Cybersona

By: Fred Yager

$28.95 Hardcover 1-889262-83-8

Cybersona (a novel) by Fred Yager April 2005
In an extreme case of identity theft, an online artificial intelligence game turns into a real world nightmare when a computer genius paralyzed after walking into a bullet fired during a gang war, uses the game to take over the body of another player to get revenge on those responsible.

Detailed Information

Published or Reader Reviews

From www.heartlandreviews.com

“The pace of this novel is frenetic. As fast as the story develops, it still allows the reader to reflect on the aspects of revenge and justice tempered by forgiveness and compassion...”

—Heartland Reviews

“…A fast-paced psychological hi-tech thriller. The author says he deliberately wrote it for high school and college age students who would "get it" in ways that we older folks might not, but it is also a cautionary tale for those who interact on line with strangers. ‘It opens you up to lots of danger,’ says Yager and his novel crackles with the danger that will keep you turning the pages.”

—Alan Caruba, founding member of the National Book Critics Circle, Bookviews.com

“I like Fred Yager's novel Cybersona because it makes you question what could happen if you could enter a computer game and actually become a part of it. This is a science fiction adventure thriller that everyone needs to read.”

—Teri Davis, school librarian

Book Excerpt

1

GARLAND DANIELS STARED out of his home office window at the mountain of fog rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, covering all but the highest towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. He could tell it was going to be one of those thick, wet, smack-you-in-the-face fogs that crept in like a soggy blanket and felt like a giant gob of damp cotton when it touched your skin.

He continued watching the slow-moving wall of white as it pushed on through the bridge and covered Alcatraz Island as it headed into the City by the Bay, chilling the San Francisco night.

Garland was the only non-Asian person living in the pre-war apartment building, which also housed a Chinese movie theater and catering service. His apartment overlooked Chinatown's main thoroughfare of Grand Street. The fact that he was the only non-Asian tenant made him feel special. Physically, Garland was rather plain. He had a slight build and a face that changed like a chameleon from photo to photo, no two looking alike, depending on the lighting and how the shadows fell. But what he lacked in physicality, he more than made up for in mental acuity. Garland was a genius. His IQ was unknown since he had always scored 160 on the Wechsler Intelligence test and that was the highest score you could get. There wasn't a question he couldn't answer or a problem he couldn't solve. Until now, that is.

Garland turned away from the window and back to the problem at hand, a problem he had been wrestling with for weeks, a problem that had absolutely nothing to do with the job he was supposed to be working on.

At 25, Garland had already established himself as one of the best freelance cyber-security technicians in the Bay area. Most of his clients were small businesses or wealthy private individuals whose broadband and wireless systems required sophisticated firewalls to prevent a seemingly never-ending onslaught of new viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and spyware.

But instead of completing the assignment for which he was being paid, Garland was puzzling over the failure of his tenth attempt to create a special applications program for his latest obsession, a new Internet virtual reality mind game called Cybersona, developed by a group of five Stanford University dropouts.

Using sophisticated artificial intelligence and virtual reality systems, Cybersona allowed players to create not only their own cyber personalities, or cyber personas as they called them, but also the virtual reality worlds in which they lived.

To Garland, playing Cybersona was as close to playing God as he had ever come. In Cybersona, Garland was no longer a skinny, near-sighted computer geek. In Cybersona, he was over six feet tall, with perfect muscular structure, and possessing such paranormal powers as telekinesis and telepathy. Basically, he could start fires with his mind and foretell the future. It was during one of his more intense sessions that Garland came up with the idea of creating a new special application that would put all others to shame. Unfortunately, he had yet to master the intricate program design such an application required.

The motto for Cybersona was "if you can think it, we can create it."

If that's true, thought Garland, then why can't you create what I'm thinking?

Garland considered suing the creators of Cybersona for false advertising when his cell phone chimed the melody chords to "Back Door Man" by the Doors. He looked at the screen and recognized the number of the pain in the ass client he was supposed to be servicing. He let his voicemail take it. Besides, he wasn't that late. In another hour or so, he'd be finished and ten thousand dollars richer.

Not bad for a day's work. Still, if he could crack the code that allowed him to create his Cybersona special app, then the world as he knew it would be a vastly different place.

He looked at the clock and decided to put the Cybersona problem aside and get back to fixing a sluggish server that a video news release company was paying him to improve. He figured he could knock that off in an hour and get to Suzy's apartment by nine at the latest.

As he reworked his client's website, Garland wondered if he should put a jacket on before going out. He figured the air pouring in through the open window of his Grant Street apartment had dropped about ten degrees since sunset and would fall about ten more when the fog made landfall.

Garland liked the fog, the way its cool mist cleaned the dirty city air like a huge spritzer. The air always smelled fresher after the fog rolled through and the streets and sidewalks glistened under the street lamps.

 

2

ON THE NORTHERN border of Chinatown and San Francisco's North Beach area, the streets, normally bustling with tourists, were nearly empty and quiet as the fog swirled down alleyways and hilly side streets.

