Monday, August 30, 2010

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Deception Point is written by Dan Brown. Brown is exceptionally good at making his book full of excitement. It contains thriller and suspense which reels its readers in. Also the book is full of information and it is also descriptive. Although this book is fiction, the whole plot seems like it could actually happen. The book talks of how the scientists up in the Artic found extraterrestrial organisms in a meteorite and how other forces try to stop these scientists from announcing this news to the public.

The story starts off with Rachel Sexton meeting up with her father Sedgewick Sexton. Rachel is works for the National Reconnaissance Office and works analyzing and making data simpler. Her father is Senator and running for presidency against Zachery Herney, the president right now. The polls have shown the people that her father was winning against the president now Zachery Herney. After conversing for a few minutes, Sedgewick tells Rachel that she should join his side since he is going to win nonetheless. Rachel declines his proposition quickly and leaves when he insults her. She went to meet her boss, William Pickering the director of the NRO. He tells her that the president wants to meet up with her. She becomes confused immediately because she’s thinking why the president would want to meet her. He tells her, however, to go meet the president and if anything goes wrong he will have someone transport her back to the NRO.

After meeting the president, she learns that he wants her to go to the Artic to confirm the authenticity of a meteorite there. Herney believes that whatever is up there would help him win the presidency. Rachel had no choice but to agree with the Herney. After getting to the Artic, Rachel meets up with several civilians who were also asked to go to the Artic. These people were Michael Tolland, an oceanographer, Corky Marlinson, an astrophysist, and Dr. Wailee Ming, a paleontologist, and Norah Mangor, a glaciologist. She learns that the meteorite was found in the Milne Ice Shelf. She also learns that why NASA believes this meteorite came from space. One it had chondrules. Second it had a fossilized insect in which could clearly be seen. And third the rock had a fusion crust which only happened when a rock reached a certain temperature and then immediately cooled down.

The scientists there firmly believed that this rock contained extraterrestrial beings. After the news was sent around place everyone started celebrating. However Ming saw an abnormity in the spot where the meteorite was pulled up. There was bioluminescent plankton there. Before he could collect data and report it to the others, a Delta Force killed him. The Delta Force where talking orders from “The Controller”. When Tolland also see the plankton and report it to the others, they find out that there was sea water. This was supposed to be impossible since the meteorite was in an enclosed space. To see why there was sea water, Norah, Rachel, Michael, and Corky go out to scan the ice.

They see the dead body of Ming and there was another hole on the bottom where the meteorite was probably inserted through. When they were preparing to go back to the NASA base, they were attacked by the Delta Force. Norah died but the other three were able to escape by “flying” away. The threesome is rescued by the USS Charlotte. Onboard, Rachel tells Pickering what had happened and he immediately sends a chopper to get them.

Rachel and Tolland tell the chopper to go to Tolland’s ship the Goya. However, when they get on the Goya, they are mysteriously attacked by the Delta Force again. The Delta Force was on a Kiowa airplane and attacking the three up in the air. Rachel faxes her father the lies NASA has conjured up. This time, fortunately, the three are able to kill the three using the ‘divide and conquer’ strategy. Once the three were killed their leader appeared from the airplane. He was William Pickering. The Director of NRO. Rachel’s boss. They were able to escape from him and he died when the Goya started sinking down. Using the information his daughter has given her, Sedgewick was definitely going to win the election. However, at the press conference, Sedgewick’s advisor exchanged folders with him. Once Sedgewick knew he had handed out the wrong information, it was too late. Zachary Herney has gotten his second term as president.

This novel talks about the discovery of other extraterrestrial life other than on earth. The scientists in the Artic have found a meteorite that contains a louse that doesn’t look like it was from earth. Why the scientists think it look like a louse just like on earth was because of panspermia. “Panspermia is the theory that life was seeded from another planet.” (pg. 122) This theory stated that earth was once a lifeless planet. So when a meteorite crashed into earth, it brought with it microorganisms. These organisms sprang to life and involved into all the different species here today.

This novel also talks about the formation of meteorites. When Rachel and Corky meet, they talk of why the meteorite was definitely from space. The first was because of the fusion crust. The fusion crust of meteorites occurs when there is extreme heating as the meteorite falls down into our atmosphere. The second was that there were chondrules, which were little bubbles that occurred only in meteorites. “Chondrules are one geologic structure we simply do not have on earth. Some chondrules are exceptionally old—perhaps madeup of the earliest materials in the universe.” And the third was that the nickel content of the meteorite was between the mid ranges. All other rocks from earth had nickel content from the low range to the high range, never in the mid range.

The events that happened in this book are not so likely to also happen in our world. Scientists and even civilians see meteorites fall from the skies. However, never in history have we found a meteorite with an organism that doesn’t look like anything from earth. Also if we even did find a meteorite with a fossilized organism in it, people will say that it was a fraud like in this book. If these events became reality, then it would cause so much controversy. For example, almost all the religions on earth would be questioned. They would be asked how would they respond to what is happening right now. Then much more money would be invested into space companies like NASA. This would be bad since our economy is already in a bad state.

In conclusion, Deception Point gives us much insight into things like there being a possibility for extraterrestrial life elsewhere. Also, once I was done with this book, there were still a lot of questions on my mind. This book is a great inspiration to me and probably are to others.

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