Over The Top. Think the openers to Bond films.
I read and enjoyed them (a little bit), but it was really hard at times. It isn’t that he’s a bad writer, it’s that he’s a bad writer who does no research. Check that. He’s a bad writer who does no research, and he tries to pass bullshit off as fact. That’s three strikes.
One thing no one has mentioned is the ability of Langdon to be shocked, surprised, in awe, speechless, mouth agape, stunned, and at a loss for words. Crazy shit has been happening to this guy for 300 pages, but the random clue on the scroll they found in Chapter Whatever blows him away so thoroughly that he has to sit down and gather his thoughts.
I liked the Bourne novels. I hate Dan Brown. Yes, it’s the whole “all of this stuff is TRUE!!” thing. And the terrible writing too, but that’s secondary. Jackie Collins is an awful writer, and I don’t hate her at all–but then she doesn’t present crazy conspiracy theories as fact.
That’s right, Over The Top; the scene I mentioned is in Amazonia, by the way…
It’s one thing to believe conspiracy theories. It’s yet another thing to pass them off as fact and insist on their veracity.
And in Dan Brown’s case, his “facts” appear to have been mostly pulled from thin air. What’s more, he claimed to have meticulously researched these facts and concluded them to be true. Apparently though, his extensive research did not involve such basics as opening an encyclopedia or reading any of Leonardo’s biographies.
I have, incredibly, only seen two Bond films: the one with Halle Berry and the second one with…um…the blond dude. Craig Daniel. I can’t speak to their over-the-topness, but I’ll take your word for it.
I agree, change one word slightly…
I simply cannot read Dan Brown because I adore Umberto Eco.
You’ll pay for this, Superman. Oh, how you’ll pay.
I liked the DaVinci code. Yeah, the premise was silly, but I think the whole logic puzzle was really good. I an not a mouth-breathing moron who thinks the Holy Grail was real. I am really tired of the implication that all people who enjoy Dan Brown are stupid. Heck, I can show you my IQ test if you want.
So I’ll read his new book when it comes out. Will it be good, be bad? Who knows.
I agree with most of the criticisms in this thread, with special votes for these two:
His writing is horrible; redundant to the extreme. That he’s also teaching such craptastic history, art history, and theology manages to elevate him above “harmless nuisance” up to “active societal problem.”
BTW this is great:
Finally there is this minor issue:
This is the late 19th century pulp novel all over again. I’m curious about what he’ll produce this time around in much the same way that I’m curious about being shot.
Pffft. Read the Matthew Reilly books - Seven Ancient Wonders and Six Sacred Stones. Now there is great, over the top action writing while hunting for artifacts.
Interesting, that and the first one are my favorite hitchhikers books. I absolutely LOVE SLATFATF and find it to be the most re-readable of the series. But then I’m not really a fan of fiction in general so I am probably not the best judge.
It sounds like he ripped off Matthew Reilly’s Temple, a novel published three years before Amazonia,
where the hero and the villain battle it out hand to hand inside a battle tank with a planet killer nuke on board which has fallen out of the rear door of an Antonov and is plummeting towards the ground.
I hated The Da Vinci Code because on the first two pages, he says, “Thundering iron gate”, instead of “The iron gate thundered”, had someone freezing while turning his head, and had a character describe another character’s eye colour, even though it was very dark and they were ten feet apart.
I also had near hysterics because of the sheer number of people who collared me at work (I worked in a bookstore) to tell me that everything in it was factually true. And his research and misuse of theological terms bloody sucked.
On the other hand, it’s the only book ever written where the Alluring Heroine is described as having a mysterious gait. That means she scuttles sideways, and hides behind cars.
ETA: It was haunting, mysterious gait. That’s even worse.
I enjoyed the first couple of his books and appreciated his attempt to make everything like the action scenes from a blockbuster movie, but instead of reading like you’re watching big budget, all action movies, his recent ones read to me like Saturday morning cartoons - non-stop action, right enough, but barely described as he expects you to get the image he’s after and sees no need to flesh it out before he’s on to the next one…
I didn’t really get very far with Seven Ancient Wonders…
And I don’t recall that scene in Temple, Grumman; the hero wasn’t wearing an uncomfortable jacket or something which turned out to include a jetpack was he? Which the author hadn’t let on about to the reader so it came as a surprise. Dispite that, I’d still choose to read Rollins over Reilly, I’m afraid.
My current favourite is William Dietrich (Napoleon’s Pyramids, The Rosetta Key & The Dakota Code). Historical fiction set in around 1800 or so - a bit like Flashman, but with added artifacts! Sadly, the 3rd one isn’t quite as good as the first two… I should maybe mention him the historical fiction thread that’s going; his Attila book, The Scourge of God, is great!
It’s interesting. Dan Brown’s wild success has spawned imitators who are actually better than he is! If nothing else, I guess we can thank Brown for popularizing the ‘historical conspiracy thriller’ genre.
Rollins, Reilly, Griffin, DeBrul… some of favoritre guilty pleasure light reading.
I’m not looking forward to Brown’s new book, but I am earger for this to be published:
He was, but I think that the reader had been told about it in advance. The hero thought it was just a fancy flak jacket when he took it, but IIRC the reader knew about the existence of these jetpacks, and could have recognised that it was a jetpack when it was first described.
That was exactly the sentence I was always quoting at people to show how awful the writing was! That and the one near it that describes the police guy who keeps his head tucked into his shoulders like a bull. I forget how that one went.