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Omnitopia Dawn (Omnitopia #1)

by Diane Duane (Goodreads Author)

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 349 ratings · 79 reviews

A near-future techno-thriller from New York Times bestselling author Diane Duane.

It's the first quarter of the twenty-first century, and "massively multiplayer" on-line games have been around for a couple of decades. In an increasingly wired and computer-friendly world they've become a form of entertainment so popular they're giving television and films a run for the mon...more A near-future techno-thriller from New York Times bestselling author Diane Duane.

It's the first quarter of the twenty-first century, and "massively multiplayer" on-line games have been around for a couple of decades. In an increasingly wired and computer-friendly world they've become a form of entertainment so popular they're giving television and films a run for the money. And the most popular gaming universe of all is Omnitopia, created by genius programmer Dev Logan.

For millions of people around the world, Omnitopia is an obsession, a passionate pastime, almost a way of life. Omnitopia is a virtual place where dreams come true-players can create their own universes within the game's structure, and participate in the profits if their piece of the universe is a hit. Ten million players routinely play in Omnitopia, and at any given time, nearly a million of them are on-line, living in a world more real to them then their own.

Worldwide, Omnitopia is now as much a culture as a game. Participants can become involved in it in a hundred different ways. Some game as if their lives depended on it, spending thousands of hours, or thousands of dollars, or both, on quests in search of "game glory" among their fellow players. Some game only to acquire sufficient in-game "value" to become entitled to become subcreators themselves, able to build new levels and start raking in the so-called "one percent of infinity" which is the leveler's share of the profits. But there are also people who don't game at all, preferring to use the massive platform simply to explore its worlds, or to interact with other participants. Some people do nothing but design on-line weapons and other items for Omnitopia gamers, and sell them-or act as brokers, buying and selling game artifacts to order. Some subcreators do the same kind of design and creation, but for tailored Microcosms or slices of them: these are the "unreal estate" dealers. Some players speculate in game "gold" on the success or popularity of Microcosms, rather than actually playing in them. And of course there are thieves and swindlers, cheaters who live to find the loophole in the game that will outside it in the real world.

Now Dev and his people are preparing to rollout a major new expansion to the Omnitopia system. And even as players, staff, the media, and the heavy hitters on the world financial scene wait eagerly for this fast-approaching and momentous event, there are others preparing to play a very different game-one that is meant to strike at the heart of Omnitopia and bring the entire system crashing down....

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published August 3rd 2010 by DAW Hardcover (first published July 22nd 2010)

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Dec 04, 2011 Marlene rated it 5 of 5 stars

In the middle of the first chapter of Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane, I kept thinking "I've played this book". Not "I've read this book", but "I've played this book", as in there's a game just like this. And there is. The beginning of the book is from the perspective of a player in an extremely immersive massively multiplayer online world that is so detailed that at first the reader doesn't realize that the perspective is inside a game. Then, he steps back into "real" life, and you realize he was...more In the middle of the first chapter of Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane, I kept thinking "I've played this book". Not "I've read this book", but "I've played this book", as in there's a game just like this. And there is. The beginning of the book is from the perspective of a player in an extremely immersive massively multiplayer online world that is so detailed that at first the reader doesn't realize that the perspective is inside a game. Then, he steps back into "real" life, and you realize he was playing his character, and this book is about the game.

Several years ago, I played a series of video games that mimicked both a massively multiplayer online world and the player's online chat experience during the game as it invaded reality. I really thought I was reading dot Hack, which was the game in question. It would have made a pretty good novel. But Omnitopia only started out the same as the game.

Omnitopia Dawn, dot Hack, and also, surprisingly, Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb, all have an element in common, that of using video gaming worlds to affect the so-called "real" world. But J.D. Robb uses the next step in virtual reality as a murder weapon. In dot Hack, the theme is mind control. But Omnitopia Dawn is much more deeply layered. The company behind the game is intended as a jab at high tech companies with their own internal geek culture, like Apple, Google, and even Microsoft back in the day.

