Why should one read Dan Brown? - Part II

Like I promised in my previous post that I will be back with the remaining books of Dan Brown…

To everyone who hadnt read the first piece itself, you will find it here.

Anyways, I will definitely give a quick review of what I said in that article.

Dan Brown books can be broadly classified into two categories.

The first category is the more conversial kind; usually aiming at defaming some very strong beliefs of the world regarding religion. These include Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code and The Lost Symbol.

However, I have already mentioned in detail about the three books and this category, so not being repetitive, let me move further.

Also I have already mentioned that this post is NOT about what Dan Brown is but I already love and adore the man's work… so this is just why I feel the way I do. Ofcourse, for I love his work, my judgement may be very much biased and there will be little or maybe none fall shorts… However, if ever you decide to look through my eyes, you will have some good points for as to why love the books!

Well, about the other category - this one is a little less controversy-creator for it is mostly scientific. Unlike in the first category, several things in these books are NOT known for beliefs or religious - facts. Rather, we have to deal with some scientific data.

Because of the scientific background, the characters are very intelligent and witty. They are more or less scientists and innovators who are determined to accomplish something…

There are three books in this category - Inferno, Deception Point, Digital Fortress

Inferno…

I chose to write about this book the very first is because this is the latest book out in the market and also that this book is seen as several critics as a repetition of previous works by the author and lacking anything new. To all those people, I dedicate the words I will write about this book!

Like I always say, Dan Brown books teach the way or the art of living… atleast to me, they do. Yes, even I do agree that moreover there is a single plot on which all the books are based on but there is something good each book has to teach us.

I started reading Inferno and honestly I was very excited about it before its release… I ordered a copy first day eventhough I was in hostel and couldn’t have read it then… As soon as I came home, I wanted to see it and wanted to read it right away but as I started reading it, even I was disappointed. Though it is a Robert Langdon series, but it is a lot different from the first three books.

The book starts with a confused and muffled Professor Langdon waking up in a hospital. He has no memory of the past few days and he also has a bullet shot in his head. While Langdon tries to figure out what is he doing in Florence and why is he injured, with the help of the young Doctor Sienna Brooks, Langdon finds himself as the target of certain people hunting him all across the city. He is in possession of a small projector depicting the Dante's map of Hell in some random manner. Now Langdon has a vision of death of several people and a lady urging him to help before its too late.

The poor professor, everytime he finds a new lead, he figures out that he had already ventured by him and there is some secrets that he had discovered which he now no longer remembers and he needs to find out again.

I really don’t want it to be a spoiler alert or a review on the book so I will not spill the beans, but yes I must say that in the 400 page long adventure, the first 250 pages are definitely NOT like the usual Robert Langdon books. They are all about how the poor professor is roaming all around and trying to connect the dots but the mystery unfolds in the next 100 pages where we actually find that there is no villain at all. The biggest enemy of human kind is another human itself. Yes, it is NOT about any religious controversy. Rather there are things based on scientific facts.

Honestly, this is Brown's first attempt to raise a social cause and alert people about what will be the consequences of our actions in a very thriller and mysterious way. You know it is like if Amitabh Bachchan will ask the people to go fishing, the number will be in crores who go fishing… Similarly, when there is a bestseller series book telling you something, there is a huge number of people who will be listening.

Not really stretching it so long, I want to add a little note for everyone who disliked the book and found it not upto the mark. I myself didn’t like the book based on the fiction thriller level but just think about it once people, who really spends an international bestselling book series to emphasis on such a relevant topic of overpopulation. I don’t want to go on about it, especially not in this article, but the truth is that whatever bad things happen around us are primarily due to the reason that there are too many people in the world and there arent enough resources for everyone. If we don’t check it, there will be some real problem for all of us. And therefore, on this serious note, I salute Dan Brown for his such a selfless act! Hats off sir!!

Digital Fortress…

Well this is not one of the Robert Langdon series and therefore not known to much people… infact if you say Dan Brown, people only recall The DaVinci Code. This and the latter are two of his lesser known books but none the less if you just read them, you will know that they are no less. Yes, being the first few ones is reflected in these books (just like it is in Angels and Demons) but if you just focus with the story, you are sure to like them.

Anyways, Digital Fortress is about some computer genius and how he sees the world. It doesn’t always require a Harvard professor you see and not always the villain is a lunatic. Here, a guy really suffered and lets say suffered in the worst possible ways and for no fault of his. And then he decides to take out his anger on anyone that he blames.

Okay, I read it once and that too a long time back so I don’t remember very well and not to the minutest of the details, but I remember enough to cherish it as one of the good books that I have read till date. And I remember it enough that I could tell you that you read it once and you will definitely have a good, maybe not the best, book in your collection.

Deception Point…

This is the sole book, apart from occasional dialogue by Robert Langdon, that makes me call Dan Brown's

writing as witty! At first this book comes out as some scientific journal sort of thing but eventually it takes a sharp turn into the political view. And from there we see how dirty at times politics can get and one way to survive in such kinds of politics.

Not wanting to really deviate from the topic but hey Politics is always dirty! And there is nothing wrong about fighting to win… rather, it’s the only way to win - fighting. And at times the cost or the resources of these fights are too high. However, I am totally against the kinds of fights where the costs are paid by the innocent like the people of the country.

Anyways, s'well, there are certain things the book states so bluntly that I had to reread those portions to be sure that I was correct. And in the end when the plot is revealed… to be frank, I didn’t really like it for it had 'fake' written all over it… no one in the real world would do that… but the imagination and the presentation were so gripping that it took just the climax of one book to make Dan Brown my most favorite author!

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With this, I think I have done some justice, if not enough, to the great man and his greater writings. By this article, I just hope that you have a new perspective in your mind as and when you make your own view about Dan Brown books and even if a single person saw what I did; there is nothing more I would ask for!

And even if you didn’t like the books, I just say that reading is a wonderful thing to do… read them yourselves so you are the one who tells what you didn’t like about them. Even that would make me happy.

Happy Reading!