Originally Posted By alexbook I enjoy reading novels set at theme parks, Disney or otherwise. Anybody else with me? I'm hoping somebody has suggestions for titles I haven't read, yet. Any good web sites?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Westworld - Michael Crichton Jurrasic Park - MC The Bobbsey Twins Smokey Mountain Mystery
Originally Posted By beamerdog Westworld is one of my all time favorites. Especially in the movie when they're going through the Utilidors.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 They aren't set in a theme park but I like to read Robert Crais' "Elvis Cole" mysteries. There are references to Disney in the books and they are set in the LA/Hollywood area
Originally Posted By beamerdog I found this on Amazon: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/d8fa6z" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/d8fa6z</a> It's a sci-fi park (the book was written many years ago, so there are some dated things) set with a gaming theme. Part of the Dream Park series. This one involves a murder.
Originally Posted By JeffG Westworld was actually an original screenplay by Michael Crichton (he also directed the movie) and wasn't based on a book. -Jeff
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I could have sworn I had read Westworld as well as seeing it. Ooops sorry if a mistake, but I am sure I read it when I was a kid.
Originally Posted By JeffG There might have been a novelization of the movie, but I don't think Crichton wrote it if there was. At least it never is included in his list of book credits. -Jeff
Originally Posted By alexbook Wow. I hadn't thought about "Dream Park" in ages. I think I read the first book around the time it came out; didn't realize there was a series. It does seem like somebody should've put up a web site devoted to theme park fiction, doesn't it? Maybe I'll do it myself, if I ever get more reliable Internet access.
Originally Posted By dsnykid There is a tween-age book called Disneyland Hostage written by Eric Wilson in the mid 80's about a girl and her grandmother who are part of a group taken hostage at Fort Wilderness. It's a Canadian Author and the detail in it is fairly accurate. I used to read it over and over again as a kid between our trips.
Originally Posted By mawnck I recall reading a short story - I don't remember who it was by but it was Arthur C Clarke or Isaac Asimov or one of those hotshot futurist SciFi guys - about some descendant of John Wilkes Booth who went kookoo, smuggled a gun into Disneyland and took out the Lincoln animatronic.
Originally Posted By oc_dean Don't forget about Wally World! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLiQBV6A7c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...iQBV6A7c</a>
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb The Real Meaning of Smekday. Has a couple scenes in a Florida amusement park, Happy Mouse Kingdom. All the buildings and rides are duplicated upside down under the park and they get flipped every night for cleaning and maintenance. I've read the Dream Park series several times and have been hoping they'd write another.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice And the always-popular Duff Gardens! <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/25695/the-simpsons-duff-garden-commercial" target="_blank">http://www.hulu.com/watch/2569...mmercial</a> (Which begs the question... WHY doesn't YouTube have a clip from the episode where they actually VISIT this marvelous place??)
Originally Posted By utahjosh Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Ridley%20Pearson" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi...0Pearson</a>
Originally Posted By alexbook A few others I've read: Carole Marsh - The Mystery at Disney World It seems like a lot of kids' book series throw in a DLR or WDW book (cf., "Disneyland Hostage"). Four tweens run up against a kidnapping ring in the Magic Kingdom. Spider Robinson - The Free Lunch Near-future sci-fi novel about a pair of people who go "underground" and hide out in a theme park. Robinson has a lot of fun describing the park, which has "lands" devoted to Chinese mythology, Heinlein novels, the Beatles, pirates, unicorns and fairies, and, slyly, Robinson's "Callahan's Place" stories. Ridley Pearson - Kingdom Keepers II This time, they're in Disney's Animal Kingdom. Marshall Karp - The Rabbit Factory Disgusting & funny, in the style of Elmore Leonard. Somebody murders a pedophile who worked as a walkaround character at a second-rate L.A.-area theme park (think Magic Mountain). Was it one of the dead man's victims, or is it part of a vendetta against the park? Is the Mafia involved? How much money can the detectives make if they sell the exclusive rights to the story (assuming they solve the case)? Wes Abbott - Dogby Walks Alone Manga-style graphic novel. The hero is a CM at "Happyland," where "Princess" has been murdered. Imagine Clint Eastwood inside a Pluto costume. Sort of a film noir/theme park/video game mystery/action/comedy. Cory Doctorow - Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom Cyberpunk, more or less, set centuries from now at WDW. The days of corporations are past; the Magic Kingdom is operated collaboratively by volunteers. (It's the Wiki Kingdom!) The big conflict in the novel is over whether the Haunted Mansion should be preserved as a monument to late 20th/early 21st century Imagineering, or whether to enhance it using the latest technology, which would allow the attraction's computers to push the experience directly into the Guests' brains. It reminds me a lot of some of the debates we get into on LP about ride upgrades, except that I'm pretty sure no LP debate has ever led to murder.
Originally Posted By alexbook A couple of notes: - There was a "Westworld" novel by Michael Crichton. Not sure if it or the movie came first. - I really liked "The True Meaning of Smekday." - In James Patterson's "Mary, Mary," Alex Cross takes his family to DLR on vacation. Of course, it turns out there's a serial killer on the loose in L.A. and he has to help solve the case. In the opening chapters, there are scenes set in DLH, GCH, and DCA, but not DL itself. - Next book on my to-be-read pile is "In Cahoots: A Novel of Southern California, 1953," by Malcolm Macpherson. From Amazon: "Bud is a recent arrival to SoCal, a soda truck driver and part-time dreamer who tries to better himself and his family through get-rich-quick schemes worthy of Ralph Kramden. With friends and neighbors, Bud tries to figure out the proposed location of the animation mogul's planned theme park, then to buy a parcel of the land and sell it to Disney at an inflated price."
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 I've read both of Ridley Pearson's Kingdom Keepers books, both are excellant, like I was really at WDW.
