Rekna

I just got done reading The Divinci Code and Angels and Deamons. All I can say is wow these books were good. I love Dan Brown's style of short chapters that leave you hanging and split plot lines.

I'm considering buying his other two books which are unrelated to the two I have read. Has anyone read his other books, Deception Point and Digital Fortress? Do the two books relate to eachother? If so which comes first? Also are the books good?

I love the way he mixes math, history, and symbology in The Divinci Code and and Angels and Deamons. If you haven't read these two books I suggest you do (Angels and Deamons first).

Kadath

I can't wait for Dan Brown's 15 minutes to be up.

__________________
it's quiet in here

saut

If you liked The Da Vinci Code, I'd recommend reading Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It's a much, much better book on the same subject, although a bit hard to read at points. Brown's book is basically a more accessable, less developed version of Focault's Pendulum.

Pellaz

Wow, what luck, I just finished Angels and Deamons and meant to come and ask if the Davinci Code was better. AD was ok, but it felt like it kept faltering in it's story, the sense of suspense was so artificial it drove me batty, and it felt like he kept trying to make the book smarter than it was and failing. Keeping in mind that those were my main problems, should I bother with the Code?

__________________
" ' Big Mouth.
Remember it took three of you to kill me.
A god, a boy, and, last and least, a hero.' "

00111000

I like Dan Brown but after reading Da Vinci code and then Angels and Demons, I felt I just read the same book over. While the whole plot line and settings were different but the characters and they way they were presented seemed very much the same to me. It also seems to me he borrows a lot from Clive Cussler in the way he twists the plotlines but that is just this guys opinion.

SiN

mhm....I read Da Vinci and Angels & Demons....and while I must say the general ideas were interesting, and the story was decent, and his writing, whilst not overly impressive, he at least managed to make me want to keep reading to see what happened.
But, it still felt like 'guilty pleasure' reading to me. Not enough to chew on

Focault's Pendulum is in my 'to read' queue, and I'm looking forward to it.

(ps) it's angels & demons that is supposed to be similar to Eco...according to Amazon.

__________________

BigGov

Angels and Demons is decent.

The Da Vinci Code is worse.

Deception Point is much worse.

Does Dan Brown pay people to write good reviews?

__________________
One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

maleficent

I loved Digital Fortress, but the subject matter fascinated me. Deception Point is OK, its definitely the weakest of all his books, I liked the hook near the end -it started slow and built up.

I like his books, they won't make me smarter, they aren't literature, but they read fast (finished Digital Fortress in two flights from new jersey to chicago.

__________________

mystmarimatt

The books are simply vehicles for him to lay out all this information he has. I could care less about the plots, without the information, the books are run-of-the-mill thriller junk.

__________________
Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

Rekna

what I like most about his books are his short chapters that switch between major plot lines revealing just a little every chapter. At the end of every chapter you want to turn a few pages ahead and see what is going to happen.

Any other authors write like this?

Skifter2

I recently read all his books and even though the pacing was alright i just couldnt stand the cardboard characters. The only thing that distinguises one leading character from another is the name.

Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent) has far more meat on his characters than Dan Brown.

Kenneth Robeson is the writer who immortalized the incredible adventures of Doc Savage

diergray

I enjoyed his books. They are like brain candy. That being said, Digital Fortress and Deception point are nothing like DC or AD. If you are into the subject matter more then the writers style I would skip them. I consider Foucalts Pendulum one of the hardest books to get through that I have ever read. It had great ideas but I didnt care for his writing stlye.

__________________
"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” ~ James Bryant Conant

BigGov

I finished Deception Point a few nights ago and was not surprised by the ending at all. Spoiler: I knew about half-way through the book "the guy" was Penngertin(?) and the ending was once again completely worthless.

I think I finally figured out what Dan Brown really is, the Jerry Bruckheimer of writing. Every story is tweaked slightly, given a different background, and follows the EXACT same plot line.

__________________
One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

maleficent

There are a lot of writers that do that. Dean Koontz is very formulatic as well (and I like his stuff)

It doesn't stop me from reading them, they entertain me for a few moments, I don't expect those books to make me smarter, or make me think, I want escapism. They do that.

__________________

BigGov

True, many other authors do it. But when you can predict EXACTLY what's going to happen, it's pathetic.

__________________
One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

Daval

I assumed the controller was the NASA Adminastrator :P Just finished the book last night.

__________________
"It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don't believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it."
Winston Churchill

rthmchgs

I've read Angels & Demons and only got about 1/3 of the way into The Da Vinci Code..too much of the eureka factor in his writing. Characters get stuck...a little time passes...."Hey, what if we try this..?" They would probably make decent movies though.

Charlatan

I loved the subject matter of Angels & Demons and the Davinci Code. I just wish they'd been written by someone other than Dan Brown. I find his writing style too simple (for lack of a better adjective - how's that for irony ).

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

ratbastid

Yeah, guy's written the same book four times. And I read all of 'em.

At the beginning of Deception Point, there's a prologue. The first sentence introduces a character--in fact, the first two words of the book are that character's name--who is basically minding his own business.

