Rating: 
Summary: Utopia plenty
Review: First off, a prior reviewer had Mr. Preston confused with his brother. Richard Preston writes the germ warfare novels. Douglas Preston writes delightful novels like Jennie and Dinosaurs in the Attic. All that aside, this is a great novel- much in the vein of the Preston/Child novels that many, many people swear are the best in the business. Child has outdone himself in the details-- they make the park come alive in the reader's imagination. Definitely a hit!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent solo debut
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: tired but somewhat engaging plot
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A good first solo effort from half of my favorite duo!
Review: If you're a big fan of the Preston/Child novels, you'll find it interesting to see how they do separately (not that they've gone they're separate ways). I read Utopia with great anticipation, and was pretty pleased. It's very well written and enjoyable, but I think the plotline could have used some tweaking. I get the impression after reading Child's solo effort that Preston comes up with the fabulous plotlines and a basic narrative skeleton, while Child may very well be the "author" who adds the art in their collaborations... I guess we'll find out when Preston's solo effort appears late next year. In the meantime, don't hesitate to pick this one up!
Rating:
Summary: Utopia is a thrill ride that you will find hard to put down!
Review: Lincoln Child's first solo novel is fantastic. If you have read any of the Preston/Child books in the past, this will not disappoint! Utopia takes place in a futuristic theme park in Nevada. It is filled with futuristic rides that blast you into zero gravity and filled with holographic surprises around every corner. The park, named Utopia, is completely shut off from the outside world, and thus makes for a fascinating setting to an action packed day. The story basically takes you through Dr. Andrew Warne's first visit to a theme park that he in a way helped create. He is there to help fix a computer program that he created to control all of the parks robots. But this is no ordinary day as John Doe (who we know very little about) is in the park to pull of the crime of the century. The story is fast paced as Warne others try to stop Doe from pulling of the crime and killing the innocent people in the park. From the opening chapter to the last page there are twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages. We meet interesting side characters like Wingnut, a robot dog, and are taken along on the rides in the park that are described in a way that makes you feel like you are sitting next to the person in the book. There are some technical aspects of the park in the book, but I think that this adds to the overall story! All in all a wonderful novel and a great solo work by Mr. Child. I highly recommend this book, and all other Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child books!
Rating:
Summary: Lincoln Child does a respectable job in his first solo book
Review: Utopia is the name of a theme park so vividly and painstakingly described that suspension of disbelief comes as quickly as the characters are enfolded by the theme park's alternate reality in this, Lincoln Child's first solo book. There are four worlds in Utopia: Camelot (medieval England), Boardwalk (early 20th century beach carnival), Gaslight (Victorian England) and Callisto (future-space); plus the still-under-construction Atlantis. These worlds have been created in and under a Nevada box canyon, roofed over by an environmental dome, air conditioned and sealed off, accessible from a remote parking area only by monorail. The closed-in nature of the setting is no coincidence --- it's integral to the sort of book Child is creating. The publisher calls it a thriller and there are certainly thriller elements, but it is much more a variant on the locked room, puzzle-type mystery, with the characteristics of such books pushed to the maximum. Just in case we have a little trouble picturing such a place in our heads (we don't -- Child writes with enviable clarity), the dust jacket gives us a picture of the monorail approaching, or maybe it's leaving, Utopia. And in case we aren't quite sure what the word means, there's a defining quote complete with "utopia" in Greek: "1. A state or situation of perfection. 2. An ideal place or location, frequently imaginary." The Greek is a child-like touch. We also encounter, within the first few pages, a tech worker who reads Virgil --- and not just any Virgil, but the Georgics -- in his down time. One of the characters frequently quotes Shakespeare. Another is reading Proust. And so on. Our hero is Andrew Warne, engineer, theoretician, MIT grad, bad-boy specialist in robotics. Warne has, in fact, built the robotics for Utopia and is on his way there with his fourteen year-old daughter in chapter one. Something has gone wrong with the robots in the prologue. The flaw in the theme park's perfection is being kept very hush-hush, even though a death occurred. That death, the first of many, has brought Warne here a week ahead of time --- a time frame that turns out to be important. In the course of a single day in Utopia, which the book spans, a dastardly plot evolves, many people die, romances are lost and found and an endearing robot dog captures our hearts (or is meant to and the darn dog came close with me). There are a lot of characters in Utopia but little characterization. It's all plot and the fantastical setting. The plot is as intricate a puzzle as anyone could wish and the setting never fails in its fascination --- which is quite a feat considering the scope of all those worlds. The book's pace --- crucial in a thriller -- is more irregular than, I think, its author wants. All those fascinating little details slow it down, often in a jerky sort of way. If this book were a meal, there would be more trimmings on the table than meat and potatoes. Nowhere is the jerky pace more evident than in the denouement, which is of the type I call "a pink-bunny ending" --- you know, that battery-driven bunny with the drum, who keeps going and going and going. It is always interesting to observe when two people who have been successful as partners split off and go solo. Douglas Preston has winged it too and I've read his books. Preston alone is somewhat dry but compelling, since he writes on urgent subjects such as deadly viruses and germ warfare. Lincoln Child shows us here that the lighter, more whimsical and imaginative side of their partnered books is his. Their latest together, A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, when seen in this light, obviously owes much to Mr. Child. He has an enormous imagination and a way with words, but he needs Mr. Preston to anchor him down and would do well, I think, to stay with the partnership in the future. --- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day
Rating:
Summary: A very good story. 4 1/2 stars, I rounded up.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Stinker. Utter, absolute, bottom of the barrel stinker.
