Customer Reviews

Utopia

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After seven great novels (and one in the can) with Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child decided to stretch his legs as a solo writer with "Utopia". As a long time fan of the two, I couldn't have been more impressed with the result. Like his collaborative efforts, "Utopia" offers a genuinely original story wrapped up in all kinds of neat technology. What makes "Utopia" shine, though, is the excellent back-story and the superb characters.

"Utopia" is set in an amusement park of the same name, but this isn't just any amusement park. It is an enormous glass dome in the middle of the Nevada desert. Inside, one can find astonishingly realistic recreations of Victorian England, a turn of the Century American seaside boardwalk, Camelot and a futuristic spaceport (and, Atlantis: Coming Soon!). Of course each area includes the most fantastic rides one can imagine, as well as restaurants, live shows, reasonably priced forty dollar t-shirts and...casinos. Moreover, Utopia is the owner of hundreds of patents relating to holograms , robotics and computing.

As one might imagine, all of this money and technology makes for a tempting target, and right on cue, John Doe appears to insert chaos into this little piece of paradise. At the same time, Andrew Warne, the creator of the park's robots, arrives to troubleshoot some strange problems that have been occurring (with daughter in tow). As mayhem breaks loose in the park, Warne struggles to decipher Doe's plan, and stop him before it's too late.

The story is unlike anything I have ever encountered before; a rare unique effort in a world of rehashed ideas. But it was the characters that impressed me the most. In addition to capturing their current concerns and fears beautifully, Child is constantly dropping little hints about their pasts: where they came from, what they do, who they love, etc. At the same time, he never let's himself get distracted; he doesn't diverge from the story, but rather inserts little asides to flesh out the characters without delving into reams of details. He is particularly successful with John Doe in this regard, and the result is a compelling, but mysterious character.

"Utopia" is a fast paced thriller with a lot of heart. Wrapped in a high-tech wonderland, there are characters with believable, rich lives. The pacing, structure and use of language are all likewise excellent. I have to admit, having been a long time fan of Child's joint work, I was concerned about his decision to go solo. I needn't have been, as "Utopia" is an excellent novel by any measure. Now I just have to wait eagerly for Preston's solo effort later this year!

Fans of popular writing duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child will not be disappointed with Mr. Child's first solo attempt. The futuristic theme park "Utopia" is attacked by terrorists who have infiltrated the intricate robotic, holographic, and computerized infrastructure of the park. Roller coaster riders' worst fears come true in the exciting opening chapter that draws the reader into this imaginary world. Mr. Child's inticate imagination comes alive in his detailed descriptions of Utopia's four worlds--Gaslight, Camelot, Callisto, and Boardwalk. You'll find yourself wanting to book a flight to Las Vegas to drive out into the desert and visit "Utopia" as it all seems so real. In a break-neck pace, Child takes us through a day of terror as the heroes of the story, Dr. Andrew Warne, engineer of the park's robotics, Angus Poole, an ex-military specialist visiting the park with his family, and "Wingnut", a robotic dog all race to save the park from destruction. If you enjoy "edge-of-your-seat" thrillers and sleepless nights, this book is for you. Readers who enjoyed this book should also try these other Preston/Child best sellers: The Cabinet of the Curiosities, Riptide, The Ice Limit, Thunderhead, The Relic, and Mount Dragon. Utopia certainly stands tall amongst its companions. I've already pre-ordered my copy of Preston/Child's "Still Life With Crows" (scheduled for release July 2003) simply based on the strengh of Utopia and these other novels. Enjoy!

If you are in the mood for a fast, fun piece of escapist fiction, then "Utopia" is the book for you. Start with a futuristic theme park on a scale with Westworld or Jurassic park, where historic realism mingles with next generation robotics and holography. Add a string of mysterious problems with park robots and rides. Then throw in a techno-savvy band of terrorists that threaten the lives of the park's 65,000 attendees. The result is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that has future movie written all over it.

