Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane

Omnitopia DawnHaving been around when all seven Harry Potter books had yet to come out presented me with a problem. What to read in between the release days? How could I get my magical fix without reading Harry Potter for what seemed like the hundredth time? The answer to that conundrum turned out to be the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. So when presented with the opportunity to read a new series by one of my favorite Harry Potter alternatives, I jumped at the chance.

Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane presents a pretty awesome look at what I would consider the ultimate in MMORPG’s (Massively Multiple Online Role Playing Games). The book is focused on the mmorpg called none other than Omnitopia Dawn. This is a game that you can completely immerse yourself in. Your able to play this game as if it’s a real world.  The best way that I could think to describe it would be the holodeck from Star Trek meets World of Warcraft.

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.

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….

I loved the sci-fi aspect of Omnitopia Dawn. There was almost nothing that a player in Omnitopia couldn’t do. Food tastes real, smells – no matter how bad – are realistic, and often times it’s difficult for players to discern the computer generated characters from real people. Omnitopia is literally a  world unto itself. Where players can escape their real life responsibilities and problems. Millions of people log onto the game day after day, and the small company that genius programmer Dev Logan started is now dominating the video gaming market.

Dev was a genuinely nice guy. You would think that being the owner of a multi-million dollar company would give him a bit of an ego, but the guy was completely humble, almost unbelievable so. He treated his employees like they were family, and made every one who visited his company feel at home.  He wanted everybody to be happy, and he was often stretching himself. I couldn’t help but feel tired just from hearing his schedule, let alone even imagine how he felt at the end of the day.

Having not read many books with a video game as one of the main settings, I can honestly say that Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane was apretty interesting book. I will, however, say that when the character’s started speaking computer jargon my eyes started glazing over.  That sort of thing never interested me, and whenever I encountered it I tended to skip it.  That being said, the end of Omnitopia Dawn was riveting, and was probably the best part of the book. Anybody who has a hankering for a good science fiction read should definitely check out Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane.

Also reviewed by:
Bookaholics Samnonimous

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