Review: The worst book I've ever started reading. If I could turn back time, I'd rather have spent that twenty bucks paying someone to punch me in the face. This was atrocious, there's no other word for it (but let's try to find some anyway.) I'd say the characters were carbon copies, but that would be an insult to poor characters everywhere. The plot was utterly banal, and it's astonishing that this guy felt the plot was enough to hold the novel up, so much so that he put no effort into character. I feel cheated, because on the cover the quote was: "It doesn't get any better than this." I imagine whoever typed that was on the payroll or sharing the author's bed, there can be no other motive for such praise. This book was utterly dreadful, I cannot say it enough to get the taste of this novel out of my mouth. Utter bilge. There were even spelling mistakes in there for crying out loud, for instance: 'menat' should have been 'meant.' Trash. Books like this are the reasons people stop buying books.
Rating:
Summary: A good techno-thriller!
Review: This book has all the ingredients a thriller should have. We have a futuristic theme-park with a bunch of terrorists threatening to kill people if their demands aren't met and any move to try to warn the customers or try to determine how the terrorists have infiltrated the computer systems, will result in many customer deaths.
In the theme park called Utopia, holographic technology and realistic historical depictions are the norm with robots performing maintenance and in some instances, serving the clients. Something seems to cause the robots to malfunction (I just remember the line "Welcome to Westworld, where nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong..."). The robot's programmer is called in to deprogram and remove the robots. What he finds is that instead of accidental system problems, someone has planted a "Trojan horse" program that causes the malfunctions.
Meanwhile, the park's management is approached by a terrorist, to give the master program of the park's core program, or a lot of people will die. We later find that this program could be used by the military to defeat heat seeking missiles and other programmed armaments. Therefore, giving up the code could have world-wide ramifications.
The story progresses to an exciting conclusion. The only issue I had that prevented me from giving it 5 stars, is people are getting hurt and killed on the attractions and the park officials are able to keep it quiet from law enforcement. I you can overlook this, then it should be a perfect thriller.
Rating:
Summary: You wont miss anything if you skip this book.
Review: When I picked this book up I thought that I was about to encounter the absolute worst premise of all time. All you have to do is read the dust jacket to groan with the possible clichés that might run rampant throughout this book. I have read all of Lincoln Child's books co-authored with Douglas Preston and have found them for the most part to be entertaining. So I thought that regardless of what looked like a disaster of an idea, I would give this a go anyways.
Surprisingly Child managed to craft a pretty taught though implausible thriller here. His characters are very one-dimensional and are not developed at all. But his use of the English language is remarkably well suited for this type of writing. He manages to craft a story that is quickly consumed and that keeps the reader plodding along in suspense. There is no originality occurring here, and at its core is a plot that is as old as the hills. But Child manages to keep the reader engaged through his expert grasp of suspense.
I would like to see Child and Preston read Edward Bunker's `Dog eat Dog.' I would like for them to see how Bunker treats his protagonist and pull some aspects of this into their mainstream wonder bread characterizations. It would be unique and startling if they would combine the two.
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