Utopia - Die Hard in a Theme Park? Not Quite... (Utopia - Lincoln Child)

Member Name: monkeywarrior

Product:	Utopia - Lincoln Child
Date:	08/07/04 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great concept, Very entertaining in places, Promising plot and setting

Disadvantages: Some boring characters, Too much waffling in places, Doesn't fulfil its massive potential

And so begins the story of my weird and wonderful experience with Utopia, a techno-thriller by acclaimed author Lincoln Child (who usually partners with Douglas Preston to produce books such as the excellent Relic and Riptide).

Those of you who've read my reviews in the past will know I'm absolutely obsessed with Theme Parks and Thrill rides. I'm also keen on action movies and far-fetched plots...

So you can imagine my delight, when walking through Leeds train station one day I say a billboard advert for Utopia, a new thriller - and what did I see on the artwork? Oh... my... God... rollercoasters! I had to have this book! Now! I rushed into WH Smith in the station, found the book and read the blurb... 'Die Hard in a Theme Park' it said - it seemed my dreams of the perfect book had indeed come true! I bought the book and began to read it later that day...

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Sadly, I was to be rather disappointed. I would concede that I probably entered into reading this book with preposterously high expectations of a book written to my own personal tastes but I think even someone without the rollercoaster obsession would also feel slightly let down.

The plot centres around the worlds most spectacular theme park, Utopia, which is situated in a gorge in the Mojave desert. The park consists of a gigantic dome structure, which houses 4 spectacularly themed worlds; Gaslight, a Victorian-style town on a cold and foggy night; Boardwalk, a 'traditional' American-style pier amusement park; Camelot, a Medieval style world of Castle and Knights; and finally Callisto, the obligatory future-themed area set on one of Jupiter's moons. There is also the &
#78;exus (entrance hall linking the worlds) and the soon to be opened new world, Atlantis (you can work this one out!). Each world is spectacularly themed with state-of-the-art robotics and holographics, pyrotechnics and hundreds of actors; and features a set of signature rides ranging from huge rollercoasters to drop towers to dark rides to water flumes - everything a theme park needs but on a very grand scale!

Sound good? Damn right it does... sadly, this is where the book trips up over itself somewhat. There's not nearly enough emphasis on these worlds and the rides contained within them. Worlds and rides that could have been a delight to explore through a book with great descriptions and action sequences to bring them to life are left feeling incomplete and poorly realised. There?s the occasional snippet of great description of a ride or area here and there but that?s the sort of thing I?d expected this book to be full of. But it is not.

The author instead decides to concentrate on the characters, who are, for lack of a better word, rather boring. Our main guy, Andrew Warne, is a computer/robotics engineer responsible for creating Utopia?s Metanet, which at the start they believe is malfunctioning. It turns out that Utopia is in fact under attack from the main baddie, John Doe, and his team of operatives hell bent on robbing Utopia for all its worth. Andrew Warne has ties with several of the Utopia employees and his daughter is also involved. I don?t really want to go into too much more detail on the characters otherwise I may begin to spoil the plot.

You?ll find the plot is full of twists and turns along the way but to be honest, you?ll also find that you don?t care because the majority of the characters involved are basically boring or unlikeable. A characteristic of good writing in my opinion is being able to get people t
o associate with and ?like? your characters, something that in this book, Lincoln Child fails to do. Not for lack of trying mind, chapters upon chapters are wasted with characters just thinking to themselves or having long and pointless conversations with eachother. The end result of which is sections totally lacking in action or any stimulus to keep on reading.

Despite all this, the book is worth persevering with as the parts where action and adventure do actually manage to take place are gripping and entertaining, be them disappointingly short-lived.

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You may be wondering if I even liked this book at all. Well, for all its flaws I would say I did. Because I found the subject matter so interesting initially maybe I was always going to be disappointed, and perhaps it is unfair to dismiss all of Child?s attempts at character-building in favour of mindless action and vivid descriptions. At the end of the day, this is just my opinion, and I?m sure this book could be well enjoyed by a wide range of people. For £6.99 (although do shop around on the net!) it is a long and highly entertaining (in places) read if you feel you can wade through the slower bits (or indeed appreciate them!).

Hope you enjoyed the review, Tom.

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