Book Review – Lincoln Child’s “Utopia”

Summertime is here for many school children, and a popular activity is going to amusement / theme parks, such as the Disney and Universal theme parks in central Florida.

Of course, heavy crowds, overbearing heat, and ridiculously high prices for food and beverages can make going to a theme park a rather hellish experience, and that’s without dealing with a small group of terrorists who will gladly kill everybody.

That’s basically the premise for Lincoln Child‘s thrilling novel, Utopia.  At one of the most advanced and high-tech theme parks in the world, a small band of terrorists infiltrates the computer systems to cause “glitches,” and they also use explosives to add to the terror.  It’s up to a computer specialist and his assistant to figure out what is happening and how to stop the terrorists before they kill everybody in the theme park.

Located in the deserts of Nevada, Utopia is one of the most high-tech theme parks in the world.  The entire theme park is covered by a massive dome that protects people from the outside environment, as well as providing additional effects and theming to the park.  Utopia is divided into four themed areas:  Camelot (medieval Europe), Gaslight (Victorian England), Callisto (a moon of Jupiter), and the Boardwalk (a New England-style turn-of-the-century Boardwalk).  A fifth land, Atlantis, is currently under construction and scheduled to open in several months.

A series of portals connect the various lands to the central area, the Nexus.  The portals provide a gentle transition to allow for park guests to “decompress” and better adjust to the highly themed lands, enhancing their visit to Utopia.

The workers at Utopia use a series of underground levels to operate the park and see about its day-to-day business.

Utopia opens with a prologue where a family of four is riding Notting Hill Chase, a thrill ride / roller coaster located in Gaslight.  Suddenly part of the ride breaks and the ride vehicle is thrown off the track, seriously injuring the riders.  Fortunately, nobody is killed.

Two weeks later, Dr. Andrew Warne, a computer and robotics specialist who has done work for Utopia, arrives at Utopia in response to a request by the park’s management.  He’s there to diagnose the system and try to determine why the computer programming led to a safety failure which caused serious injury to some riders.  Tagging along with Andrew Warne is his young teenage daughter, Georgia Warne.

Andrew is a single parent as his wife died a couple of years ago.  It’s been a struggle for him to not only provide income, but to also raise his daughter at such a point in her life.

Utopia heavily relies upon the Metanet, Andrew Warne’s computer system that controls the park’s robots.  It’s a complicated computer system that also allows for the robots to learn from their surroundings and to improve their functions.  The computers that control the Metanet are locked from any outside connections.  Only a few employees inside of the theme park can access Metanet.

After riding the monorail into Utopia, and being impressed with the sights along the way, Andrew meets with Sarah Boatwright, Head of Park Operations.  Things are a bit delicate as Sarah used to date Andrew back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after his wife died.  She accepted the job offer at Utopia and moved across the country, leaving Andrew and Georgia back in Pittsburgh.

In a meeting with Sarah, Andrew learns that the park’s upper management believes that the Metanet software is responsible for causing the robots to act strange and miss safety checks, even though there weren’t any signs of it until just recently.  They’re pulling the plug on Metanet.  Instead of checking the problems with the software, it turns out that Andrew was really brought out there to organize a way to shut down Metanet.

Andrew reluctantly accepts the job and works with Teresa “Terri” Bonifacio, the computer and robotics specialist at Utopia to figure out a safe way to shut down the system.  Terri has been Andrew’s liaison at Utopia as the system was being set up.  This is his first time meeting the lady who happens to be single.

Nothing about this makes sense to Andrew.  When he designed and extensively tested the system, everything worked as it should have.  The only solution that he can think of is that somebody at Utopia changed part of the Metanet without anybody knowing.  When Terri checks the listing of updates to the system, everything looks to be correct.

After they create a listing of steps to safely shut down Metanet, Andrew takes Georgia into the theme park so that she can have some fun.  When they’re at an ice cream bar in Callisto, Andrew recognizes a robot server that he built back in Pittsburgh.  He issues a command so that the robot recognizes him as its builder.  Suddenly the robot goes nuts and tries to attack Andrew.  Dr. Warne has to jump across the bar and manually shut down the robot before it hurts or kills anybody.

This is concrete proof to Andrew that something has definitely affected the Metanet system.  Now it’s just a question of figuring out what happened to the computer system.

While Andrew and Terri are working on the Metanet, Sarah Boatwright has a visit from an unknown man in her office.  His name is “John Doe,” and he and his team are prepared to kill everybody in the theme park if she doesn’t give in to his requests.