Lincoln Child has produced an admirable solo effort in depicting the four fantastic worlds of Utopia and their systematic sabotage. He deftly mixes fast-paced action, a peek behind the scenes of a large theme park, a colorful cast of characters, and some comic relief through a lovable robot pet named Wingnut. Unlike many thrillers in the recent past, this one has a satisfying ending that left me smiling.

Hard to rate this book, honestly, especially without half stars.

I disagree greatly with several of the reviews here. For one, comparing it to Die Hard is a completely unfair way to sell this to a potential buyer. Die Hard was a game of cat and mouse, full of action. There isn't much action in this book, nor any hiding. In fact, there's only one true gunfight, and it lasts 3 bullets. More bullets are fired in other areas of the book, but it's against unarmed, unknowing people.

It's also unfair to compare this book to Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park was a book about technology and action within a theme park of sorts. This is a book involving some technology and action within a true theme park, but it's a different breed. The action is limited, and the technology isn't explained or even described much, just presented as something that exists.

There are also some groaners. Most notably is the Wingnut character mentioned in other reviews. From his first appearance you know here's there simply to be sacrificed. No surprises there, but to the authors credit he downplays the convenient behavior trait that leads to his usefulness, and incorporates it more as part of a whole rather than a way to exploit. You may see Wingnut's usefulness coming, but Child doesn't get lazy and leave it at that.

Another issue is the terrorists themselves. At one point it's mentioned that people would be shocked if they knew the true face of the ringleader, yet nothing comes from it after he's stopped. A shame, but only due to that line.

So I've told you what this book isn't really, and that it has problems. Is it worth reading? Yes. The book is essentially a crisis book within a theme park, a difficult concept to make realistic. Child takes great effort to make it so, giving reasons why obvious answers must be ignored, and taking into account how a corporation would likely act. Nothing is too unrealistic, and none of the plot will make you groan very hard at all. This is arguably Child's greatest accomplishment within the book.

It's interesting, the characters have some depth to them, and you'll keep reading. The full potential is never realized, but there are no falls off the edge, so you'll read with a smile.

A solid effort. Not amazing, but solid enough that I look forward to Child's next solo effot.

Lincoln Child is half of the dynamic duo (with Douglas Preston) of a string of best-sellers including Relic, The Cabinet of Curiosities, and Still Life with Crows, among others. With Utopia, Child sets off on his own and ends up with an entertaining thriller that, while perhaps not quite attaining full Preston & Child status, is nonetheless well worth reading for fans of the genre.

Dr. Andrew Warne is a robotics specialist. Not just another geek, Dr. Warne is the father of a controversial new theory on machine learning and has created a "Metanet" that is able to manage the systems of--and periodically improve and reprogram--a large number of connected robots at once. The creators of Utopia, a state-of-the-art "concept immersion" theme park in the Nevada desert, have found a use for Warne's Metanet, governing the hundreds of robots in the park. The Metanet is autonomously responsible for day-to-day maintenance and programmatic improvement of robots whose functions range from cleaning offices to serving ice-cream to park guests. It also manages the safety features of some of the park's most thrilling rides.

When some of Utopia's robots begin to experience problems--including one major safety malfunction that results in some serious injuries--Andrew Warne is called in to take the Metanet offline. Warne is understandably resistant to the idea of dismantling his brainchild, and as he searches for alternatives to the drastic action requested of him, he discovers that the problems the park's robots have been experiencing are not the fault of the Metanet at all. Rather, the park has become the target of some very proficient and very sinister hackers. Warne's suspicions are proven correct when the park's director is contacted by a terrorist with a simple and horrifying demand: hand over a disc containing the park's proprietary hologram software, or every one of the park's 65,000 guests will become a target.

As time ticks away and more and more park systems begin to malfunction, park employees scramble to stay a step ahead of the mercenaries threatening their livelihood. And Andrew Warne is forced to attempt the seemingly impossible--use his Metanet to thwart the sinister intentions of the terrorists.

