Do you remember Dan Brown? The guy that wrote The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons? He wrote a few other books as well, one of which I just finished, Deception Point. It was highly recommended to me by someone that put Brown on his "Best Authors" list after reading this. Perhaps it's just not my genre, but I didn't have the same reaction
Synopsis
A mysterious object is found in the arctic by NASA, during a pivotal point in the next presidential election. The daughter of The President's opposition goes to investigate the object, and verify its authenticity when she finds herself caught in a deadly power play by unknown persons.
The Review
For 700+ pages, the book is a quick read. It's not bad, but really it's not that good either. The story is shallow and predictable. It's a very simple read, and required very little thought on the part of the reader. That combined with pretty constant action lets you blow through it at record speeds.
What ultimately irked me about the book were what I've come to recognize as Dan Brown'isms. Elements of his writing style that I just don't enjoy. For starters, the first 100+ pages of the book it's like The Monster at the End of this Book. There's something so amazing, so spectacular, so thrilling, so earth-shattering that it will change the way you think about everything. You know what it is? Its so amazing that I can't tell you what it is. Sigh.
It was like Dan Brown was trying to add an element of suspense by making his characters act in unrealistic ways. They all knew what the amazing secret was, but no one would talk about it. They would just send you to the next person who also knew, but wouldn't talk about it. And when you learn the big secret, there's more (But no one can tell you what it is!).
The story consists of 3 secrets, What it is, who did it, and how they did it. The why they did it does not seem to be an afterthought of the story. Like someone read a first draft and said "But why?" so Dan Brown tossed 4 pages into the middle of the book to give motive, but really didn't care. The first secret of What it is, was more of a drag on the reader, because it wasn't a secret to anyone but the main character, and the reader.
Who did it? Well, I don't like to be the type of person that figures stuff out early in a book or movie. I prefer to feel surprised, over feeling clever. But this is one of those books where it just was too obvious who did it. And once you understand how Dan Brown writes, then it's even more obvious. When it came time for the big climatic reveal, I was bored.
Lastly, how they did it. Well all of that was based on something that doesn't exist in real life, nor did it exist in the book until the moment they figured out how it was done. In my opinion, this is a very lazy way to write. I don't need to feel clever and figure out a mystery early, but at the same time, I love when the clues are there, which are later revealed, and I can say, wow! Think for example if in The Sixth Sense, at the very end, the kid told Bruce Willis, "Oh, and you're an android." Huh? There's nothing in the movie to support this. Just accept it.
Another Dan Brown'ism I've come to recognize, and never liked it in any of his books is the way he writes women. All of his women are strong individuals (yay!) who when they come in contact with a man, instantly want to have sex with him, and become screaming little girls that can only be saved by a man.
The last Dan Brown'ism, is who the real villain is. I won't give away this formula so some people can enjoy his books with out all of them being ruined. But lets just say once you figured it out, it's the same in all of his books.
Now that I've finished ripping the book a new one, it's a quick decently fun book. It's no great work of literature, it's incredibly simple, but not a bore. I'll never read it again, nor will I ever read another Dan Brown book again (3 was enough), but I don't regret the time I spent reading it.
