary collection

Recommended Reads: "Species", "Species II", "Hellboy" and "Aliens" Music of the Spheres" by Yvonne Navarro; "Blade" by Mel Odom; "Blade III: Trinity" by Natasha Rhodes; "Underworld", "Underworld: Blood Enemy" and "Underworld: Evolution" by Greg Cox.

I read the book instead of going to see the movie because from what I read on Amazon, the book had more information and backstory, which makes things easier to follow in my mind. So I got the book and read it in a couple days, but I was really disappointed. I was expecting something a bit more in depth, given the trailers for the movie--super soldiers, fighting back, etc..

Instead it's just a basic shoot-em up kind of movie/book. I was expecting something more...more drama, more tension, and more....character. About the only character they really develop is Violet, which is fine, except that in order to see her character develop more, I expected to see more character development of the other people as well. I wanted to see more with the overall fight with the government, and I really wanted to see more about this super-soldier creation stuff...

I don't fault Yvonne for the lack of more story, afterall there is only so far you are allowed to diverge before it's an entirely different story. I thought her treatment of the story was good. Its the first of her books I've read and I enjoyed the descriptions and backstory that she did have in there. I just was expecting much more from the whole thing in the first place.

Anywya, this book is good, it developes more of story, because they had to edit a lot from the movie to make it PG-13. it was originally rated R, but they wanted to please the audiences. i pray they make an unrated version when it comes out, which should be soon considering that it is tanking in theaters. It's not the best movie in the world, but it tried and also I have seen a lot worse. try the book.

According to some sources who attended a screening of Ultraviolet, the "rough cut" of the film contained approximately half an hour of footage that was cut from the theatrical version. The removal of this footage seriously undermined the coherency of the story and the development of the characters (the same thing happened to Alien3). This novelization, being based on the original screenplay instead of the theatrical cut, restores these missing plot and character elements. Considering that I rather liked UV to begin with, it goes without saying that I like the book even more. By telling the story the way it was meant to be told, it gives us all the more reason to demand a genuine Director's Cut of the film. Until then... FLAMING SWORDFIGHT IN THE DARK! OMG!