But in Omnitopia Dawn, the real world is going to be affected in real ways, not virtual ones. Real competitors of the corporation behind Omnitopia plan to use the launch of the next upgrade to launch a very real attack on Omnitopia's servers using very real viruses, denial of service attacks and other tools that read like natural progressions from today's headlines. And the intent behind these attacks is to steal very real money from the company, and if possible to drive Omnitopia out of business, so that its competitors win.

Under the fantasy layer, and the business layer, there is a science fiction layer. Omnitopia's server network is vast and its founder has programmed it with its own individual persona and artificial intelligence. The new upgrade to the system has caused something unexpected to happen to that artificial intelligence. It has, like so many systems before it, become self-aware. And in the attack launched by Omnitopia's enemies, it starts to defend itself.

The first self-aware machine I remember reading about was Mike in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Not all of Heinlein's adult works wear well because some of his attitudes about women (among other things) were very definitely of his time and not ours. But I still remember the character of Mike very fondly. Mike named himself for Mycroft Holmes. But Mike was the computer that ran all the systems on the moon, and eventually accreted enough memory, inputs, data, whatever to become sentient. Two things about Mike stuck with me. His friend, Manny, teaching him about humor and jokes, the difference between funny once and funny always, and that Mike doesn't live to see the revolution he brings about.

There was a long moment at the end of Omnitopia Dawn where I was afraid I was reading about Mike again.(less)

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Sep 22, 2011 John Carter McKnight rated it 4 of 5 stars

While not without at least one serious flaw, Omnitopia Dawn is wonderful, classic sci-fi, and deserves a bigger readership than it's seeming to get.

This is an easy book for "if you're a fan of... you'll like..." - the game company Omnitopia (located right next to the ASU campus, and I'd give limbs to work there!) is so reminiscent of early Kim Stanley Robinson's utopianism that I dreamed about him last night. The black hat/white hat thriller plot driven by strong (if stereotyped) characters is...more

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May 10, 2011 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: signal

Unsatisfying.

This book describes a conflict between a Good CEO and a Bad CEO; each of them own large companies which run MMORPGs. Corporate America being what it is, the Good CEO and the Bad CEO don't directly interact; in fact all we see of the Bad CEO is a couple of scenes in which he introspects about how guilty he feels because he knows he's a bad person.

(In fairness, a decent chunk of the Good CEO's screen time is taken up with the author narrating how awesome it is that he's such a nice pe...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, scifi-fantasy

It's fun, it's light, it's got glowing trees and swords made out of code.

I was skeptical when I learned the book was about a MMORPG, since that story has basically been done to death, but I held out hope that Duane would surprise me with something new. Unfortunately, there's no new story here. She spends most of her time establishing her cliched characters, the good-guy-corporate-man and the bad-guy-corporate-man. I do like the Omnitopia universe, standard-issue as it is, though its world-build...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Robyn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, library, sci-fi-or-fantasy

I seem to be coming across a lot of books recently where the author is clearly a very good writer, but the book is only ok. This is another. I don't play, nor do I have any interest in, MMORPGs (don't have a problem with them, it's just not my thing), so the glut of fiction books about them the last few years doesn't speak to me. I picked this up because it was available through the library ebook system and I liked the cover art.

This book is slower than molasses. I get that it's the first book...more I seem to be coming across a lot of books recently where the author is clearly a very good writer, but the book is only ok. This is another. I don't play, nor do I have any interest in, MMORPGs (don't have a problem with them, it's just not my thing), so the glut of fiction books about them the last few years doesn't speak to me. I picked this up because it was available through the library ebook system and I liked the cover art.

