Deception Point by Dan Brown

This book was everything a typical Dan Brown novel should be: fast paced, full of twists and turns ensuring nail biting tension, adventurous, secretive, mysterious, thrilling with romance in between. For me, it was a welcome change after 2 disappointing reads. I am quoting the blurb from the back of the book for the plot.

"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 contact the President, she and Michael are attacked by a deadly task force…a private team of assassins controlled by a mysterious power broker who will stop at nothing to hide the truth. 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…"

I can safely call it a scientific novel since it has a strong scientific backdrop. Dan Brown is a master story teller and this novel is a good example of his immaculate ability at crafting ingenious plots that grips his readers with intrigue and awe. The character development is great, the plot is fascinating. The fact that the plot involves NASA a great amount of details about advanced technology and weaponry is cited in the book which at times, went above my head. On those occasions I could not really picture the scene in  my mind but non the less I knew what was going on and it seemed convincing enough. A movie based on this novel is going to be released this year and I am really looking forward to it.

All in all it was an enjoyable read, a real page turner. If you like his books, you can't miss this.
Finally, I have read all of the author's work. The other books I am written about by the author here are, Digital Fortress and The Last Symbol. To know more about the author and his books visit www.danbrown.com
My rating: 3.5/5
Linking it to A2Z Challenge
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Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

This is the 4th novel I have read of the author- Dan Brown. I had started with Da Vinci Code and then read Angels and Demons and then laid my hands on The Last Symbol. I had enjoyed reading all of them. So, when I saw 'Digital Fortress' in the library, I picked it up. It had been in my to read list for a long time.

The novel is fast paced and thrilling and kept revealing its secrets in bits throughout the novel. That is what kept me engaged, I was always anticipating what was going to happen next. But, again there were also some stages in the story where I skipped some pages and then continued to read. I found some of the details really monotonous as if the author had been trying to stretch things a little to much.

After having read four of his novels, I realised a striking similarity in all his stories. They are all written in the same fashion. The story in this novel starts with Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician and the head Cryptographer of National Security Agency (NSA). She wakes up to call from his fiancee, David Becker, a language professor to postpone their weekend plans of holidaying at the Smoky Mountains. Susan is dejected and lost in her thoughts when she receives a call from NSA's deputy director, Strathmore who tells her that there is an emergency in Crypto and asks her to come over immediately.

NSA possesses a high complex code breaking machine- TRANSLTR, that can decode an damn code in this world. But, on this particular occasion, it has encountered a mysterious code that it cannot break. On arriving at Crypto, Srathmore briefs her of the situation. She comes to know that NSA had been held hostage by an unbreakable code-'The Digital Fortress' which is created by an ex-employee of NSA, Ensei Tankado. Ensei had been furious about NSA's intrusion into people's private life because of their ability to access and snoop round anyone's personal electronic data without prior permission. He had worked on the project of TRANSLTR but when NSA maintained that they would not go public about its existence, Ensei was displeased. He did not consider it to be ethically correct and in his quest to set things right in NSA, he decides to create an unbreakable code. If this code is released as planned by Ensei, it would cripple US intelligence and would help organised crime and terrorism to skyrocket!

Susan also learns that Ensei Tankado died of an heart attack in Seville, Spain and is surprised to find that Strathmore has send David to collect the code key. In Spain, David finds out that Ensei had given away the key which is in a form of ring to someone while dying. In his run to find the ring he meets a number of people who are then mysteriously killed by a professional assassin.

In her attempt to help Strathmore in decoding Digital Fortress for her country and her love, Susan comes to know about secrets that she has been so long oblivious about. The story will take you from the walls of NSA to the corporate houses in Japan and to the streets and lanes of Spain in an exhilarting pace.

In the end, as in all the Brown books I have read, all things fall in their respective places. But how that happen is the thing to read in the novel. Of all his books I have read, this is the one I liked least.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown - A Book Review

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown 

#BookReview

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown is a thrilling masterpiece that takes you into the world of secrets societies, ancient mysteries, symbols, conspiracies and unseen truth. Read on to know about my thoughts on the book.

I just finished reading 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown. I borrowed it from the local library and it was sitting on my bookshelf for quite a time. I do not know why but somehow I was not really in a mood to read any novel. But, because of the bad weather these days, I was staying indoors most of the time. So, finally, I started to read it a week back and its over now. I found the first half of the book more entertaining than the end half. Somehow, I was a bit disappointed with the way it ended. Those who have already read Brown's Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code will find that the story is set in the same fashion as in these books. So, it seems a bit monotonous at times.

The whole story is set in Washington D.C where Robert Langdon comes on an invitation from his mentor to deliver a lecture in the Capitol Building. The story in the novel revolves around Freemasonry and its secrets that are imbibed in the architecture of the city has a couple of prominent characters namely Langdon, Peter Solomon, Katherine Solomon-Peter's Sister, Malakh - the villain in the story, CIA director Sato, Warren Bellamy-the architect of the Capitol Building, a Mason and Peter's trusted friend. The story moves very fast paced and there are surprises at short intervals. Soon after Langdon has arrived at the Capitol Building, he discovers that he has been tricked into coming to D.C. He receives a call from Malakh who tells him that it was all his idea and that Peter is his captive at the moment. He tells him to do what he wants or else Peter's life is at stake.

The night takes another bizarre turn when a hand gruesomely encoded with five symbols appears in the Capitol building and Langdon recognises it to be of Peter. The encoded hand symbolises an invitation meant to usher its recipient into the world of long-lost ancient esoteric wisdom. Langdon realises that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept the invitation and follow it where ever it leads him. Director of CIA, Sato takes control of the scene and urges that there is a matter of national security threat in which she needs Langdon's co-operation. Langdon is apprehensive about Sato's motives but still, he follows her instruction and decodes the mysterious hand and lands up in a place to find an ancient masonic masterpiece which can unveil enormous power to the worthy. At this point, Warren Bellamy who wants to guard the ancient secret saves Langdon from Sato's hand.

Langdon saves Katherine Solomon who is a neotic scientist from the clutches of Malakh and she joins Langdon in unveiling the ancient secret which she believes is the only way she can save her brother. The story then takes several twists and turns before the final revelation of the ancient secret, which does not seem to be a very surprising secret.

The last half of the book is filled with too much of technical details of symbolism that it seems difficult to engulf at one moment. The mystery loses its charm somewhere and hence it is somewhat disappointing at the end.

What I would say if you are planning a visit to Washington D.C then surely read it and take a copy of it with you. The visit will be more enlightening. Surely enough, after reading the book I did give a good look at the one Dollar bill & The American Seal and in future, if I read about George Washington, I will study a bit deeper. You might want to know the reason, then surely you have to do the same thing as I did. Go and grab a copy of the book from the library or if you a die-hard fan of Brown, buy yourself a copy.

You can get it here:

You might also want to check out the other Dan Brown books that I have read and reviewed here.

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Deception Point by Dan Brown

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