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Digital Fortress ruined Dan Brown for me. When Da Vinci Code came out, I knew essentially zilch about Renaissance Italy, or early church history or art or many
by atourgates 3y ago
Digital Fortress ruined Dan Brown for me.
When Da Vinci Code came out, I knew essentially zilch about Renaissance Italy, or early church history or art or many of the other topics it touches on, and I thought it was fascinating!
Then I read Digital Fortress and realized that it was quite possible that Dan Brown was very comfortable writing entire books on topics which he also knew essentially zilch about, and perhaps I should be a bit more skeptical of the historical and factual basis of his novels.
- wkat4242 3y agoYes digital fortress was terrible if you know anything about encryption. It reads like a JJ Abrams blockbuster, the tech just serves as a McGuffin to advance the empty plot. Good point, I've never thought of it that way. I thought the Da Vinci code wasn't bad as a mindless thriller, though going further into the series I got really annoyed with the plot repetition.
- anthk 3y agoAs a Spaniard I've seen horrors from Dan Brown and Tom Clancy, basically placing us as 3rd world country (if they knew about the actual, hugely culture and climate diverse Spain, from cold minus ten-twenty winters to scorching summers), as if we set the USA as some hell-like country with a mix betwen Detroit and some Americana ruralia with a Far West lore with some corrupt NYC cops on top. Or Tom Clamcy mixing Spain with Latin America and USA tropes on race fights to depict the political struggles in Spain, which we have nothing to do with Latin America tropes as it's a damn ocean between them and US and things diverged as much as the USA with the UK, if not further because of France, Italy and UK's influence from centuries ago, either by land or by sea (For instance, Bay of Biscay's coal -> UK's factories for the Industrial Revolution).