Utopia

Set in Utopia, a futuristic high-tech theme park, Lincoln Child's novel is a nonstop thriller performed by Scott Brick with an ideal mix of intensity and emotion. The events last a only few hours, and the pace of the story is frenetic. On the day robotics expert Andrew Warne arrives to "fix" the park's Metanet, which he designed, a group of criminals infiltrates the park and takes over its entire technological infrastructure. Warne must figure out how to stop them. Brick flawlessly conveys the novel's tension and romantic twists, changing tone with impeccable timing as events unfold. In Brick's capable hands, it's a roller-coaster ride not to be missed. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

November 11, 2002
A fantastic near-future amusement park is the setting for this techno-thriller by Child (coauthor with Douglas Preston of the Preston/Child bestsellers) in his first solo outing. Utopia, a Nevada amusement park extraordinaire, features several elaborate holographic theme worlds (like Camelot and Gaslight, which meticulously recreates Victorian England), all run by an ultrasophisticated computer system and serviced by robots. When a series of fluke accidents culminates in the near death of a boy on a Gaslight roller coaster, the Utopia brain trust calls in the original computer engineer, Dr. Andrew Warne. Warne arrives with his bristly 14-year-old daughter, Georgia, and sets to work solving the Gaslight problem, though he can't believe that the system is willfully malfunctioning, as the evidence seems to indicate. To complicate matters, Utopia's manager, Sarah Boatwright, is Warne's ex-girlfriend, and an obvious mutual attraction exists between Warne and Utopia systems controller Teresa Bonifacio. Just as Warne gets to work, violent attacks erupt all over the park, masterminded by an impassive psychopath known as John Doe and carried out by his cadre of henchmen, including a computer genius and a crack marksman. For three hours, Doe holds the park hostage, and Warne, Boatwright and Bonifacio race against the clock to foil his plans. Child creates a convincingly self-contained world, populated by amusing creations like a cyber-dog called Wingnut and clever descriptions of futuristic amusement park rides. Sluggish prose and an overload of technical detail slow the pace, but Child proves he is capable of fireworks (literally) at the rousing conclusion.

In six short and thrill-packed hours, Eric Stoltz takes the listener on a whirlwind trip through the high-tech amusement park Utopia. Stoltz reads with a surprisingly steady tone, keeping his voice calm even as chaos erupts. The effect is wonderful, with Stoltz acting as a conduit for a well-written story. He makes characters--even the most sinister and evil--believable and has great mastery when it comes to accents. His voice provides depth to a strong cast and plot. For anyone sitting in traffic or looking for an escape from everyday life, this book is a godsend. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine