The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

This was at best an "entertaining" book, one of those to read on the beach while your brains sit in the refrigerator at home. First problem I had with this was that of character development. The author really made no effort to do much of that in this book. With the exception of one main character (Agent Neveau) and a secondary character (Silas), the others seem to be cardboard style. On Robert Langdon, one of the main characters, Mr. Brown drops a few clues, but never connects all the dots and the reader is left wondering.

Second, the dialogue is strangely punctuated by many "!", as if everything should be surprising to the characters even if the reader can see it coming from miles away. The supposedly intelligent and accomplished characters display the IQ of amoebas.

Third, in what regards technology and sometimes science, Brown seems not to have done much research. Cryptology, which is much mentioned in blurbs for this book appears in the form of anagrams and riddles. Agent Noveau, supposedly an expert in the field, doesn't seems to be always on top of things, what really affects her credibility in a negative way.

A major inconsistency is exhibited in his understanding of GPS technology (tracking device used by DCJP on Landgon). Noveau explains to Langdon that the device tells a satellite network where he is, so that the police can follow his every move. This is pretty much fi without any sci. A button-sized device, which is able to beam radio signals up to a satellite, without a directional antenna... hmm... interesting.

Another horrible problem regards the impossible timeline upon which the story rides. With eyes closed, the more attentive reader can figure out the time budget for the story is blown: all it takes is a back of the envelope calculation adding up time for the dialog and rough estimates of times for travel. That was very hard to swallow. Perhaps, it would be possible in a parallel universe where time follows a slower clock.

With a lot of suspension of disbelief, I managed to get through this airplane read, but I only enjoyed it as much as one can be entertained by a cheap production for television. Although this book is knowingly fiction, its rupture of all ties with the realm of the believable renders it not silly and thus not thought evoking or head scratching, as supposedly the author intended it to be.

I cringe to imagine what Brown has done in "Digital Fortress", a book that supposedly is built around arguments directly related to science and technology.

I don't know what to call this book, but I think of it as a kind of "Foucault's Pendulum" for the masses. Perhaps it is an instrument of the great conspiracy theory of spreading lies to the masses and keeping them in the lowest rungs of the intellectual ladder.