I had almost forgotten about this book, but the one thing i remembered was i hated it when i read it the first time. The sequence in which Dan Brown's books happened for me was "Angels and Demons" was the first, followed by Digital Fortress and then only i read Davinci code i guess. Basis the fantastic premises on all three of them, with Digital fortress being my first favorite (but for its ending, because of which Angels and demons pips it down to second). Since almost all his other books are from the religious symbolism premise based on Robert Langdon, these two books have a space of their own amongst his collections as odd ones out. I was curious to figure out what was that thing about Deception point that made me feel so strongly against it and began reading it again. To my surprise, and to be honest had anyone given me this book without the wrapper carrying the author's name, i would never have believed that this was written by Dan Brown. Ditto goes for digital fortress, for that man has made his name in churning out hit after hit in a different genre altogether. The more i read, the story felt like a pulp fiction hollywood B grade movie with low production values.
The story begins as a political tug of war between incumbent POTUS and his immediate opponent who seems to put Trump to shade and is gaining quickly on rating lead. The POTUS is shown as dignity personified yet shrewd politician, who is counting on a NASA discovery, not just to revive the agency's fortune, which stands to get dismantled if the opponent wins the election, but also to bridge the yawning gap in his electoral fortunes. NASA, having suffered several setbacks technically is hard pressed for a win and they go all out in ensuring the authenticity of their find, that potentially prove the existence of life outside of earth as well. The leading lady from NRO along with several notable civilian scientists assemble in Antarctic (or was it Arctic, i keep messing the name) to evaluate the out worldly (literally) find by the agency. Slowly one by one start ending up dead or killed or hunted. The way in which they escape freezing cold ice in a submarine would put Fast and Furious stunt franchise to shame. In parallel, the opponent, who has to be shown as bad as he could possibly be, for reasons known only to Mr. Brown, goes about in forming his own cabal of private space companies, who would benefit big if NASA is not in picture. When it does turn out that the supposedly major find is a hoax, how it ends up messing the best laid plans of everyone and how the news is broken out to the world, after so many lives being lost in the process, involving attacks by Premium army agencies, hammerhead sharks, magmaplume in the ocean and hellfire missles, all put in a potpourri of attack attempts.
At the end of the book, i remembered why i didn't like it in first place. Still doesn't.
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