The Da Vinci Disappointment
So I finished The Da Vinci Code a few days ago. I'm still scratching my head. Not from any mystical revelations or mindbending plot elements in the book, mind you. No, my puzzlement comes from the book's success. It was an utter disappointment.
Angels & Demons is a much better story. It was paced well and kept me intrigued through the entire book. DVC, on the other hand, started out interesting but became rather bland as the story progressed. The plot twists in A & D were really well done. They were set up well and took me by surprise. More importantly, they made sense. In DVC, the major plot twist near the end was just silly. I attribute that to poor set up. And the biggest failing of DVC is poor pacing. It just felt like the story wasn't ready to end, but the end came abruptly anyway. Furthermore, I really felt the ending was anticlimatic. It just wasn't gratifying at all.
The best books leave you wishing for more when you put them down. Some books, like A & D, don't quite achieve that plateau but at least leave you satisfied. DVC made me wish I could get back the time I spent reading it.