Omnitopia Dawn

Omnitopia #1

By: Diane Duane

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

In an increasingly wired and computer-friendly world, massive multiplayer online games have become the ultimate form of entertainment. 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. But there's a secret to Omnitopia, one that Dev would give his life to protect: the game isn't just a program or a piece of code. It's become sentient - alive. And it's Dev's job to keep it that way.

©2010 Diane Duane (P)2010 Tantor

I hope I live to experience this first hand.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It was entertaining and a bit funny. Although the pace was slow, the premise a little less than original ("Sword Art Online" ".hack//SignSign") and the ending like a freight train coming tword you; It was still good.

What did you like best about this story?

Gryphon poop. Also the inate coolness of creating an entire game world like the one Rick (was that his name?) made.

Any additional comments?

Hope the author writes the next one. Then gets it published. Then publishes an audio version. Then audible.com gets it. And sells it really cheap. That's all.

A bit dated now but still enjoyable

I read the book when it was first released so I knew I’d enjoy the audiobook. I wasn’t prepared for the truly mediocre narration. Does no one make sure that narrators can pronounce foreign names or technical terms? Surely some editor ought to be responsible for that. Maybe the narrator ought to be responsible for asking if he has unfamiliar words correct. I couldn’t help but wince at his pronunciation of Jean-Marie. Nor is ASCII spelt out letter by letter, as anyone with a computer background could have told him if he’d bothered to ask.

Other than that, the author didn’t anticipate that in eight short years no one would be using PDA’s any more, nor that cell phones would have the capabilities that they do now. But to be fair, nor did anyone else. On the other hand, she evidently expected virtual reality to be much farther along than it actually is. That may be a lesson in which one has more economic value at the moment.

I wish the promised sequel would be released. My only real complaint about Diane Duane is that she writes a whopping good book, promises a sequel and then goes on to something else and the sequel never appears. Or else, as in the Young Wizard series, the subsequent books are strung out over such an extended interval that everyday technology has dramatically changed from the early books to the later ones, making the early ones seem really dated.

Duane does it again

I love Diane Duane's books and this one is no exception. At first, the reader is led through a few bites of the life of gaming company tycoon. But as the story progresses, added characters are introduced. By the time the science fiction/fantasy elements are introduced the reader is ready to accept them as a logical part of the world. I did not want to stop reading especially in the second half.

Well done

A well crafted story, performed by an excellent narrator. I highly recommend any and all works by Diane Duane.

A Somewhat Interesting But Tired Storyline...

Not long on this one. Sounds good when you read the premise, but it's unfortunately tired and sporadic. The premise can be found in a good number of stories, with the same old tired conflicts, man versus world, man versus man-made-world, reality dysfunction (Sorry, Mr. Hamilton), and fantasy world building and structure by the characters.

Even a fairly good narrator can't help this one.

Yawn. Who needs codine when you have this?

Great book!

This is one of my all time favorites, I hope she writes more Sci-Fi. Diane is a very good writer.

Corporate warfare with hacking and espionage

Step into the worlds of Omnitopia a large VRMMORPG run by Dev Logan. This is NOT a fantasy RPG book; nor is it a fantasy book in general. The best description, almost sci-fi, not quite simple fiction. Join Omnitopia a few days before the roll-out of its newest expansion release. Stay to see if the company can survive being targeted by what possibly amounts to the things hackers go to bed dreaming about doing to wall-street. Along the way expect to enjoy some cute interludes where families interact with each other. All in not the worst way to spend fifteen hours, but unfortunately not the best either.

Diane Duane is without question a master writer, and Omnitopia Dawn is well written and polished. Unfortunately, the story lacks any way to stand out from the horde. One could argue that having been published in 2010 it carries a distinction of being an early pioneer, but others have managed to leave deeper marks by having something unique and memorable, this book is neither. Please don't judge all Duane's work on just this book, check out So You Want to be a Wizard and enter a world of unforgettable wonder; one of the best spins on magic ever.

Kirby Heyborne's voice performance is in a word, forgettable. During the performance it is easy to get lost in the monotone paragraphs and steady drone. His redeeming factors are his character voices. These are consistent and accurate; in the right book Kirby would likely be an enjoyable narrator.

🡺Note: Thank you for taking the time to read my review.

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See what I did there. 50% of the book can be deleted with that right up there and 10s of millions of dollars.

The writer hasn't played a game before let alone an mmo. The mmo in question sounds so mind numbibgly boring.

You tried. Write what you know next time.

love it, but where's the sequel?

why is the sequel being held up? what is the publisher's problem?! I need East Wind.

Stagnant characters & soft SciFi

If you're one who likes there science fiction to be entertaining, fun you might like this - but if you insist that the tech be built on somewhat believable foundations, then pass on this novel. While I enjoyed some of the idea behind the story, the hugely noticeable holes in the foundation of the science repeatedly dropped me out of the story. SciFi doesn't need to be proved out on paper, but the lack of even the smallest bridge from present day to this not so distant future was lacking entirely. And if you don't care about that, note that this is one of those books where the good guys are always good, and the bad always bad. Neither face situations that could sway them one way or another, they just seem to always be good, resulting in lucky days, and vice versa.