This book is slower than molasses. I get that it's the first book of a series, so lots of groundwork is being laid for many books, but plenty of "book 1" novels are complete, interesting, and fast-moving while providing all the information necessary for the foundation of a series. In this book, quite literally, I was past the 50% point before anything happened. Since it was so overly simplified (this guy is Good and this guy is Bad) and there were far too many attackers against Mister Good, that whole first half was reiterating "like this one, don't like that one", "worry about all these impending attacks", and "here's not-quite-technical information". Once you pass a certain number of independent story threads each about a different group or individual intent on taking Dev and/or Omnitopia down, especially when no action is taking place, it just becomes dull and pointless. Oh, gee, another several thousand people preparing a DDOS attack? Another person who thinks Dev can't truly be all he's cracked up to be? YAWN.

Della was a problem for me from the start and was almost enough in and of herself to keep me from bothering to complete the book. I get that in some careers people get jaded and begin to expect the worst of everyone, but I worked in law enforcement. I truly saw the worst people do to each other outside of war, and I still don't assume that if the consensus is that someone and something are inherently good, it must be a cover-up for something dark and slimy. She's so gleeful about getting to be the person who destroys the beliefs and happiness of millions who believe the positive stuff. She also acts like she's smarter than every employee of a mega corporation, when they give her unfettered access and she thinks, essentially, "how dumb are they, now I can learn all their secrets". (view spoiler)

One of the biggest problems isn't entirely the author's fault. Most of the plot synopses I read (the one on the library site, the one on Amazon) did not include the final sentence that the GoodReads one does. Because I'd also read the Goodreads synopsis, I knew that Omnitopia had attained sentience. But this was apparently supposed to be a big surprise, and it occurred at, I believe, 84% of the way into the book. Since I thought it was a main part of the book, based on that synopsis, I kept waiting for it. I kept reading little clues as being about that, not aware that I was apparently not supposed to know yet. Since very little of the book remained at the point that it was revealed, it became another way in which it was slow and dull. A waiting game while no other action was there to distract me. When action did happen, very close to the end, it was interesting and did move quickly. It just wasn't enough pay-off for all the time I'd put in up to that point.

As a side note, authors shouldn't use settings they've spent little time in. They can read all the research material they want, be a tourist all they want, it still won't feel right to readers who have lived there. For example, the freeway drive from Sky Harbor to Tempe is a freeway with 20+ foot high retaining walls on both sides. Much of the 10 is a sunken freeway, well below street level, which always seemed odd to me when I lived there, since it's an area that suffers flash flooding. Della could not be on the 10 there looking out at flat desert expanses, those views are different parts of the 10, you have to be out of the Valley for that. Even if the walls weren't so high, to properly see the emptiness of the desert you need to be in AJ, north Mesa, Scottsdale, etc. Not the 10 approaching ASU. It's just...not quite right, all the AZ stuff (the description of monsoons isn't even accurate and it's a couple sentences that weren't even necessary), like when authors set books in the Bay Area and have local characters call BART "the subway".(less)

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Mar 26, 2012 benebean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: flibrary, sci-fi-fantasy, cleaness-granny-smiles, could-recommend, medium, philosophy-religion

a lot of Biblical imagery. Irritated by a couple lackadaisical scriptural associations, but mostly really glad someone finally used the computing virtual worlds to express these concepts.

So I think I know where the author is going with this extended analogy. While I like what she is trying to do, I'm uncomfortable with
(view spoiler)...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Tagra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

That was certainly a story! I'm not really sure what to say about it.

The book is about a MMORPG that is on a level past what we see today. People actually log into it as a virtual reality, and within the world there are little sub worlds of different themes and game types. In many ways it's like the internet itself with various web pages, except the pages are worlds where people take on roles. Most of the ones described are your typical fantasy tropes with orcs and elves and swords, but it passe...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller, speculative-fiction, science-fiction

The worlds of Omnitopia are thoroughly-enjoyable settings, though tied very closely to modern experiences of multiplayer gaming. The author also draws on current understandings of "good" technology companies versus "bad" Wall Street firms; while the antagonist is another game company and CEO, its attending descriptors seem much like today's vilified financial institutions. This text has, therefore, the potential to age quickly like Tom Clancy's Net Force. Duane's characters are somewhat one-dime...more

