Individual Project: DECEPTION POINT by Dan Brown

Mostly everyone had already heard Dan Brown, if not his most famous and most read novel The Da Vinci Code. And if it wasn’t for that controversial novel, his earlier works would have not resurfaced in the bookstores – one of them is his second novel, Deception Point, which was published in 2001. I had one of the latter reprints, but I would really love to see some first editions.

 “His real flair is in involving the reader. This is a book that you won’t want to put down. Now, go read it.” (Mecham, 2005)

Deception Point is a techno-thriller novel, and the author claimed that all technologies in that novel existed. However, his claim was probably false unless the technologies he had written were not shown to public yet. One of the questioned technologies was the wireless self-recharging flying microbot (with a mosquito-like body) used by the Delta Force to monitor the conference of the NASA and civilian scientists to prove the authenticity of their discovery. (Jake 11, 2007)

The discovery NASA made would have implications in the upcoming Presidential elections in the plot, but I wouldn’t focus on the political part of the book. I’ll focus on the scientific ones; imagine this: 200 feet below the ice in the Arctic Circle, a meteorite was found. Not that interesting, huh? Probably not yet. It had burned crust which had the dominant element of Hydrogen, one of the acquired elements when a meteorite interacts with the earth’s atmosphere, and chrondules inside. Still not that special, right?

But, what if I told you… there were fossils inside, and they are like but not similar to the species here in earth? That would prove extraterrestrial life! Now you know how big that discovery was, and also strongly supported the theory of Panspermia as how life originated in Earth. We might all technically be aliens!

However, it was Wailer Ming, a civilian scientist, who first noticed some irregularities in the excavation site. He was killed by the Delta Force afterwards.

Rachel Sexton, the main protagonist of the story, together with Michael Tolland, Corky Marlingson, and Norah Mangor then raised suspicions and left the discovery site to check if they were true. They discovered that the ice was drilled from beneath and the meteorite was only planted, contrary to the first story of NASA that it might have been covered in ice after hundreds of years until it was buried 200 feet. They discovered that the meteorite was indeed a fake one, and the crust was burned only by a not yet published rocket which lets off only Hydrogen. The fossils were suspected to be from the Marianas Trench. The story goes on with the thriller clichés but I would not go there so much. The Delta Force tried to kill them and Rachel, Michael, and Corky survived the attack. At the end, many revelations were well…revealed, and I think those were not predictable ones. You have to read it if ever you wanted to know. I don’t want to spoil it out. In the end, another cliché scene comes up, where Rachel and Michael ended up together In the White House.

“It may or may not be better, from a technical perspective, than The Da Vinci Code, but it’s sure to offer what people are looking for when they’re picking up a thriller.” (Sauve, 2005)

This story of technological deception showed how scientific discoveries could change everything, and how it could be manipulated to one’s perception. This makes illusions among us, and we could be under all of these illusions up until now.

It was a great read, although not a very long one. I would certainly recommend it to thriller enthusiasts.

Just to quote President Zack Herney in the final chapters of the story, 

“There’s just no substitute for the truth.”

- Reyes, Paollo Deo R.
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Reference List:

Brown, Dan. 2001. Deception Point. Corgi Edition. Transworld Publishers. Uxbridge Road, London.

Goodreads, Inc. 2014. Deception Point Quotes. http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3135896-deception-point . 2 March 2014

Jake11. 2007. Disputed Technologies. Talk: Deception Point.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ADeception_Point . 2 March 2014.

Mecham, Matt. 2005. Dan Brown’s Deception Point. Other. http://blog.mattmecham.com/2005/07/27/dan-browns-deception-point/ . 2 March 2014

Sauve, Christian. 2005. Deception Point, Dan Brown. http://www.christian-sauve.com/2005/10/deception-point-dan-brown/ . 2 March 2014