Dan Brown - Digital Fortress
Overview:
Genre: Thriller
Stars: 2 out of 5
Author's Website: Dan Brown
Published: 1996
My thoughts: My thoughts on Dan Brown's novels are roughly the same - lay on a beach (or beside a pool, or settle down in a rocking chair), switch off your brain, and enjoy. They aren't bad books, though I have to say if character development is your thing, you'll be disappointed, they're just what I term "areoplane reads" - you don't have to think too hard, and they'll pass the time easily enough.
The Book:
"Digital Fortress"
When the National Security Agency's invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls in its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage - not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it will cripple U.S. intelligence.
Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides she finds herself fighting not only for her country, but for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves.
Dan Brown - Angels and Demons
Overview:
Genre: Thriller
Stars: 2 out of 5
Author's Website: Dan Brown
Published: 2000
My thoughts: "Angels and Demons" is another areoplane book. This one I thought was a little worse than the others in that it was so predictable... Get a clue, solve it, get there just in time to miss the murderer and find the body. Get a clue, solve it, get there just in time to miss the murderer and find the body. Get a clue, solve it, get there just in time to miss the murderer and find the body... Get the picture?
The Book:
"Angels & Demons"
When a world renowned scientist is found brutally murdered, a Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. His conclusion: it is the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years - now reborn to continue their bitter vendetta against their sworn enemy, the Catholic church.
In Rome, the college of cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Yet somewhere within the walls of the Vatican, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion. While the minutes tick away, Langdon joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to decipher the labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome to the long-forgotten Illuininati lair - a secret refuge wherein lies the only hope for the Vatican.
But with each revelation comes another twist, another turn in the plot, which leaves Langdon and Vecra reeling and at the mercy of a seemingly invincible enemy...
Dan Brown - Deception Point
Overview:
Genre: Thriller
Stars: 2 out of 5
Author's Website: Dan Brown
Published: 2001
My thoughts: A little more interesting than the others, "Deception Point" at least has an interesting theory behind it - a little like "Ice Station" by Matthew Reilly. It remains an aeroplane read, however.
The Book:
"Deception Point"
When a new NASA satellite spots evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory... a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election.
With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Milne Ice Shelf to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable — evidence of scientific trickery — a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.
But before Rachel can make her findings known, she realises, perhaps too late, that such knowledge puts her and Tolland in deadly jeopardy. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope for survival: to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all...
Dan Brown - The DaVinci Code
Overview:
Genre: Thriller
Stars: 2 out of 5
Author's Website: Dan Brown
Published: 2003
My thoughts: It it hadn't been for all the hype that this book generated, the others would never have been reprinted, and they all would have slowly slid into the heap which is Areoplane Books - they get read, they get forgotten on a bookshelf somewhere (or left at a resort) and a few years later, found and given to charity. It isn't really anything special, but you have to admire his market sense - sell, sell, sell!
The Book:
"The DaVinci Code"
Harvard professor Robert Langdon receives and urgent late-night phone call while on business in Paris: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been brutally murdered inside the museum. Alongside the body, police have found a series of baffling codes. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, begin to sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci - and suggests the answer to a mystery that stretches deep into the vaults of history.
Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, a stunning historical truth will be lost forever.