Deception Point Blog 3

I thought that this book was really good and I loved how everything came together at the end. It was really like watching a movie in my brain, which I liked because I then I could picture the characters how I thought they should be. I didn’t think that when Corky, Michael, and Rachel made a quick stop aboard the Goya to collect data, that almost the whole rest of the book would take place there. I was utterly shocked when I found that Pickering was the controller. I was convinced that he was assassinated at the FDR memorial and Tench was the controller. Tench was easier to believe as a villain and Pickering’s excuse for this whole ordeal as protecting NASA is lame. It doesn’t feel like his character is evil or that his resentment for his daughter’s death is enough to make him create a lie that big for the sake of national security. When I found out it was him, I wanted to go back and reread the whole book and make sense of all the instances I assumed that the White House or NASA were corrupt. I loved the press conference ordeal and how Senator Sexton got what he deserved and Gabrielle became a political martyr in order to do what was best for the whole nation. I thought that the meteor being dropped back into the sea at the end was a good ending; especially how the fish swam away and the fake meteor was forever left in that state of disinterest.

The LAST blog

Dan Brown has done a wonderful job with Digital Fortress. I think the book finished very well and was an interesting read. Even though towards the end of the book you began to suspect Pickering, especially after the chapter of him driving down the highway and then the delta force killing the car at the FDR memorial, at the beginning I wouldn’t have. I think the mega plum part might have been a little over the top, though, but the book ended very well and tidied up all of the loose ends. I personally like the way that Brown ended the book with a well the controversy that just happened was completely pointless, because that stuff is naturally they just don’t know about it. Now that I’m thinking of it more, I think I have begun to figure out Pickering as the logical choice. The President was just not that type of person and Tench was more concerned about reelection than a conspiracy, but Pickering could not stand to see Sexton elected and have all of the encrypted and covert documentation of NASA be released to public space agency. He didn’t really care about NASA or the President; he was just concerned for the safety of information. Now that it’s done, I am really glad that I have read this book, it was intriguing.

bitter sweet

The point of a cookie cutter is to be able to make numerous amounts of the same shaped piece of dough. Dan brown has achieved this exact same feat except in literary form. As I have stated before, I read both Angels and Demons as well as the Da Vinci Code and all I can say now is brown couldn’t be more unimpressive if he tried. Really, just replace the word “NASA” with either “Jesus” or “The Vatican” and the plots of all three of these books are almost interchangeable. In addition, just like his other books it is the old, unsuspecting white guy who is the real villain. Pickering’s motives are just as crazy and misconstrued as either the camerlengo in Angels or Teabing in Da Vinci. Also the way Brown tries to link the different plot elements is completely illogical. If a bunch of delta force guys had just killed two people with snow and a micro-flying bug would your next stop be a virtually abandoned ship in an area of rough currents? Of course not! I wanted to like this book; however browns whole attempt at this conspiracy plot is both stale and unappetizing. His attempts at infusing action with “deltas” makes me queasy as it was difficult to tell what was happening during those scenes. Over all it has left a bad aftertaste that’s going to make it real tough for me to ever be interested in his other entrée of “Digital Fortress”. 

Blog 3

First of all I like that everyone decided to change their post colors after they saw mine. I should probably talk about the book though. The last section of the book intrigued me the most. On of the biggest questions I have with the story line is Rachel’s conversation with Pickering before she knew that the meteor was a fake. William Pickering plants in her mind the idea of the meteor being a fake. Why would he do this if he were trying to hide the secret from her? This doesn’t make any sense because he tries to kill her in the end of the book because of the information he talked her into looking for. If anyone can make sense out of that I would love to hear it. The rest of the book was phenomenal. I was not too fond about the eruption of the mega plume though. It was easy to see that this was going to happen long before it did and I believe that Dan Brown could have made it much better. The very last sentence of the book left with more questions. What does he mean when he writes, “Unimpressed, the creature moved on”? Does he want us to think that the creature at the bottom was just used to seeing things like this and that it was not worth the controversy that came from it? Or does he want us to think that there actually was extraterrestrial life swimming at the bottom of the ocean and that it was aware of what was happening? I have been struggling with these questions ever since finishing the book and have realized that I am better off trying to just not think about it anymore.