After telling Sarah the usual demands of not evacuating the crowds and not calling the police, he tells her that he wants the Crucible.  The Crucible happens to be software technology to some of the most advanced and lifelike holographs in the world.  This technology is so advanced that Utopia doesn’t even risk patenting it or licensing it out to other companies.  This is something that they are keeping entirely at Utopia for use in its attractions.

One of the problems with trying to catch John Doe is that he’s always a step ahead of the workers in Utopia.  He knows the camera system just as well as the underground network of tunnels as well as some of the individual attractions.  It’s rather frustrating for Bob Allocco, the Head of Park Security, to track the terrorist, let alone trying to apprehend him.

The story continues as Sarah Boatwright, Bob Allocco and Fred Barksdale, CTO, try to deal with John Doe.  When John Doe thinks that Sarah and her companions are being dishonest with their intentions, then his team strikes back and causes accidents at the rides and shows.  The situation escalates as explosives are used to disable some of the rides and cause small areas of chaos.  At one point Andrew and Georgia are caught in John Doe’s path, and Georgia is seriously injured after an explosion.

Andrew and Terri are more determined than ever to catch John Doe before he strikes again.  They ultimately figure out that the tampering with Metanet was part of an inside job, and the evidence points to Fred Barksdale of all people.  It turns out that Fred is actually a scam artist, and he planned the whole attack on Utopia.  He actually has two goals with his plans:  gain control of the Crucible’s software (and later sell it to the highest bidder), and rob the armored car that collects the weekly cash deposit from the park, a weekly delivery of about $100 million.

The robbery of the park’s deposit was fairly simple.  Fred had arranged for a fake armored car to arrive during the chaos as he secretly cancelled the original armored delivery company.  By the time that anybody noticed that the normal company did not deliver the deposit, he and his hired gang would be long gone.

The only problem for Fred Barksdale is that he’s captured and placed in a holding cell underneath Utopia.  Inside of the holding cell is one of the terrorists who was captured while hacking into a different part of the company’s computer system.  The other terrorist escapes and ends up murdering three people, including Fred Barksdale.

John Doe ultimately gains two copies of the Crucible (even better as he can sell both copies and get even more money), and he attempts to flee in the fake armored car with the rest of his gang.  Their escape plan is to drive out of Utopia and then detonate the series of explosives that had been placed around the theme park’s gigantic dome, causing it to collapse and kill thousands of innocent people.

Fortunately, Andrew Warne figures out what’s really happening, and he uses holographic technology along with some powerful fireworks to stop John Doe before he can escape.  The terrorist leader is killed before he can detonate the explosives and destroy Utopia.

Utopia ends nine months after the terror attack.

Andrew Warne is back at Utopia for a tour of the theme park and inspection of his latest robotic software.  Sarah is there to greet him and show him parts of Atlantis before it opens to the general public.  Swimming in the water is a fire-breathing sea serpent that Andrew programmed.

Sarah and Andrew talk about some of the key robots, and Andrew learns that the robots were acting upon commands NOT in their programming.  The robots had learned new program functions because of the stressful situations, exactly as the Metanet was designed to work.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is Utopia a good book?

Yes, Utopia is a pretty good story.  It’s very easy to follow if you’re a fan of theme parks and know how they operate.

One of the key things about Utopia is that this is Lincoln Child’s first solo book.  His previous publications were with fellow author Douglas Preston.  Several parts of Utopia feel simplified or simply bland or somewhat incomplete.  These aren’t major issues as the story as a whole is pretty fun, but it does lower the overall ranking of the book.

In particular, the ending to this book feels rushed and overly simplified.  It’s hard to believe that a criminal genius like John Doe would be together with the rest of his colleagues as they tried to escape with the park’s weekly deposit in the fake armored car.  There could have easily been a much more intricate and interesting finish to the book, perhaps something a lot more thrilling and/or sinister.

It’s pretty obvious that Child was heavily influenced by the Disney theme parks with the design and operation of his fictional park, Utopia.  Again, this isn’t a negative as it feels like the way his park is operated seems to be very realistic, but it’s not very creative.  Some of the rides and shows in Utopia did sound pretty neat.  I liked the idea of having a holographic version of Jack the Ripper popping up and scaring people trapped in a theater.

Utopia is a great summertime read during peak travel season.  Grab a copy of this book and enjoy it on your family’s next vacation.  It’s fairly simple, but the plot keeps moving at a decent pace, and it’s always interesting when book and movie plots involve theme parks.