The new Pioneer!!

Everybody seems to be reading Dan Brown these days and not without a reason. He’s darned good. That’s because he seems embroiled in controversy and handling it with aplomb. Remember the April Fool’s day front page report in TOI about Kashmir and Kentucky, something about dividing their latitude by longitude and getting 370(Article-370 special status J&K) Shock mania has just begun!!

All of Dan Brown’s 4 books are spread over a period of a few days and they all race ahead at break-neck speed, with twists and turns, intriguing action, designed to make you shake your head in awe. He leads the reader into anticipating an event, trying to predict his next move. But when the “shock” comes it’s so well, shocking, you can only read on spellbound, each ounce of you craving for more. All this, inspite of the fact that all his books have similar themes- controversy, the sexy lady, the heroic saviour- sounds cliched but he blends them good, really good.

‘The Da Vinci Code”- The international bestseller- The story of the French museum caretaker, leader of the oldest possible brotherhood, who in his death left a code in his wake for all to see but only for Robert Langdon and his(Frenchman’s) niece, I think to decipher. All the time, the odds are stacked against them. Fighting against time, cops and their own friends, getting unexpected help- the book is an amazing churning of events. And everyone knows the famous stab it makes at the church in the form of the HOLY GRAIL and the fact that Jesus married and had a kid.

If you still haven’t read it, go to Tekson’s and buy the darned book- it’s worth it.

His best book in my opinion.

‘The Digital Fortress’- next best

The ultimate code-breaker machine TRANSLATR of yet another “top secret” organization of the US fails to decipher a code. There’s a lot of ado about a ring of a ‘chinky’ guy, who’s apparently holding this org. ransom. The poor people don’t want their and the country’s secrets out. Again another unsuspected villain, unexpected saviour, mind- boggling codes, techniques- very good read. It’s even got a touch of romance and lust. 1 thing I don’t understand- what he writes about are supposed to be well-kept secrets- not anymore, I guess.

‘Angels and Demons’ -Church-time again. Cutting edge technologies, rebirth of ILLUMINATI, the deadly assassins, discovery of anti-matter, he shocks yet again by coming up with a suggestion of the formation of the universe- this brings in a supernatural element. The book becomes philosophical because of that. Otherwise in codes, it ranks 1^st. I especially liked the ambigrams- air, fire, earth, water and of course THE ILLUMINATI DIAMOND. For the ignorant, ambigrams can be read the right side up or the wrong side up(check out ambigram.com). Again, completely unpredictable and horrifying, in the end.

‘Deception Point”- Can’t really say much about it because I’m in the middle of it. As always there’s dire conspiracy within the higher hierarchy of the US, NASA and to top it off it’s election time. Can you think of any more fuel for controversy? Well Dan Brown can. He brews conspiracies and has a knack for confusing as well. This book has a lot of words which sound familiar but actually I had no idea what they meant. I had to sit with a dictionary. And he uses names like Sphyrna Mokarran” to baffle me. That’s just one scientific name, the book is filled with them. And, I’ve only read till pg 191 till now. Sexy, suave, brilliant Rachel Sexton is the protagonist who'll become a hero in the end. that's as far as i'm willing to stick my neck out.

Now, I don’t remember all the details of all the books, so forgive any misquote or wrong fact. However, no misinterpretation will be tolerated.