Deception Point
Dan BROWN[1]
“Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton, who works for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Washington, is summoned by the President of the United States to verify a discovery which NASA claims will change the future of the planet itself.
Teams work feverishly at Milne Ice Shelf, Arctic Ocean to unearth an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the ice. But, accompanied by charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel soon uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery. They soon find out this is not a discovery that anyone wants to hear.”
As I previously mentioned in Dan Brown’s bibliography, this is his third book by chronology and second of non-series books. As you could follow from the synopsis above Brown manages to find a thrilling story again. In addition to that I can also emphasise that time of events coincide with the presidential elections, which increase the tension and various intrigues.
When it comes to book, I can state that this is another 24-hour period novel, which keeps the suspense most of the time. The language is fluent and descriptions are vivid. Compared to Digital Fortress I think the author improved few things. To begin with, the major ends are not that predictable anymore. The plus side of that is, it keeps the readers wander and go with the rhythm. But, on the negative side reveal of events come in a shocking way and that twists the earlier build-up of characters. Subsequently, flow of events are more neat and the way he tells three different stories developing in separate stages are not that distracting.
Furthermore, this time there is a note in the prologue about the factual things and fiction. Although these two can still interfere with each other this is a novel in the end. In my opinion the selection of conspiracy theories – even though with the things that first come to mind – fits well to the scenario. I also noticed that advertisements taking place in the book start to increase. I am not against using brand names (either in exchange of pecuniary benefits or just sharing a personal sentiment for a brand) but it is important to keep those in a very low level, not in a way to become disturbing, which was ok for this book in these terms.
In the end there is also a puzzle for the inquisitive readers, which is pretty similar to the one at the Digital Fortress. But, speaking more for that will be a spoiler. Good luck and enjoy reading.
Ergun UNUTMAZ, 26/09/2014
[1] Dan BROWN, Deception Point, Third Edition, Transworld Publishers, London, Great Britain, 2009.