Deception Point (original 2001; edition 2006)

Wild ride, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Dan Brown. ( )

The formula is pretty simple:
Big Mystery Male Protagonist Female Protagonist Code to Solve OMG TRAITOR WITH TWISTED MOTIVES = Best Selling Novel.

And it's worked, so I guess we can't hate on him too much. There are people who swear his books are the best thing they've ever read -- I certainly wouldn't say that. But they are successful and I have to confess, even I like them, and when it comes to books I am Picky with a most definite capital P.

Digital Fortress is the first one I've reread -- I read it yesterday. Coming straight from that into Deception Point, I've noticed very quickly that Dan Brown recycles description/emotional response.

"Although she had practically lived in Crypto since its completion three years ago, the sight of it still amazed her. The main room..." - Digital Fortress
"As Rachel made her way into the maze of bustling corridors beyond, she was amazed that even after six years she was still daunted by the collosal scope of this operation. The agency..." - Deception Point
"Susan waited for the punchline, but it never came." - Digital Fortress
"Rachel waited for the punchline. It never came." - Deception Point

All his characters might as well be the same people -- David Becker (Digitial Fortress) might as well be Robert Langdon (Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code) -- ordinary people caught up in higher things, in over his head and things somehow work out fine. Susan Fletcher (Digital Fortress) is, like Rachel Sexton (Deception Point) a professional woman, pretty, the best in her field, similarly in over her head and somehow coming out okay.

Also, the infodumps get terribly annoying. A brief bit of dialogue and then an absolute shedload of explanation. Another characteristic of Dan Brown's novels -- all very formulaic, as I said.

But hey, it's a formula that works. ( )

What a load of easy to read rubbish. My goodness. ( )

What a load of easy to read rubbish. My goodness. ( )

NASA, a hot-button topic in a contentious presidential election, has made the discovery of a lifetime in the Arctic Circle. The organization calls in civilian scientists to confirm the validity of their findings. The President is ready to announce the discovery and virtually assure his victory in the election. But then questions arise and the civilians--Rachel, Michael, Corky, and Norah--are required to brave the Arctic elements to perform one last test. That's where the adventure begins.

Overall, this was a fun book with likeable characters. I really liked Rachel and Micheal, and even quirky Corky. The pace was a little bit slow for me at the beginning, but that's probably because I was expecting to get sucked into this book the way I have in other Dan Brown novels. About a third of the way in, the action finally took off and I couldn't stop reading.

I noticed that the writing was a little awkward in this one. I know other people have had that complaint about Dan Brown since he burst onto the scene, but I honestly never noticed until now. The foreshadowing was very heavy-handed. "Oh, Rachel fell through the ice as a kid? That's going to fit in somewhere." It really was pretty bad. Also, I never understood why Rachel was in the Arctic in the first place. The explanation was pretty weak and I was left feeling like she was there as an excuse for the scientists to explain what was going on to us non-scientist readers through dialog. Dialog's always better for me than description, but give me a plausible reason for it. The technical explanations also verged on being too much for me. They never quite crossed that line, but, please, I'm not a weapons expert. I'm happy just knowing that a secret helicopter has a big gun. I don't need to know how it was developed and its multiple uses. I know that probably adds a feeling of authenticity to the story, but I could have done without it.

Like I said though, overall I did enjoy the story itself. Fans of Dan Brown's works won't be disappointed with this one. ( )