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Oct 27, 2010 Wayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Wayne by: Gloria

Shelves: fiction

I'm a big fan of Diane Duane's Young Wizard's series. This is the first "adult" book of hers that I've read. I can see a lot of similarities in her themes between this book and the Young Wizard's series.
This book takes place in 2015. An online game called Omnitopia (think World of Warcraft meets Second Life times 100) is about to update to its latest release. The main characters are the owner of the company and an experienced player who has just been given the opportunity to create his own littl...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-2010s, x-series-bk-1

I'm a recovering addict of MMORPGs. I used to pay money to play, and could easily spend ten hours at a stretch doing clan battles, leveling up my stats, and killing demons and dragons in lava-circled dungeons. I was kind of a loser. Still, in spite of the fact that I've stayed clean for two years, the thought of a fully-immersive virtual reality world still makes me drool.

Really, considering how popular video games are in Western (and Eastern) culture, I'm surprised there aren't more books about...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Marta rated it 2 of 5 stars

Surprisingly disappointing. Or maybe not. If I'd read the "corporate espionage techno-thriller" description, maybe I wouldn't have had such high hopes, because espionage thriller stories are simultaneously stressful and boring for me. But I am a big fan of the Young Wizards series. In this world, however, there were things that were just a little weird: legends about the first player; a memorial to someone who had discovered the method of traveling between worlds; casual conversations in towns;...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another story partially set in an MMO. Basically a story of industrial espionage culminating in a hacker attack against the game world. I like Duane's writing and have read a lot of her books, but I'm finding her characters are becoming more and more two dimensional. The good guys are all very similar - personable, competent, inclined to breezy flippancy while they heroically do this or that, never showing the smallest character flaw. Maybe this is a byproduct of all the young adult books she's...more

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Nov 11, 2010 kvon rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had some problems with this book, resulting in a slog through the first three hundred pages. The bad guys are all way too evil, of the twirling-mustache type; the good guys pretty unalloyed good. Lots of business talk which is important but does nothing for me. Very few of the characters change or grow in any way--off the top of my head, I can think of Arnulf and Angela, and Cora, and that's about it. (Not counting Delia, who may change after the action but was mostly being reacted against.) I...more

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May 19, 2013 JulesQ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, airport-books

Actually three and a half stars, because the book was overall pretty satisfying.

However, it suffered from 1 major flaw and 1 minor flaw. That major flaw was characterization -- as in each character had a single Defining Quality and they were not developed beyond that. And particularly for main protagonist who is ridiculously Noble and Kind and Good while the antagonist is ridiculously Selfish and Greedy and Bad.

The minor flaw was a certain inelegance in prose. It was never bad prose and I don'...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Lychee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-f

Enjoying the story, but taken aback on a frequent basis by rather old school gender-stereotypical seemingly off the cuff remarks. The kind of writing that I've grown used to dealing with from uninformed male authors, but not at all used to after reading authors like Lois McMaster Bujold, David Webber, or Sharon Shinn. Additionally, the main protagonists are all men and the women are primarily wives with minor supporting roles. All this rings very strange in 2011, especially after reading Shinn's...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Christina K rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm halfway through the audiobook, and it's reasonably entertaining, but... Maybe I'm just too familiar with DD's style & themes, but I'm already placing bets with myself about what happens next. It's well-written, the ideas are good, and maybe they wouldn't be so slow on the written or e-page, but through the reading, I'm going "yes, yes, and that's the next bad guy" and "yes, yes, that's a concealed good guy" and "dear God will the bad guy who runs the Microsoft-type corporation never shut...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Jerry Wright rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Checked it out from the library, and then bought my own copy. Although it would be great to have this virtual technology available by 2015, somehow I don't think we'll make it.

