Utopia

This is the most enjoyable thriller I've read in a while. With great writing, engaging characters, and a good, twisting story, it had everything I could have hoped for in a thriller. There was also a nice element of tech/science fiction that added the perfect amount of atmosphere without taking things over the top or to where I felt like I was reading science fiction rather than suspense, or where I felt lost in the details. Instead, it felt like it was used masterfully to up the ante and atmosphere, making the most of the setting of a high-tech amusement park.

Absolutely recommended for folks who enjoy fast-moving suspense with just a bit of tech.

Review by Jeremy Taylor

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 show more “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.

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I love Lincoln Child. I am not a big fan of Utopia. I kept reading, trying to ignore the bits that insulted my intelligence and the bits that just offended me because I love Lincoln Child but I finally gave up. With about an eighth of the book left to go, I knew it was not going to get any better and I really did not care what happened. This was more likely written by Lincoln Child's simple twin.

Interesting concept, & ended up being an exciting book. While I was able to predict some of the mystery, there was plenty that I couldn't figure out up until it was revealed. I loved the integration of technology into the story, though I'm not sure how accessible it'd be to someone without some background in CS.

Outside Las Vegas, Nevada you'll find Utopia, the most advanced amusement park in the world. Built under a huge glass dome, the park is divided into four sections: Gaslight, Callisto, Camelot, and Boardwalk, all featuring the latest in robotics and holographic imaging along with some of the most amazing roller coasters and thrill rides ever conceived. When the security system in one of the most popular rides in the park fails, the management of the park starts reviewing the system that control the park's operations. They call in Dr. Andrew Warne, the developer of the Metanet, which coordinates all the robotic activities, and demand he shut down the all robots. Unknown to Andrew there's a man calling himself John Doe who plans to kill show more the patrons unless the park director turns over the program used to run the parks, a revolutionary program that could be used militarily with great destruction in the wrong hands. Now Andrew and a small group of colleagues will have to stop the terrorists before it's too late.

Utopia is a fun and fast paced techno thriller. I liked the way the author gave some of the robots interesting backgrounds, especially one called Wingnut who acted like a dog. I really enjoyed reading it and wish it was an actual amusement park because it sounded like such a fascinating place to visit (on a terrorist-free day). show less

I don’t often discard a book after reading it halfway through, but Utopia kept me hoping that something would catch my interest. I tired of this marriage of thriller and sci-fi, though. None of the characters was worth caring about, the science was uninteresting, and the plot just wasn’t strong enough to invest more of my time. After the third plot turn at which I said to myself “why would they do that?” it went into my giveaway pile.

I was really surprised by this book. Before I started it, I didn't think I would finish it, but wanted to give it a shot. 24 hours later, as I put the book down, I was really impressed. The tech talk is not so overwhelming that someone like me (not a science or techie at all) could understand the gist of that aspect of the novel. The thriller part is very good and I so did not even care that I figured out who the inside man was way too early.

The theme park, Utopia, is someplace that I would love to visit and found the descriptions of it fascinating. I could not put this book down, nor did I really want to.