Omnitopia Dawn

Oh, _fun_. I love it. The usual Duane themes of protecting life and making universes, in a very different context. VR taken to some very interesting extremes, and fascinating characters at all levels - Rik and Dev all the way down to the in-game characters who only have a couple lines. I believe there's a sequel out soonish - I'll be looking for it!
Reread in prep for the sequel - still love it, this time through I caught a lot of stuff I'd missed the first time. I suspect it will reward a third and a many-th reading as well.

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.

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 show more 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. show less

Bad guys who are actually just misguided (or guided from alternative principles), shiny imagery from imaginative new worlds, big battles involving mythical creatures, the fundamental importance of small units of meaning, new beings coming into full consciousness, science taken just a step beyond what it can actually support, timely (eventually dated) references, a battle for the world as we know it -- this book does not fall far from the typical Diane Duane fare. With virtual-reality-based Omnitopia Dawn, however, Duane stages her terrific worldbuilding in a virtual reality game in our own near future, exploring these themes in a way that somehow feels more real than ever before.

Me, well, I liked it. She's got some cool ideas in here -- show more like the idea of developing code using a three-dimensional interface more like Tinker Toys than text -- and though the book was recent-news derivative and sometimes seemed to be trying too hard to prove its bona fides in internet culture, it was definitely worth the time I invested in reading it. The book has some great worldbuilding and some very alive characters. I just wish Duane had done something with the plot other than yet another trite big epic fantasy battle and new-race-coming-into-existence. That theme is a bit overdone for my tastes, both in the literature generally and by Duane in particular. I'd love to see a story set in this universe that is as fresh and potentially real as the 'verse itself. show less

Ok, so the crew of the Enterprise, as Duane writes them, instead run a MMORPG the day after tomorrow. I mean, not exactly the crew of the Enterprise, but you will recognize the types if you love Duane’s Star Trek books as I very much do. Hard work, competence, and compassion are her highest values and they are rewarded (along with a little bit of cheating only those who have been confirmed as trying to cheat you). It’s a cozy book, in its way.

Excellent new science fiction novel by one of my favorite authors. I didn't even know she had a new book out until I happened to see it in the store! I can't speak to how realistic the MMPORPG or hacking is, but the characters are fantastic and the story is intriguing. Although it reads as a stand-alone, it is the first in a trilogy and I eagerly await the upcoming books.

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I started this book with some trepidation. It isnt really sci-fi to a major extent (Im not even sure if it is classified as sci-fi, though sci-fi and fantasy are the only books I get from publishers), yes it takes place in the near future and yes it deals with advanced technology but it isn’t a far stretch from World of Warcraft and games of that ilk.

The story revolves around Omnitopia a massive only gaming universe that packs almost every imanginable world into on massive bundle. Its creator (Dev) is busy working with his company to unroll the newest expansion pack and Phil , his chief competitor (and former partner) is working on his own release while colluding with the a hacker group to weaken Omnitopia so Phil can slip in show more and gain controlling interest. The other main story arc consists of Rik, who is a player and was given a rare chance to create his own Microcosm inside of Omnitopias own universe.

This was a well written and very enjoyable book. It wasn’t too tech heavy and for the most part the advanced technology it dealt with wasn’t anything that a simi-literate computer user wouldn’t recognize (yes, that’s my classification). It’s a solid story with interesting characters and a fairly good plot.

8.5/10 show less