Okay, here goes nothing.
I picked up this book with absolute interest, I have read Mr Dan's previous works as well, so this wasn't the first book I am reading of his, and as per my past experience I had a fair idea of what to expect in this book, but, alas..
I have always known Robert to be the person of puzzles, finding clues and cracking the codes, has always been his thing, but in this book most of the times it wasn't the case. Barely solving two or three puzzles at most I guess. The book in itself is interesting, I came to know about a lots and lots of new concepts, Noetics, what is consciousness, how does it work, how to attain consciousness, and so on, but I didn't pick up this book for Science stuff
Also the book is getting a Netflix adaptation of this, so you might as well wait for that if you aren't an avid reader. You know, save yourself the trouble..!!
There was also too much of pseudoscience stuff which was little difficult honestly for me to keep track of, because I am the kind of a person who atleast wants to keep all the stuff of what's happening in the book for at least as long as I am reading the book, but I understand it was a part of the story progression and it was supposed to be as such.
The one other thing which I didn't understand was choosing of the Prague City specifically, I mean the reason behind choosing the Prague City specifically, when he could have chosen any city with US Embassy, and enough space, heck it could have been in the middle of desert, in Sahara or Dubai or Qatar or anywhere, again a sarcasm.
There was also a classic Dan Brown suspense as well which I suspected but it was WAYYY better than what I was hoping it to be, and my jaws literally dropped, and it was scary also for the moment, what if my girlfriend has something of this split personality, and she chokes me to death in my sleep, just a fleeting thought guys, nothing serious.
Also I think the MC of the book isn't Robert Langdon but Katherine Solomon is the protagonist, and probably that is the reason we din't see much of puzzle solving or something, because once KS had been found, everything revolved around her, her book, and why CIA wanted to erase the existence of her book, and this shift in focus could be the reason why many people in my group didn't actually like this book.
Also the one fact which I didn't really like is Dan makng one of the characters use GPT, I mean yeah times are evolving, and all that, and he also showed the internal struggle of the editor (character) before jumping to ChatGPT, but still, it felt a bit of lazy writing, for the lack of a better word, it just didn't sit right with me.
Also Dan Brown did in this book as well, what he usually does, like putting chapter breaks in the mid scene instead of betweem them. You read to the end of a chapter, don't want to leave things unresolved, so you start the next one, and keeping the chapters short, which will literally want you to turn pages.
So to finish, I would say, loved the book, felt a tad bit long, could have easily been 100 pages lesser, but nevermind that.!!
Give it a read if you want to or wait for the Netflix Adaptation, but if this is the first Dan Brown you are picking, then there are honestly better works of Mr Dan.
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