My first impressions after just having finished Dan Brown's second book, Deception Point: WOW! It's difficult for a native Finnish speaker like me to describe the feeling of adventure and suspense Brown is able to convey in his books, but take my word for it. It's there.
While the previous political thriller, Digital Fortress, centered around NSA, Deception Point binds together a wider playing field involving the U.S. Senate, NRO, NASA and even the White House. Once again the heroes are a team - the older academic professor-type and the younger, intelligent and beautiful woman. No surprise from Brown there.
Personally I'd rate Deception Point above all the other novels I've read from Brown so far (including Da Vinci Code). It's full of researched technical details like Digital Fortress, but this time the errors and omissions don't stick out.
That may well be because I'm not a marine biologist, a geologist or a meteor scientist, but chances are neither are you. So it's easy to just go with the flow and assume it's all real. Anyway, the real power of this book is in raw action and political scheming, not so much in mystery or riddles.
I mentioned earlier that reading Brown's books is just like watching a movie, except that it all happens inside your imagination. They might make great action thriller films (with appropriate budgeting for all the FX).