The main plot is the attack on Omnitopia, the world's greatest online gaming universe, by the black hats who want to steal the company blind and crush it. Why? Because they can. Or at least, they think they can.

The subplot of Rik, who receives the prize of creating his own miniworld "Indigo...more

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Aug 31, 2010 The Unfanboy added it

Shelves: reviewed-at-unfanboy-com

Cyberspace ain’t what it used to be. In the era when William Gibson coined the term (it’s another one of those useful SF neologisms, like tanj) readers imagined that navigating the Internet would someday become a transcendent experience, its own reality. But thus far logging on has proven to be somewhat more mundane. That’s not because we don’t have awesome virtual reality goggles, but because it turns out that most people want to use the Internet to augment reality, not replace it. We use Fours...more Cyberspace ain’t what it used to be. In the era when William Gibson coined the term (it’s another one of those useful SF neologisms, like tanj) readers imagined that navigating the Internet would someday become a transcendent experience, its own reality. But thus far logging on has proven to be somewhat more mundane. That’s not because we don’t have awesome virtual reality goggles, but because it turns out that most people want to use the Internet to augment reality, not replace it. We use Foursquare to meet up with friends at a bar, we use Picasa to share pictures of national parks, we (er, somebody) uses Craigslist to find partners for real sex, not cybersex.

Amazingly complex online entities have come into existence, of course. But even these worlds are more interesting for their social origins. For example, even before the idea of the Internet, SF authors had dreamed up digitally driven databases of all human knowledge (Encyclopedia Galactica or the Guide, take your pick). But it’s safe to say that no one could have predicted the actual interactions that produced something like Wikipedia, much less the unique ethical and aesthetic conflicts it has spawned. Our interest in the real-world social processes behind our technological worlds is the reason why you may have wondered what it would be like to work at Google or what exactly Mark Zuckerberg is thinking. Even those of us who have never played World of Warcraft are fascinated by its relationship with the real-world economy. Somehow, in the end, even night elf mohawks are less interesting than human beings.

Many SF novels have taken these factors into account when telling stories about the future of the Internet. But Diane Duane’s Omnitopia Dawn does so with a particular knack for linking the techie culture of today with the online possibilities of tomorrow. This story of a massive multiplayer online game – Omnitopia – is set in the distressingly imminent date of 2015. Omnitopia (and its competitors) are operated by corporations that could easily exist in our own reality; their stock prices (tracked by Bloomberg and Reuters) play a significant role in the plot. That might sound dull, but Duane effectively links these fiduciary matters with the fate of the game and its players. And that game, as she describes it, is incredible.

Read more at bit.ly/da7QWI. Visit Unfanboy.com for more reviews.(less)

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Dec 16, 2010 Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's a Diane Duane book, and it has world trees. (Happy sigh)

It's also the first in a new series, and full of technobabble, and scattered with too many characters. There were a few reveals toward the end that felt deus ex machina simply because of the way she'd hidden facts that, I feel, didn't need to be hidden - and that it made no sense to hide, given the form of the narration.

Those minor quibbles aside, it's a strong and enjoyable book. I was worried about how she'd wind things up to lead in...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Schnaucl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, library, october, series, read_2012

I'm not sure why, but I expected more of the novel to take place in-game. I was expecting it to be more like Ready Player One. The game sounds like it would be fun.

The main focus of the story is actually on getting a new expansion released and the stock price of the company releasing the game. It's actually more interesting than it sounds because a lot of it does play out in-game.

It's not as good as Ready Player One but it was entertaining.

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May 12, 2012 Cupof Tea rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, winnipeg-public-library

The last 3rd of this story made up for a pretty boring start. I wish the story had got into things faster (I'm wondering if because this is a trilogy it was on purpose to get me hooked to the characters right at the end). I would give about 200 pages of this only one star.