The book was definitely a fast read. I think I finished it way faster that I have finished most other books because once you got to a certain point you couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t believe that the controller was William Pickering. Even though that had been my guess in the beginning of the book, I never actually thought that I might be right. After talking to some people about the book we decided that the only reason that you would guess Pickering was because of Brown’s writing style, not because it made any logical sense. He simply made all of the other characters seem way too logical, and, or obvious for them to be behind everything. Also, it seemed like there wasn’t really a good enough reason for Pickering to actually kill all of those people. I felt like the only reason Brown would choose to have William Pickering be the answer to the, “Who did it?” question, was because it would be completely unexpected. Even once the motive was explained, it seemed like it didn’t really make any sense for someone to go to such great lengths to accomplish practically nothing, especially once you find out that he doesn’t like Herney, on top of not liking NASA. Why would someone kill such a large group of people simply because they hate two groups, but the one group they hate just a TINY bit less? No one would go to that much trouble to help a person that they hate, just to get back at someone that they hate even more. Aside from the seemingly illogical ending of the book, I really enjoyed reading Deception Point. I really liked how Sexton, just because he’s a constant jerk, finally took it too far and ended up completely “exposing” (yes there ARE multiple meanings here…haha) himself nationally. I don’t care WHO you are, you have to love it when someone finally gets what they have coming. I found it slightly amusing how, when the meteorite, which was such a big deal to the humans, was dropped back into the ocean and the fish seemed smarter that the people because its basic response to the rock was, “oh well, whatever.” How ironic…we’re all dumber than a stupid fish!

Last Post

The end of Deception Point was....interesting. I liked how everything came together at the end, Gabrielle was rid of her guilt and Sexton got what he deserved, and all the good guys made it out okay, but there seemed to be some major plot holes. Like what in the world would motivate Pickering to lie to the entire world to get a guy he didn't even like elected and a company he hated prestige? It was also impossible for the reader to figure out the twist themselves; you may have guessed it was Pickering, but not because that made sense. Some people might have figured it out because Tench seemed too obvious, or Pickering seemed too good, but not because of logic. The only way to figure out it was Pickering before hand was to observe Brown's literary technique. And if Pickering was the bad guy, then why was Tench giving Gabrielle information, it couldn't have been because she wanted to make the announcement of the meteorite hit Sexton harder, because she was sending the information before she know about the finding. Don't get me wrong, the book was good, and definitely a thriller (I couldn't put it down), but in retrospect, it could have been better. Like instead of NASA being responsible for Pickering's daughter's death, make Sexton somehow twistedly responsible, then the whole thing would make a lot more sense.

Deception Point Blog Entry #3

I completely fell for the plot twist. When I found out that it was either Pickering or Tench that was going to die, the thought that Pickering might be the bad guy never even crossed my mind, partly because it doesn’t make sense that Pickering would do that for NASA. He has a personal grudge against NASA, so why would he want to help them? It seemed that making Pickering be the bad guy was put in there simply for the plot twist, not to make sense. The excuse that Sexton was worse than NASA was too weak for me. And, now that we know Tench is innocent, why would she give Gabrielle the information about NASA? The other thing that I didn’t like was the part with the submarine. How come the hatch just happened to be stuck then and not the many other times they had used it? It just seemed too convenient, or I guess inconvenient for Rachel. The random flashback to her past that enabled her to get out was just as cheesy and unrealistic as Michael’s. Also, to me it was annoying that Rachel didn’t know which way was up when she got out of the sub. The Triton was sinking, so it was kind of obvious that up was in the opposite direction. Still, this section contained my favorite sentence in the whole book when they talk about the chopper hitting the Goya: “The sounds conjured images of epic battle.” While I was reading the book I was caught up in the suspense and action, but as soon as I was done I noticed all these problems. Overall it was a good book, but it could’ve been better.
Lindsay