Book Commentary: July 2004 Archives

I think the order of Dan Brown's books, from earliest to most recent, is Digital Fortress, Angels and Demons, Deception Point, and The Da Vinci Code. I'm limited at discussing what makes a novel good. but I think Brown has gotten better with each book he's written.

The first novel I read was The Da Vinci Code. I liked it a lot. I liked its blending of religion, art, cryptography, and science, and most of all conspiracy. Then I read Angels and Demons, which I didn't like that much. The book seemed to episodic, moving from one murder to another, with the outcome predictable. Though I didn't enjoy the book that much, I did enjoy seeing how the writing style sort of developed into Brown's style in Da Vinci Code.

Digital Fortress, which I just finished, was also a letdown. It wasn't all that believable, it was too contrived, I could predict where the story was going. Maybe it read like an author's first novel. But as I was reading I kept thinking you could simply substitute the code breaking machine with any other machine and still have the same novel.

Now I'm reading Deception Point, originally so I'll have read all of Brown, but now because I'm really enjoying the story. It's the same style as DF but the plot is more complex, more engaging.