The writing style at times got a bit "heady" and I wondered if I had been reading too much YA fiction to understand the big words, but upon reading a little out loud to the hubby, he agreed that sometimes the technical wordings...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Scout A. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

i loved the scifi aspects of the book: the way a world is built, the battle to fight back the hackers, the game coming alive and so on. all topics that have been explored in the amazing Young Wizard series. but i found the characters in Omnitopia Dawn rather stereotypical (husband and father, supportive wife, energetic 4year old...) and the depiction of the "good capitalist" who only thinks of how to make his gamers and employees happy was disturbing if not annoying. I recommend Cory Doctorow's...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Talizmyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-library, science-fiction, reviews, 2010

Diane Duane is one of my favourite authors since reading her novel, The Book of Night with Moon. Seeing Omnitopia Dawn on the shelf in Chapters (and I rarely see any of her books in the store - ever) I was fairly certain it would be a book that I would enjoy.

And I was right about that.

And the book was enjoyable, the game-world is vast and amazing, and, if Omnitopia existed, I am sure it would be one that I would invest both time and money into. Much of the novel was spent explaining and describi...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Kimberly Unger added it

Diane Duane does a wonderful job of characterization throughout the story without taking away from the technical aspects. A few words that anyone in the game-space will recognize, judiciously used, give the world more depth and veracity than is usually seen in the softer side of sci-fi/tech.

Simply enough, I was left wanting more. The book is part of a series (one I hope continues on) and reads very much as such, with clear climaxes and respites that indicate that we have only begun to see the co...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Estara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of mmorpg gaming and sf tv series set on earth

Recommended to Estara by: it's Diane Duane does MMORPGs

Shelves: ebook, read-in-2011

Yes, this was a lot like watching a movie. The focus was on the overall experience, but this being a Diane Duane book the characters were individual, well characterised and just plain fun - I liked the reveal about Stoopwaffel at the end (and I expect George to have been Raoul, actually, based on that frustrated comment about oceans). Rik and Angela were a nice viewpoint into the player perspective, and I love seeing the good guys get ahead.

I do have to say that I think the old anniversary plot...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Alex Telander rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

In the style of Michael Crichton at his absolute best, blending gripping science fiction with a harsh, believable reality; bestselling author Diane Duane brings the incredible Omnitopia Dawn to life, combining the world of a massive multiplayer online game like never seen before, with an the exciting world of corporate gaming and intrigue. If you’re any sort of tech geek, or just like playing video games, Omnitopia Dawn will suck you in and never let you go, making you forget worrying about that...more In the style of Michael Crichton at his absolute best, blending gripping science fiction with a harsh, believable reality; bestselling author Diane Duane brings the incredible Omnitopia Dawn to life, combining the world of a massive multiplayer online game like never seen before, with an the exciting world of corporate gaming and intrigue. If you’re any sort of tech geek, or just like playing video games, Omnitopia Dawn will suck you in and never let you go, making you forget worrying about that next level up.

There are two worlds here: the compelling fantasy world of the massive multiplayer online game (MMO) Omnitopia and the real world where video game companies fight to keep doing what they do best and keep the fans hooked, and make lots of money. It is the near future and when one sits down to play an MMO – like Lord of the Rings Online or World of Warcraft – they can use the familiar screen and keyboard set up, or there is the full immersion into the game, akin to virtual reality only better, where one experiences almost all senses of the game. It is an incredible complex world of fighting and raiding, of gaining levels and increasing your wealth, and even eating and drinking with friends, while discussing your next strategies. But Omnitopia is unique as every once in a while it selects one of its subscribers to create their own unique world of their own choosing and actually make money from it. So there is the world of Omnitopia, and then there are the thousands of other user-created worlds covering all of history and the imagination. The result is a game that one can quite literally be completely absorbed by, almost forgetting the real world.

