A MMORPG is about to undergo a major expansion if corporate espionage and cyberattacks don’t stop it, and also something weird is going on with the code. Duane often leans in to the cozy side of her topics, which is often good, but here (1) I didn’t really like the class stuff—seventh richest man in the world (apparently riches not shared with his wife?) with “hot & cold running nannies” for his child, but no one at all was ever exploited by his company? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on. And (2) relatedly, a key plot point is whether he’ll lose control of the company when the stock price falls, and I don’t care how nice a guy he is, his canonically devoted lawyer would never have allowed that structure. ( )

Reminded me of the old Dream Park books. ( )

Some of the storyline felt a little two dimensional and I didn't quite get how the side storyline was so important to the main one, but overall I liked the ideas explored and the characters were likable. Entertaining. ( )

Diana Duane’s written some of my favorite stories, but even though she’s got her hits, Omnitopia Dawn also shows she’s got some misses.

Essentially, Omnitopia Dawn is the story of feuding CEOs. Dev Logan used to run a company with his friend Phil. But after a bitter argument, Dev left the company and the two parted ways. Now Dev is more successful than ever before, the creator of Omnitopia, a hugely popular MMORPG that’s about to roll out a major expansion. Phil sees this as an opportunity to take revenge, bring down Dev and Omnitopia, and teach Dev a lesson once and for all.

However, it took me a while to figure out what the storyline was given how many other (unnecessary) POVs the narrative contained. The story opens with Rik, a player of Omnitopia. Rik basically exists to give a player’s perspective, but I think Dev easily enough could have provided that instead since he’s actually plot relevant. Rik’s contributions to the plot are minor. Maybe he was intended to be important in a sequel? Other storylines are set up as if to be significant but later are drop or offhandedly dismissed. For instance, the first part of the book introduces a journalist who’s writing a story on Dev and trying to find his dark side. I found the potential of this plot line intriguing, but it goes nowhere, and the journalist very rarely has POV sections again. This is especially disappointing because aside from one brief section from Rik’s wife’s POV, she was the only female POV character.

Actually, the entire book was heavily centered around male characters. The two most present women are both wives – Rik’s and Dev’s – who’s main role in the story is to nag their husbands about keeping their blood sugar up. It was seriously disappointing. This book would have been way better with more ladies doing things. Also talking to each other. In reflection, I don’t think this one passed the Bechdel Test.

I wasn’t super impressed with the male characters either. Dev and Phil are too absolute to be interesting. Phil was never an intriguing villain, and I agree with the other reviews that call Dev too perfect. He’s like an angel who descended from heaven to become a CEO. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I don’t find that believable. People who get that powerful tend to have stepped on some toes on the way up.

On the bright side, the in-game aspects were imaginative. Duane has all the codes and hacking and whatnot take visual forms, so a massive hacker attack is like a grand battle from an epic fantasy novel. There were a handful of scenes inside the game where I could be like, “oh yes, this is Duane’s writing,” but most of the time this book didn’t live up to her high points.

Maybe a reader who is more into MMORPGs would like this one more? But I think it’s the weakest novel I’ve read from Duane, even including Wizards Abroad, which at least had women doing things. Anyway, if she ever does get around to writing a sequel for Omnitopia Dawn, I’m not planning on reading it.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. ( )

Excellent story from a sci/fi & fantasy master! ( )