About the Book:
Dan Brown is also author of The DaVinci Code.
Deception Point is about a NASA discovery at the Arctic Circle and how it impacts the US presidential election and is also responsible for the killing of many people.
What it covers:
A Canadian scientist working at the Milne Ice Shelf at the Arctic Circle is asked to send a surprising message to NASA and is subsequently murdered.
President Zack Herney’s chances of winning a re-election are very bleak. A strong point against him is the amount spent on NASA’s space technology which has seemed to gone waste with its continued failures. The opponent leader Senator Sedgewick Sexton is using this point to his advantage and is looking strong to win this election.
It is at this juncture that President Herney gets a call from the NASA administrator about a probable huge find. NASA has discovered a huge meteoritic rock submerged 300 meters beneath the Artic ice.
He is told that one of the EOS satellites called The Polar Orbit Density Scanner - PODS has made his discovery.
Earth Observation System (EOS) is a name given to a group of five NASA satellites which monitor earth in various aspects like ocean mapping, polar ice melts & location of fossil fuel reserves etc. and PODS is a part of it.
He is also told that it is not just a rock that NASA has discovered.
This is huge news for the president which could prove NASA’s success and his win in the election. He has to get the information re-checked and presented well in front of the American public to gain back their confidence.
Rachel Sexton is a gister with the Non Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The job of a gister is to break complex information into simpler language and present the consolidated form to the president.
Rachel Sexton is the daughter of the opponent leader Senator Sexton, but does not like her father and his ways of getting through this election.
Michael Tolland is an anchor of a very popular TV series called Amazing Seas. He is thus, a much known face in the American household.
The president chooses Rachel and Michael to present the news of the meteoritic discovery to the world. Giving them company are two other civilian scientists not related to NASA in any way.
What they all do not know is that the meteorite is not just a rock discovered by NASA, but is a rock containing some other possible fossil samples!
This is something which can change the course of the present world by raising questions about our existence and the whole theory of how life started on our Earth.
Rachel & Michael accompany the other two scientists to the Milne Ice Shelf at the Arctic Circle and make their preliminary tests to confirm that it is in fact a meteorite with the said samples.
Michael Tolland is asked by the president to prepare a documentary on this discovery which would be telecast to the world.
Rachel Sexton is not aware of her role here, but is asked by the president to inform his White House staff about this discovery through a video conference.
She then realizes that it is a good ploy by the president to ask to her to brief her staff about the discovery as she is his opponent’s daughter but would be speaking of his success.
Everything goes as planned – Rachel briefs the White House staff, much to their relief and happiness. The president organizes a press conference to announce this discovery while telecasting Michael Tolland’s documentary on the same.
It is then that one of the civilian scientists, Norah Magnor suspects that the rock might have been placed inside the ice manually and might just not be a meteorite.
Questions like the authenticity of the meteorite, about what it contains, if all this is a huge conspiracy, if the president behind it or is he just an observer, if it is a conspiracy then what is the need for it, is it just because of the election, or to save NASA, forms the rest of the novel.
Roundup:
As a reader, Deception Point was my second novel by Dan Brown after ‘The DaVinci Code’ and I had expected it to be as thrilling as the latter, but at a point I had started feeling that this might turn out to be just a political thriller than about a discovery which could change the course of the present world.
It is at this point that the novel lacks a bit of its high speed, but it is only for a short duration as it again picks up with all the conspiracies and killings.