Rik Maliani is an ordinary person with an ordinary job who’s been a fan and player of Omnitopia for years. Then he gets selected to create his own world; it’s a dream come true, especially with the possibility of making serious money, but the question is what type of world to make? What would make it truly unique and encourage people to come see and play? As Rik begins creating his world, he notices some unusual events happening in the world of Omnitopia that seem to affect the one he is creating, but at the same time to be affected by his world somehow.

Dev Logan is the CEO of Omnitopia and started the whole enterprise many years ago as a college student, and is now the eighth richest man in the world because of it. He has a crack team of computer whizzes and geniuses who spend their days monitoring Omnitopia, making sure it’s running as smoothly as possible, and preventing the constant attacks and hacks against the worldwide popular MMO. And now things are really heating up, as the new expansion is about to be released. Everyone is working pretty much nonstop and none more so than Dev, who forgets to even eat at times. Delia Harrington is doing a story on Omnitopia for Time Magazine about the company and the expansion. As Dev deals with the reporter – who seems to be snooping around a little more than she should be – he’s constantly being barraged by updates and news on what’s happening with Omnitopia. It seems there are an absurd number of attacks building against the MMO, more so than usual, even for an expansion, but then that’s all in a day’s work for the CEO of Omnitopia.

Finally, there is Phil Sorensen, who was a good friend of Dev’s in college – they were going to revolutionize the gaming world together, but then had a falling out – and is the CEO for Infinity Inc. with his own giant, money-making MMO. He would like nothing more than to see everything that is Omnitopia come crashing down, and have Dev come crying back to him. He’s going to stop at nothing to make this happen.

In Omnitopia Dawn, the first of a series, Diane Duane has created two complex worlds: that of the MMO game and that of the real world business, and yet she does a remarkable job of keeping things simple, explaining everything but somehow not overloading or boring the reader in any way. The result is an exciting, page-turning, addicting read that will have the reader wondering what’s going to happening next with who, and how it’s all going to end. Fortunately, readers won’t have to wait too long for the sequel, Omnitopia: East Wind, coming out August 2011.

Originally written on January 27, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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Jan 12, 2011 MB rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Gamers? Techies?

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2011

Basically it seemed to be about industrial espionage, an attempted corporate takeover, in and about cyberspace with a 'surprise' at the end to set up for the next book. I know that's not a good synopsis. Sorry! I found this book fairly confusing.

Since I have little knowledge of gaming and my tech knowledge is minimal, I had a hard time with this book. But the plot is interesting, the characters (although very thin) are full of potential, and the story ended intriguingly so I'll probably try the...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Shanshad Whelan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I liked this story just fine, and I'll probably read the next installment with some enjoyment. But I think it's important that reader's coming into this story know what it is not. It is not an uber-geek exploration of VR worlds and tech. In fact it spend relatively little time on tech and on how the worlds work inside the game--most of it is spent on character and on how cool the games are. There's some neat stuff here, but if you're into gaming on the techie side, this probably will seem a bit...more

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Aug 23, 2010 Cara Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Very much enjoyed this. I'm sure there were other things I was going to do this evening, but oh well. Here is why we are nice to our computers, people! It managed the switching perspectives well, and even though I was looking forward to getting back to some characters, I wasn't bored with any of them.

I am intensely jealous of the VR. It reminded me of Jackie French's Blood trilogy in that regard, and in some of the character relationships. Which is a good thing. No-one became brains though. YET.

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Mar 28, 2012 Maddoganchorite rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was a really good read. I thought the characters were interesting. I really hated the villains, and enjoyed when they got what they deserved especially that one guy Danny. I can't wait to see where she takes the plot next in the second book. I had a hard time believing all these technologies would be possible in 2015. To me, that seems too soon. I was expecting this story to take place in 2025, or 2035. It just seemed a little too weird to me. Other than that, a really good read. I really lik...more

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Thriller

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About Diane Duane

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than thirty years.
Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and a...more

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Books by Diane Duane

So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, #1)

The Wizard's Dilemma (Young Wizards, #5)

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Omnitopia Dawn (Omnitopia #1)

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