Deception Point

#344
Title: Deception Point
Author: Dan Brown
Year: 2001
Publisher: Pocket
568 pages

Cringe-inducing in the manner of The Day after Tomorrow. First, within the actual Thriller genre, it was unpredictable not because it developed suspense, but because the action was highly artificial, Byzantine, and encumbered with red herrings. I'm also fairly certain that the omniscient narrative voice actually lies and misrepresents what some of the key characters are thinking, misdirecting the reader rather than leading her astray by clever omission. However, I'm not willing to subject myself to more contact with it by going back in for examples. Second, because although some of the ideas are interesting, people who aren't science fiction writers write science fiction badly. Third, because, as in The Day after Tomorrow, the science itself is so laughable. To give one example that should not spoil much: Some people are dragged at high speed along Arctic ice, including hills. They fall onto a partially calved iceberg. The iceberg falls to the sea (200 feet, if I recall). It submerges in water that has previously been described as being so cold that it feels like acid on the skin. The iceberg bobs up and levels. The people lie there for several minutes. Not a one of them even has frostbite, to say nothing of frozen eyeballs or death by Arctic dunking. And this is only one example. If internal consistency and authorial honesty are important to you, don't waste your time.