Deception Point - Dan Brown

Geo-Scientific trickery can be a very difficult concept to convey on the big screen and that could be one of the reasons that Dan Brown’s “Deception Point” has still not been adopted into a full-fledged films like his Langdon series. Dan Brown’s third book, captures perhaps everything related to Geography, Environmental science, geology, space science and overall science in general. For some, it could become one very big nostalgic trip to our school time classroom as one concept after another unfolds in this Geo- Science fiction political adventure.

One of the crucial things which one would come to observe while reading through this book is that it has a very pre-defined format, A discovery, Scientist running around to measure the correctness or the validity of the same, there is opposition to the entire discovery, then there is trickery and then there are enormous twists and turn and who done it, there is also some beautiful human relations which has been presented very elegantly. For Dan Brown, who is primarily a master in English and creative writing which are also his profession with respect to teaching, it would have really taken a lot of research, especially, on the technical concepts. It does not come as surprise when we read in the “Acknowledgements section” all the sources and research support, such level of research and technical correctness would not be possible without professional help and consultancy and the result shows at completely in the narrative.

The technical concepts, right from the start to the entire discovery of deception has been narrated in a manner which would be relatable to a layman reader. The care surely shows to explain each and every backdrop and subsequent impact of scientific and geographic actions. Concepts such as the “Polar Orbiting Density Scanner Satellite (PODS)”, along with a lot of others, have been explained and described interestingly. The overall plot makes us think about the technological advancement with regard to space research, environmental and geological research, its impact on nations, economy and of course the daily lives of the inhabitants. It also makes us wonder that are we as a planet ready to move to the next stage of human existence, are we ready to except concepts which may be vague to the layman’s mind but are actually facts which can only be experienced and not recorded or explained.

The characters come out as really impressive, whether it is the female protagonist, Rachel Sexton, or the cunning antagonist Senator Sexton or the elegant President Zach Herney and Majorie Tench or Mr Pickering. All of them have been written with extreme character traits which makes the reading pleasurable when they appear in the narrative, especially the character of Senator Sexton is mix of humour and cunningness, which entertains the reader in the maximum part of the narrative.

Though the premise is extremely informative and research focused, the climax portions, it seems that is straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, especially the entire stand off on the ship, Goya. Also the story takes a romantic turn at the end, everyone is happy at the end of the book.

“Deception Point” could be referred to as an elegant mix of extreme knowledge resource, insightful concepts on the environment, geology, geography and science and a good bit of twist and turns taken forward by Hollywood style action and a happy ending.