The Plot
NASA has made an exciting discovery in the Arctic Circle. In order to verify this discovery, the President of the United States, assigns a team of civilian scientists and NRO fact-checker Rachel Sexton. If the discovery is verified, it would hold tremendous importance to the world as well as to the President who is facing elections and a strong opponent, and will help redeem the money-sucking NASA in the eyes of the American public.
A few hours before the discovery is made public by the President, Rachel and the team of scientists uncover a bizarre trail of evidence that can have shocking complications but before they can inform anybody, they are set upon by a trail of assasins. With the assasins on their trail and not knowing whom to trust, can Rachel Sexton and her companions survive and make the truth known to the innocent public?
Ok, that's about all of the plot that I am going to discuss, seeing as there are so many more reviews before me which do a great job. I will say that anyone familiar with Dan Brown's style of writing can read this book with every expectation of enjoyment. What I am going to do in this review is loosely discuss Dan Brown's work !
Warning : If you havnt read any of his books or even this particular one, there are going to be a couple of spoilers so you might not want to read on
The chronology of Dan Brown's novels is as follows - Digital Fortress (DF), Angels and Demons (A&D), Deception Point (DP) and Da Vinci Code (DVC). DF is based on digital cryptography, A&D and DVC have the religious symbologist Robert Langdon and DP is based on politics. Each of the books have a good plot, fast pace in the writing and generally take place in the time span of a single day. But, I find that the climaxes of the first 3 books are written almost with a Hollywood point-of-view, with lots of explosions, super-hero acts and betrayal and deceit.
'Brown'ian Laws of Physics and Probability
Let's look at each of the climaxes of the first 3 books in turn -
DF - Susan Fletcher is able to escape from an exploding building by guessing a password for a password-protected elevator. Lost of explosions etc abound. While this is not so probable, it's not beyond possible so I dont have too much to say about the climax of this one.
A&D - Robert Langdon makes use of a conveniently placed tarpaulin to jump off a flying helicopter. Is this a convenient plot device ?? If I was the author, I would have atleast made sure that a second parachute was placed in the copter after the wacko priest made off with one. After jumping from the copter, flying through the air, managing to steer himself with the tarp, landing in a river, being fished out half dead, RL is still able to stand on his feet and run off towards the Vatican.
Here he comes to save the day .... :)
This I found was one of the most ludicrous climaxes of all his books. I read DVC first and this book later and found that the character of RL started to get on my nerves here and he wasnt helped by Dan Brown evolving him into some sort of present-day super-hero.
DP - Again, there are enough of explosions, rescues from an underwater volcano, hammerhead sharks, budding whirlpool and escape by civilians from a special-ops military team to keep Hollywood satisfied and die-hard DB fans engrossed. The only difference here is that the main character, Rachel Sexton (a kind of feminine Robert Langdon), needs to be rescued by a scientist, Michael Tolland.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), after these 3 books, Hollywood finally picked up DVC, which didnt have super-hero tactics and which had the tightest plot of all the 4 novels. Looks like Dan Brown learnt a lot from his first 3 books and managed to pen a totally engrossing thriller on an unlikely subject. Cant say I'm complaining. I had no intention of reading another budding Clive Cussler!
The 'Et Tu Brute' Syndrome
Dan Brown's villains seem so predictable. After the first 2 books I read, I succesfully predicted the aggressors in the remaining two. They always seem to be someone the heroine (or hero in DVC), places implicit faith in, looks upto as a mentor and is terribly betrayed by in the end. I think we need a new set of villains from him, especially since the way he writes the books, we are meant to be kept guessing as to the identity of the villain and it doesnt do to make them sooo predictable.
Chapter Climaxes
Does anyone else get irritated with the little chapter climaxes that Dan Brown keeps putting into all his books? What I mean is that just when the characters are on the brink of an important discovery, the chapter ends, the next chapter either has mundane segues by the character into some silly childhood memory or else he focuses on someone else in his plot. I guess, this is the literal definition of a 'page-turning' thriller. I find myself turning pages until I read about the discovery, then going back and re-reading the rest with some peace of mind :D Anyway, I just wish he wouldnt do things like this.
Some of the memories of the characters arent as important to the plot, nor is the endless justification being carried out by the villains. In DP, the characters are being followed by assasins and still Michael Tolland takes time off to show off his information about hammerhead sharks, explain his reasoning behind search terms he enters into a site (nowadays, I dont think anyone needs in-depth explanation of internet searching, google has made everyone familiar with the fundamentals) and the villain goes off into random speeches of self-justification. Maybe, this is Writing 101, but as a reader I find it extremely distracting.
So, why read him ??
Even with some of these minor irritants, I still prefer Dan Brown over say, Clive Cussler or even James Bond. I am amazed at the amount of information that he manages to pack into his novels and as someone who loves little bits of trivia, this is just one of the things that keeps me hooked onto his books. His knowledge from something as different as 'pranayama', to an in-depth understanding of military weapons and technology, politics or something even as crazy as the properties of urine :) make his books totally interesting to read and guarantee that I'm hooked to each one I start reading.
Since I'm not much of a spy gal, I really like the subjects, plots and stories of most of his books. I think he is one person guaranteed to take a interesting, new subject, do the maximum amount of research on it and produce a wonderful read. Now, if only he can manage to stay away from his penchant for trying to impress Hollywood, I will look forward to the next books written by him with every intention of being thoroughly entertained.
Any of Dan Brown's fans out there, do let me know what you think of his work, if you agree with me, think I am talking total nonsense or even anything else you would like to discuss about DB's work.
Thank you for reading!