Utopia is a fast-paced book that relies heavily on gratuitous action scenes to keep the story moving. But Child throws in some authorial curveballs that lend credence to his solo literary career. One device he employs very successfully is using various and unrelated points of view to show how the park's deterioration is perceived through the eyes of the guests caught in the crossfire. In addition, the masterful and creative descriptions of futuristic technology utilized in Utopia's design provide some welcome pauses in the flow of the action. Child seems to have based his imaginary theme park partly on real-life parks like Disney World and the Six Flags empire, but he has added enough of his own inventions to the descriptions of Utopia's Disney-like underground areas and standard park terminology (like calling crew members "cast members") to give the fictional Utopia an air of authenticity.

The book's weaknesses center on its characters. Andrew Warne's relationship with his fifteen-year-old daughter comes across as forced at times, and his past romantic involvement with park director Sarah Beautwright fails to generate either believable sparks or authentic awkwardness. Most of the primary characters (including the main antagonist) experience chapter-long periods of intense self-doubt, which becomes annoying to the reader fairly quickly. Still, the intense (if a bit grotesque) climax is a gratifying conclusion to the lengthy buildup of plot-driven suspense, and the reader leaves with a feeling of satisfied euphoria (rather like what riders feel like after exiting an exciting roller-coaster, I suppose).

Unsurprisingly (given Child's previous collaborations with coauthor Douglas Preston), Utopia offers little in the way of a positive moral outlook, but the book contains no scenes of overt sexuality and does a fairly good job of portraying a father's self-sacrificing love for his daughter. Some readers will object to Child's descriptions of violence, but even these are usually set within a context of human experience rather than simple gore. The point of the book seems to be that industrious people who mean well and have a good work ethic can triumph over evil, greedy people who seek to cause harm. While in the real world we know that this is unfortunately not always the case, the message is positive, and the general excitement and mostly good writing of the book make it worth reading. For those who enjoy books by authors like Michael Crichton and Philip Kerr (and, of course, those who enjoy the Preston & Child books), I would happily recommend Utopia.

I've read all of the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child books with the exception of "Still Life of Crows" and have loved or liked all of them. Thunderhead, Relic, and The Ice Limit are 3 of the best thrillers to come out in a while. Since I love amusement parks anyway, I couldn't wait to see what kind of havoc the terrorists would unleash in Utopia. Even though the body count nears triple digits by the end due to multiple "accidents", there just is a lack of urgency brought on by the fact that nearly all of the park's guest are in the dark through the whole book. There is never a mass panic and while the final countdown to destruction is taking place, only about 10 people, including the terrorists, even know it. I just never felt my heart racing until the last few pages.
My only major problem was how almost everything was based on coincidence. Certain people and things in the park, coupled with their function and circumstances are used to keep the story going in an almost unbelievable fashion. Guns jam at inopportune moments, witnesses to events happen to be ex-military, in a park with no weapons an alternative is presented that on any other day would not be available, etc. The book is good fun and the ending makes up for most of its' problems but the story is so reliant on contrivance it gets damn silly by the end.
Still it's a good summer read but in this rare case I think a movie version would be more fulfilling.

This story reads like a book planning on becoming a screenplay. Hopefully if it ever does, the actors involved will manage to flesh out these cardboard characters.

Yes, the story had a certain grandeur to it. The scale was large - the greatest theme park ever built with the best rides ever imagined, and there was plenty of technology scattered throughout, but there wasn't one character I cared anything about, and that's why I read books. I don't read books to be dazzled by empty style.

Granted, there were one or two harrowing moments conveyed well by the author, but the book itself had little suspense. The identity of the traitor was telegraphed very early. One knows who that person is one-third of the way into the story. And the ultimate goal was also clearly known well in advance. These are both key plot points which should have propelled the reader forward, but when telegraphed so early in a thriller of this sort, there's not much left to hang around for.