Two words into the book, I knew that character would be dead by the end of the prologue, and that he'd leave a clue to a mystery.

djflish

I noticed that A&D and DC started exactly the same. I've still read all of Brown's books though, they're good fodder for the journey to work, you don't exactly get a mental work out with his books.
One more mentally challenging book that I would recommend is The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. It's DaVinci Code like, but written actual character emotion and development

__________________
Europes two great narcotics, Alcohol and Christianity.
I know which one I prefer.

Furry

What Ratbastid said. My Dan Brown books have gone the same way as my Patrick Robinson collection - the charity bookshop. Granted I did read three of them while I was on holiday when I didn't want anything very taxing, but when I came back to them I wondered what all the fuss was about and promptly boxed them.

__________________
Furry is the leader of his own cult, the "Furballs of Doom". They sit about chanting "Doom, Doom, Doom".
(From a random shot in the dark by SirLance)

stevie667

They're fun reads, kept me entertained on flights or on the beach. Wouldn't give them much more than that, but hey, sometimes i want a story which will lead me where it wants to go instead of having to figure out wtf is going on all the time.

__________________
Office hours have changed. Please call during office hours for more information.

trickyy

i find his writing insulting in more ways than i care to get into

pixelbend

Sure, they are popcorn books, but they keep me turning the pages, so I enjoy them.

__________________
But I don't want ANY Spam!

Kadath

it makes me sad I was wishing for his time to be over 18 months ago and it apparently isn't yet.

__________________
it's quiet in here

Xazy

His works started out great, awesome read. Then just went downhill for me.

superiorrain

It is not often i get to say that while i kinda of enjoyed reading two of the three books, they did annoy me. The Davinci Code, while a nice read has now taken itself to a new breed of books, which everyone thinks is all based on truth. What perhaps is worse, even Dan Brown thinks he has written something based on truth. This simply isn't true. The book is a work of fiction, FICTION, as such it should be enjoyed for what it is, escapism.

__________________
"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." - Arthur C. Clarke

Redlemon

Ah, thanks for the final nail-in-the-coffin for me. I won't be reading any Dan Brown. I always felt that Michael Crichton was writing screenplays, not books, and I tired of him quickly.

__________________
I can't read your signature. Sorry.

spongy

Whatever you do, don't read all 4 books in a month... I did and the result is that I can totllly see that they have the same structure, down to the hero getting shot, and a huge betrayal from a trusted source.

__________________
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

Stephen King

Rekna

yeah i read the last two making all four in around a month and the plot was way to easy to predict.

flamingdog

His characters are all paper thin puppets being jerked around by the circumstances of the plot, which is the only thing he gives a shit about, his clever little puzzle-box plots. While I admit to finding one or two of the puzzles in Da Vinci Code intriguing, I was constantly frustrated by the way he dealt underhandedly with his characters, switching them back and forth at will, artificially delaying their ability to solve one of his puzzles purely to create suspense.

Basically, he lacks integrity in the way he presents his characters, who are all one-dimensional glyphs anyway. I can appreciate a popcorn book as well as the next reader, but I want it to at least not insult my intelligence, even if it has nothing else to tell me.

highthief

Agreed, except Angels and Demons sucked worst of all. I cannot see the appeal of this guy, at all. Maybe if you've never heard of the Priory of Sion and the various other conspiracy and secret society theories he slings around you might go "Hmm! That's interesting" but otehr than that...

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

highthief

Crichton's last book sucked hard too.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

ryfo

Mal, you may like Jonathan Kellermans books,especially the Alex Delaware series,good candy for the brain, fast read and a pick up put down good for flight type of books.

GuidedByVices

I've read Digital Fortress and Angels and Demons. I started The DaVinci Code and put it down about 30 pages in when I realized I was reading Angels and Demons again.

The only impression I got from DF and A&D was Dan Brown pacing up and down in his office wringing his hands thinking "please god, have somebody adapt these into screenplays"

spindles

I've only read DC - and don't plan ever reading any more of his books. I'm really glad I didn't pay for it.

Where was the ending? The book just kinda ended.

As has been said his characters are nothing - I didn't feel anything. They could've all died in a plane crash and I would've said "oh well"...

__________________
who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

shadowfiend

The first book I read was The DaVinci Code. I must say I was very much impressed but when I read Angels & Demons, I realised that I'm reading the DaVinci Code again. Altered characters, modified locations but then the exact same plotline.

However, I find Digital Fortress very much to my liking. It may seem a lot like his other books, but I still enjoyed it.

aphex140

Have to agree with the majoirty here DC was okay, of a fashion, nothing new, but as I was on holiday it did not matter. I do not feel inspired to read any more as it appear as if he was a cross between TOM CLANCY (?) and a weak crimewriter.

I had heard it wil be made into a movie and shortly, so await the computer game

__________________
Computers allow us to make more mistakes at a faster rate than any other man-made thing, with the exception of handguns and tequila.

[/QUOTE=BAMF]Do they role a die, with a 1/3 chance of being flacid?[/QUOTE]

DHS

I have read all his books and pretty much agree with what most of you said. AD and DC do run along the same lines. I hope when the next book in the chain comes out he listens to forums like this and changes things up. As for the movie, we shall see, but I am expecting a big let down...

__________________
"keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

boom29

I must agree that his books do seem to run along the same lines. However, I guess I'm the only one that liked Angels & Demons better than The DaVinci Code. Probably due to the fact that I did read it first. I was rather impressed by the anagrams.