It was the kind of night Raymond Lee liked the best. Raymond was the leader of the Grant Street Dragons and the fog was Raymond's friend. Unlike Garland, who cherished the fog's cleansing ability, Raymond appreciated other attributes. For example, the fog kept pedestrian traffic down and provided excellent cover in times of need. Those times usually being when Raymond or members of his gang needed to escape arrest for possession with intent to sell.

At 22, Raymond was the oldest and most experienced member of the Dragons, which consisted of eight young Asian men who'd grown up within a two-block radius of the alley in which they stood. The youngest was 14. Raymond had been their leader for the past year, inheriting the mantel from Jackie Lee (no relation to Raymond) who was doing a seven-to-ten year stretch in Chino for possession with intent to sell a lot, about half a kilo of China White.

A recently waxed, black, re-built and remodeled Chevy Impala "low rider," its glistening body a mere two inches off the pavement, crept slowly down Broadway toward the intersection at Grant Street. The windows on the long, sleek machine were tinted so dark you wondered how the driver managed to see where he was going. The vehicle stopped at the intersection, then turned right onto Grant Street, moving slowly past the alley where Raymond and his gang hid in the shadows and fog.

The high gloss polish was so fresh Raymond could smell the faint scent of Turtle Wax as the low rider glided by. He kept his eyes on the car while signaling behind his back for the rest of his gang to stop moving around. Once the car had passed, Raymond lowered his hand and the other young Asian men continued to check their automatic weapons.

When Raymond had first heard a Latino gang was talking about moving into North Beach, he didn't believe it. But it had happened slowly, as old-time Italian families moved out of the neighborhood and Chinese, along with a large group of young, ethnically ambiguous x-geners, settled in. They didn't care who sold them their drugs.

The problem, as Raymond Lee saw it, was that the Latinos had trouble with boundaries and therefore couldn't remain content with selling drugs on Grant Street north of Telegraph Avenue. Two Latinos had even been seen working corners as far south as Stockton. Tonight, Raymond Lee was going to administer a crash course in geography to some wayward "Beaners."

 

Across the street from the alley, Floyd Harrison sat behind the wheel of his black government-issue sedan wondering how Chinatown had grown north of Broadway. When he was stationed at Treasure Island in the mid-1970s, Harrison and his fellow sailors spent their nights and weekends prowling the North Beach topless bars and hippie coffee bars that lined Broadway and Grant Street. Back then Chinatown had stopped at Broadway. And Broadway was where North Beach began and beckoned to the hordes of lonely sailors out for a night of R&R, or as they preferred to call it, I&I-intoxication and intercourse. Now both the topless bars and the coffeehouses were gone, replaced by Chinese markets, cyber cafes, and cell phone stores.

Harrison had just turned 50 when he accepted the transfer to San Francisco. This was going to be his twilight tour with the Drug Enforcement Agency. His 20 years in the navy meant he could retire from the DEA after ten. This time next year, Floyd Harrison would be a free man of leisure. No more tedious nights of wasted stakeouts, although tonight's stakeout could actually result in something. In fact, it had better since it was Harrison who had convinced the division commander to let him take a team of six other agents in case an arrest situation developed. A crystal-meth addict had tipped Harrison to a possible drug exchange between two rival gangs, which was why Harrison was parked across the street from the alley where the Grant Street Dragons had gathered. Harrison had used information from this addict in the past and it usually turned out to be reliable. He needed a good bust. Talk was going around that under-performing agents were going to be downsized, forced out at half or three-quarter's pension. The hell with that, thought Harrison. Someone was going down tonight. But first he had to catch the perp in the act, on tape, and in clear, high-definition digital.

Harrison checked his watch for the hundredth time and tried to look inconspicuous in his blue windbreaker with the yellow letters DEA in a circle over his heart like a target. He picked up an infrared night scope that snipers attach to their rifles and put it to his left eye. Through the scope, he was able to see eight silhouettes in the dark alley next to a Chinese market. Even with the night scope, the fog was going to make it difficult to see into the alley, if that was where any transaction was going to take place.

Harrison lowered the scope and started to wonder if he had parked in the wrong spot. But it was too late to do anything about it now. Any movement at this time would give away his position and the entire operation would be compromised. He had agents stationed at four points surrounding the alley, awaiting his word.

He focused the scope on the black low rider that had just turned onto Grant Street.

Harrison clicked on his walkie-talkie.

"I think it's happening," he whispered. "Hold your positions until I give the word."

"We have a visual on approaching vehicle," crackled a voice over the walkie-talkie.

"That must be the visiting team," said Harrison.

"You sure these guys are gonna play nice together?" asked another voice. "I never thought the Dragons were into sharing."

"We're in a global economy. Cross-border trading is where it's at," said Harrison.

"You're the primary, Harrison," said a third voice. "Just hope your intel is legit."

Harrison was about to respond when movement up the street from the alley got his attention. He looked through his scope again and saw a door opening on a building half a block up from the alley. A young man, carrying a computer bag over his shoulder, shut and locked the door behind him before heading down the street toward the alley.

"Oh shit," said Harrison.

"What's the matter?" crackled the radio.

