Meg's Fiction in A Flash

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

This novel is a pleasant surprise and deviation from Brown's masonic symbolism trilogy. Yes, I realize this book was published before The Davinci Code and the like. Let's just say I'm a late bloomer to the earlier works of Dan Brown.

From the prologue, this story is off and running in true Dan Brown style. Also, in Brown's style, the prologue places readers in one setting, while the first chapter takes readers to a completely different continent. Brown's prose are detailed but not overly so, thrilling, suspenseful, and fast-moving. The text springs to life and is constantly moving forward at a rapid pace with which readers anxiously keeping up, frantically flipping page after page.

It's not hard for a true fiction lover to sink his/her teeth into a Brown novel. Conflict abounds, and he masterfully weaves multiple plots into one thick, compelling story as readers worry about individual characters, government conspiracies, and national security threats. Calling this novel a page turner is an understatement. And just when you're in the thick of it all, thinking you've made some progress, and you're sure who's good and who's bad, Brown puts one little paragraph in there that forces you to question everything you thought you knew.

Brown always has a romantic subplot, and this novel is no different. This subplot is always masterfully intertwined into the major plot of the story leaving readers pulling not only for the good guys to win and the threat to be destroyed, but also for the lovers to be reunited and live happily ever after, or at least happily until the next national security threat. The emphasis put on this subplot is generally well balanced within the framework of the story.

Dan Brown follows a very successful mystery/thriller formula but makes it feel less formulaic with the depth of the characters he develops. He also plays with issues that are current and very real in today's society. The idea of a government agency responsible for reading emails and listening to phone calls in a counter terrorism capacity may once have been a dream, but is now very much a reality and thus something people are already considering the ramifications of. So Brown's fictional account of the possibilities of an agency like the NSA and the breadth of its control is interesting, scary, and eye-opening making for a great novel.

Meg's Fiction in A Flash

James Patterson, Witch and Wizard

James Patterson only gets a couple of stars for this one. Not that there are stars for him to get, as we've previously discussed. Anyway. I'll give Patterson props for the premise of the book. He has created a sort of New World Order that is removing people, particularly teenagers, who are deemed to be threats to the new way of life they're trying to establish. While this plot is not a new idea, it is new for Patterson. His book is more interesting because he deviated from his traditional route.

Patterson also succeeds in that this story is told from the perspectives of two teenagers who are brother and sister and deemed to be a very powerful threat to the new regime. His language is easily identifiable as a teenager's vernacular, and he deals with issues of right and wrong and good versus evil from these teenagers's perspectives. He has made this book accessible to a younger crowd and tackles serious issues in a creative, magic-filled way that teenagers who don't read regularly might actually read. And for all of the book nerds out there, who spent their weekend nights as a teenager between the cover of a book instead of out and about with the popular kids...well, let's just say they'll be happy to have stayed home.

Okay, so the bottom line: this book may not be that innovative, but if you're willing to sink into this world and let your imagination run wild, you'll enjoy it!