martytdx's Full Review: Dan Brown - Deception Point
I've been putting off reading Deception Point because I wasn't confident of how it would be. I'd read Digital Fortress, his other political thriller and been much less impressed than I had been when I read his blockbuster novels Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. But when BJ's had it for $3, I figured that it could be a decent beach read. Well, it was worth the $3 for the beach read, but not much more.
[• about DAN BROWN •]
Dan Brown is currently one of the best-selling - and most controversial - authors in the world today. His acclaim began with Angels and Demons but wide-found popularity exploded with The Da Vinci Code. Before these blockbusters, however, he wrote two earlier novels which focused on the more down-to-earth secretive going-ons. His first novel, Deception Point was about an unbreakable code which might render most of American intelligence gathering useless. This book, his second, is another book about government conspiracy, but focused on a myriad of government agencies, not the least of which is NASA.
[• a conspiracy ... IN A DAN BROWN NOVEL? •]
Our story starts with the murder of a prominent scientist ... a murder whose implications aren't understood fully until later in the story. In the meantime, Rachael Sexton - a 'gister' for the National Reconnaissance Office and daughter of Presidential Hopeful Senator Sexton gets roused from her relatively quiet existence by the President and sent to the arctic to review a fantastic - and historical - find. Of course, she knows she's being used as a pawn because her animosity toward her father is well-known. But what she finds in the small, hidden base could change not only this election but the future of mankind.
A meteorite has been found, a meteorite that contains a secret so great that various forces are racing to use it to their own means: NASA thinks that this could be a saving discovery in the face of numerous failures; the White House could use it to validate their funding of NASA; and others have their own devious uses for the meteorite. But for Rachael, she is supposedly there to validate the authenticity statements of NASA and some civilian experts - including a particularly attractive hero Michael Tolland, star of his own TV series about discoveries in the oceans.
When one of the scientists discovers and anomaly, a higher power moves in to prevent that information from coming to light. However, when others find out the truth, the race to let the world know before they are killed by people with higher stakes than the lives of a few scientists begins. Rachael, Michael and a astrophysicist find themselves pursued by hired assassins as they attempt to get back to civilization and reveal the secret that could change everything.
[• stony, cold and ... 2-DIMENSIONAL •]
The story has potential, and I have to think that if it were written now - or involved a sacred script instead of a rock from outer space - that Brown might have done a better job with it. The characters are wooden and flat - caricatures of characters, really. The swarmy senator willing to push the limits to get elected, the headstrong and incredibly innovative daughter hell-bent to avoid being used one way or the other, the attractive hero with the strangely appropriate knowledge at a given time, the nagging scientist/sidekick whose unexpected heroism saves the day. There's even the shadowy figure pulling all of the strings, whose surprise identity will shake what you thought was happening the whole time (not really). We've seen it before, and we've seen it done better many times.
I actually had to suspend my disbelief of the characters silliness to get through the beginning of the story. I could see where it was going from the beginning, and while Brown might like to think that he wrote this to be smarter than the average author, it was fairly evident what was going on from the beginning. That in itself isn't a story killer, but coupled with the obvious characters, the hackneyed dialog and even the questionable science (it seems like he was trying to channel Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton while developing his conspiracy engine at the same time) all come together in a fairly straight-forward story that leaves little suspense throughout the book. While you might not figure out who is the man behind the voice (although you might very well do so), you should be able to figure out what is going to happen early on. There's not as many turns and twists as his later novels, and it is very obviously a first novel.
[• don't be DECEIVED •]
If you want a cheap beach read that you don't invest too much into, and don't expect much out of, this should do you just fine. It is far from his best work, but is still a fair example of the genre - although I would say that Nelson DeMille would still be a better choice unless you are a completist - or can find this for $3 at your local wholesale store.
[• related REVIEWS •] • Angels and Demons » - Friends Don't Let Illuminati Play with Antimatter
• The Da Vinci Code » - The story that started all of the controversy.
• Digital Fortress » - A hacker threatens to unleash an unbreakable code - crippling American intelligence services.
2005 Summer Reading List » • The Devil's Teeth » - Searching for answers of the Great White Sharks of the Farrallon Islands
• Unusually Stupid Americans » - When Stupid Americans Speak and Do Without Thinking.
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