Finally, there were things I found it difficult to get past. The ending was questionable. I'm not sure one can actually accomplish what the characters accomplished with the tools available to them. And I also found it unbelievable that an establishment of this nature, a casino/theme park, would sit around waiting so long for an armoured car to arrive. Most businesses expect their money to be working for them much quicker then that. It just doesn't make sense.

I'd still call it worth reading though. It's not a complete waste of time.

This book begins with the formulaic "first chapter attack" that grabs you and makes you want to read what the heck happened. I know many of Preston/Child books begin this way, but something was different this time.

Child then naturally introduces the main character, his daughter, and the park. But the story seemed much too dependent on the park, the attraction of it. And what no one else has written here is that the writing is somewhat slowly paced, almost too much so for myself.

In my first reading, I only read about a third of it and moved on to other books which were less than impressive. But in my second reading of Utopia, I found that not only was I in the mood for the story (it's like watching a movie; you need to be in the right mood for it), it reminded me somewhat of my adventures in Las Vegas when I was younger. The book does, in fact, pick up speed, and, in what isn't new but is well done here, the story takes place in just one day!

That said, there is a lot of exposition that has to be expounded upon at times, so the reader can be as up-to-date as Andrew Warne and his daughter. With the release of Still Life with Crows, I know that Child and Preston are a perfect team. Utopia, I think, is a brilliant effort into the thriller realm, and I can't wait for his second solo effort to really see what Mr. Child can do.

His ideas are, by the way, extremely original.

What's really neat is to see Mr. Child's idioms (he likes the term "bean counters"; also, see his photograph online at his website) and, at some points, he will use easy-to-miss expressions that are similar to his co-writing efforts. Keep an eye out for references to past books as well. All this makes for superb, inter-connected reading that is really tenfold the amount of fun if their other books have been read (and paid attention to).

Utopia is a 21 century amusement park, the most advanced park in the world. Utopia is made up of four (a fifth to open soon) different "worlds" under a dome. Camelot, a midieval world; Callisto, a futuristic space-station world; Gaslight, a turn-of the century London themed world; Boardwalk, themed after those turn-of-the-century parks located near a beach; and soon to open Atlantis, themed after the lost-continent of the same name.
The story takes place during one day. The park is running smoothly, when terrorists quietly let themselves be known to the big-wigs, making demands or causing terror. Dr. Andrew "Drew" Warne, a robotics expert from Carnegie-Mellen University, visiting the park as an external-specialist, finds himself doing more than what was expected, but instead leading the way to saving the park and it's visitors.

Utopia is a beautifully written book, sometimes the descriptions and thoughts written within the story will remind you of a good-piece of fast moving literature. I very much enjoyed reading this, and found it exceptionally hard to put down and I actually cared about the characters. Even some of the terrorists were intellectual and fun to read about.
There were just a few problems with the book, however. The character of Georgia, Warne's daughter, seems, for 14 years old, to act both too young and too old. Also I truly hated Sarah Boatwright, the Chief of Operations of the park, and past girlfriend of Warne. She was just an egotistical, annoying and irresponsible person, and I have no idea how someone like Warne would have ever loved her.

I like Child's collaborations with Douglas Preston because of the way they can blend the supernatural with science and the historical to create mind capturing stories. However, this book has a very tired plot with mercenaries holding a theme park hostage for casino loot and a new holographic gadget that can be used to counterfeit more loot. How many times have we seen this story either in print or on the big screen? Child attempts to freshen this plot ala Michael Crichton by sprinkling in a lot of robotic and holographic technology, but how excited can one get over what is in effect Disney World? In fairness, he does keep the reader's attention (barely) through the mystery of the perpetrators and their motivation. The characters are also well developed and the dialog is good. However, as the story unfolded and the mysteries were solved, the book degenerated into a typical thriller with lots of chases, gun battles, and explosions that ultimately left me disappointed. If you like the Preston/Child works, then I think you too will be disappointed with this book.