It
is not about Robert Langdon: I
found characters Sienna
Brooks
It
is not a one-sit read: A good read
but not as riveting a work to make you pick the book and deliberately push
other engagements to finish it first.
It
is a thriller but not a racy thriller:
The hard-bound edition that I went through, the one that has over 400 pages,
had very few page-turners, certainly not enough to push the reader to continue
with the book suspending every other activity of the time. The plot has very
few hair-raising twists and one can easily see the time lapsing.
It
is not about unexpected twists and turns: As the story begins, if you are a discernible reader and have read
Dan Brown earlier, you start sensing the turn of events that the author tries
to make the ‘twist points’ in his story. And all through the work, a well
defined sense of ‘predictability’ flows regularly. It was a similar
problem area with Dan Brown’s previous book ‘The Lost Symbol’.
Characterization
of one the main protagonists, Sienna Brooks, gives it all in the very beginning
and as the story progresses, soon it becomes clear what we are going to have
about her in the final outcome.
The
main plot element of bioterrorism becomes very clear in the beginning. That may
be what Dan Brown might have intended but furthering it with symbological
elements of architecture and with themes in Dante’s Inferno doesn’t go
too well with the plot development. Yes, its finality of emerging as an
unorthodox solution to contain the ‘pandemic of the overpopulation’ does
ring some bells but doesn’t hold the ground well as it becomes too late by the
time the reader comes to know about it to give it a thought as a serious climactic
plot element.
The
climax doesn’t hold for the whole body of the work: The way things boil down so soon to a ‘positive
apocalyptic periphery’ leaves a lot to be desired. The dilution of the
provost’s equity, from an all powerful manipulator to some small-time crook
in the last of the story, is totally anti-academic. The place of the creation
of the ‘final solution’ by Bertrand Zobrist and the dramatization of the
plot elements about it and the event don’t gel with the character development
of Zobrist. The only saving grace here is the segment specific character shades
of Sienna Brooks.
‘The
Lost Symbol’ too, was similarly squeezing on the detailing in the story climax.
It
doesn’t push to know more: Like
other Robert Langdon starrers, this too, has a plot of few hours focusing
largely on extensive detailing of a geographic locality, in this case, two main
Italian cities, Florence and Venice
This
creates a sort of detachment and pushes one to scan the segments (and not
serious reading) that contain such detailing. Dan Brown’s earlier works
prompted people to do some earnest googling about plot elements and themes like
symbolism, Symbology, Leonardo da Vinci, The Louvre, The Vatican, Freemasonry
and so on but I could not find the similar urge with this work.
Have you read the book?
What do you say about it?
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
