This is the least good of Dan Brown's four books that he has written.

Maybe I have become used to Brown's style and find it is crowding in on me now or rather it felt as if this book had most definitely been written to a formula. The style seemed set and stilted by comparison with his others.

The basic storyline, too, is far fetched relative to Brown's other books and it relied on deception on rather a massive scale and in rather exalted circles and that gave the game away.

The da Vinci Code I liked, Angels and Demons I liked, Digital Fortress I thought was poor and Deception Point is also poor.

The basic plot is that NASA is coming under serious review as far as its usefulness is concerned and a would be President of the USA is seeing to it that he'll play a large part in NASA's future. The encumbent President a quixotic and a good egg and he recruits the would be President's daughted into a little scheme he's hatched. Political master stroke or mega wally of an idea?

Well, the daughter can't stand her father so there's no love lost there. She takes the job: OK, the job happens to her and she's whisked off to the Arctic.

This is where the story turns ridiculous. Cheating, stealing and lying I can live with but the things that they got up to and that happened I can't.

Slithering along icebergs and surviving with nary a limp is too much. Evading capture and death at the hands of elite special forces soldiers not once, not twice ... I can't live with either.

Suffice it to say that Brown will sell many copies of this book and I imagine that a lot of people will like it; but given the stilted style, the incredible turns of events (including the ending where girl gets boy in an extremely unusual place) and the excellence of its predecessors, I don't recommend this book.

 

© Duncan Williamson
10 December 2004

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