Great idea to bend the "free" rule to discuss this amongst the MR community. This is essentially a cross post from the "Please give a writer harder to put down than Dan Brown" thread, as I think the contributors here will enjoy the linked review. Original thread here...
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55466
Thanks to that thread I bought (and read) the latest Dan Brown. And I was very pleased to be able to do so many miles from home on a business trip, upload it to my reader and enjoy it on the flight home (best place for a Dan Brown imho
).
I have three points:
(i) Dan Brown can spin a yarn. His four page chapters, each with a cliff hanger might be highly formulaic, but it is a formula that works. It is very hard not to start chapter (n+1) as soon (n) is done. And when (n) is around 150, you've finished
(ii) Dan Brown wants you to know how much research he has done. The only way he can do this is by pretty much quoting it word for word. Michael Criteon did exactly the same thing. It doesn't make great prose, but some of it is pretty interesting.
(iii) Having read the book, the funniest thing I have read in the last three weeks is the UK Spectator magazines reveiw of it. For those of you that don't get it, here's a link...
http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/535...ormation.thtml but comments like
Quote:
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Freemasons have been getting steadily less glamorous since their apotheosis in The Magic Flute. Nowadays, one thinks of them in connection with short-sleeved, polyester shirt-and-tie sets, pens in the top pocket, sock-suspenders and the expression ‘My lady wife’. I honestly can’t see them guarding the secrets of the universe.
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and
Quote:
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His attempts at characterisation never go much beyond ‘Systems security specialist, Mark Zoubianis, had always prided himself on his ability to multi-task.’
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gives you an idea where it's going (make sure you read all four pages!).
I enjoyed the original thread and recommend it. I read a really fun, trashy novel as a direct consequence of that debate, plus I've picked up a couple of new authors to look out for.
Equally the comments here about the definition of literature and merits or otherwise of Dan Brown's style are highly entertaining!
amjb