"A civilian. He's walking right into it," said Harrison.

"Can you stop him?"

"Not without blowing our entire operation."

Harrison shifted his scope down the street and picked up the low rider as it moved past the young man walking toward the alley. The low rider's brake lights came on as it stopped and did a three-point U-turn.

"Just keep walking, kid," Harrison muttered to himself.

He then shifted his scope and saw the low rider complete the turn and begin heading the wrong way down the one-way street and back toward the alley.

3

OBLIVIOUS TO THE drama unfolding around him, Garland Daniels shifted his shoulder bag to a more comfortable position as he started to walk down Grant Street toward Broadway and his favorite video store. He breathed in the cool damp air as he walked along, making "popping" sounds with his mouth.

Just then his cell phone chimed. He pulled it out and looked at the number. This time he decided to answer the call….

READ CYBERSONA TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

 

About the Author

Fred Yager

Fred Yager is a business television producer, communications executive, and screenwriter as well as the author of six nonfiction and fiction titles including the novels Rex and Cybersona and co-author of two career books published by Facts on File, Inc.: Career Opportunities in the Publishing Industry and Career Opportunities in the Film Industry. Fred grew up in a small town in upstate New York with Hannacroix Creek flowing right behind his family's house. He has lived in Texas, California, New York City, and, since 1990, in Fairfield County, Connecticut with his wife Jan and their two grown sons. Fred's previous jobs include 13 years at the Associated Press as a reporter, entertainment writer and film critic, and 14 years at Merrill Lynch including seven years in charge of their business television division. In addition to his book and screenwriting projects, Fred runs his own communications company, World News and Information Network, Inc. 

Click here to find more books by Fred Yager

Order Now

• Purchase through our Amazon aStore
• Click to purchase through Barnesandnoble.com
• Click to purchase through Amazon.com
• Click to purchase through Powells.com

Foreign, Subsidiary, & Film Inquiries

Inquiries about foreign translations of Cybersona as well as English reprint rights for the United Kingdom, Australia, or India, should be sent to the foreign rights department at Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc.: Foreignrights@hannacroixcreekbooks.com

Our company maintains an active network of highly-regarded and prestigious foreign agents in most major territories; in territories where we are not represented by a foreign co-agent, we deal directly with foreign publishers.

For subsidiary rights consideration of this title including mass market paperback rights, or for book clubs, contact the subsidiary rights department at Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc. and your inquiry will be considered. e-mail: Subsidiaryrights@hannacroixcreekbooks.com
Fax: 203-968-0193).

Documentary or feature film rights inquiries should be directed to our Film Rights Department by e-mail: filmrights@hannacroixcreekbooks.com, call (203-321-8674), or fax (203-968-0193).

Fred Yager has a completed spec screenplay of Cybersona available for consideration.

Reading Group Guide

 

Questions For Cybersona Interview or For a Reading or Study Group

1.  Why did you write this book?
2.  What does the title "Cybersona" mean and how did you come up with it?
3.  Do you think it's possible for someone to actually take over someone's mind and body?
4.  Artificial intelligence and virtual reality play key roles in this book. In your research what did you learn about them in terms of where we are in their development?
5.  What other authors have influenced your writing?
6.  How does an idea like Cybersona develop?
7.  There are many provocative issues and questions raised such as whether who has the right to decide how or whether we live when our ability to live the life we want is taken away from us. Who do you feel has this right?
8.  Your writing career started in journalism. When did you shift to fiction and why?
9.  The driving motivation behind one of the main characters in this book is revenge, but when all is said and done, the character finds that the vengeful act isn't as satisfying as he thought it would be. Are you saying that revenge is a useless motivation?
10.  In Cybersona there is the motto, "if you can think it, we can create it." What does this mean?
 

 

Selected Additional Readings

Contemporary Sci-fi mystery/techno thrillers:

Necromancer by William Gibson (New York: Penguin/Ace, 2004). (originally published 1984). First contemporary sci-fi about consciousness in cyberspace.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (New York: Bantam, 2000). Called a cyberpunk novel, it is set in a not-too-distant future controlled by an Internet called the "Metaverse."

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (New York: Bantam, 1976).

Disclosure by Michael Crichton (New York: Ballantine, 1994). Uses virtual reality to deal with sexual harassment.

Classic Sci-fi novels

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Steven (New York: Scribner's, 1886.) A mixture of a mystery novel with sci-fi horror, showing both the evil side and the good side of the human condition.

Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. (Originally published in 1897). A scientist discovers the means to invisibility and goes mad in the process. When frustrated in his efforts to restore himself to visibility, he decides to embark upon a reign of terror that will make him master of the world.

Media Kit

To book author Fred Yager for a TV, radio, or print interview, or for an author event at a bookstore or library, send an e-mail to the publicity department at Hannacroix Creek Books: publicist@hannacroixcreekbooks.com or fax (203) 968-0193. (For time sensitive requests, our phone number is: 203-321-8674.)

If you are a member of the media, contact the publicity department at hannacroix@aol.com to access the press release, a more extensive author bio, and sample interview questions, for Cybersona.