Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Wonderful Solo Effort from Lincoln Child
I was thrilled to see Lincoln Child take a topical detour from his work with Douglas Preston for his first solo novel, Utopia. I love his novels with Preston, but with Utopia, he develops his own distinct voice and the results are spectacular. The amount of detail in this book is wonderful, and yet, unlike Crichton, Child never lectures the reader on minute technical matters. The action never comes to a complete stop for a treatise on artificial intelligence or any of the other scientific elements of the book. I also really liked how Child is able to give voice to a teenage girl, as well as more typical adult male action-oriented characters. I think Child's ability to make the reader care about the population of his book (even the nasty characters) is what elevates Utopia above many other genre novels. These are not cardboard cutouts. This book is definitely worth a read - one of the few thrillers that is actually worth not waiting for paperback.
Rating: - Utopia
See book summary above.When I see Lincoln Child's name on any novel, I'm gettin' it. With this first solo attempt he hits a home run. What Lincoln Child has created in this novel is an elaborate theme park (in fact some of the descriptions of the park are so overwhelming they are hard to picture, so the author was thoughtful enough to put an illustration at the start) based on past cultures as well as future cultures. This is a very entertaining and exciting novel. For some reason while I was reading this story, the movie 'Die Hard' kept coming to mind. Hmmm. Highly recommended...strictly pleasure.
Rating:  - tired but somewhat engaging plot
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.
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