Dan Brown, Burning It up with Inferno

Every man, woman, and child who has ever picked up a pen or switched on a computer, with a storyline in mind, has dreamed of the astronomic success enjoyed by Dan Brown. His newest Robert Langdon novel, Inferno, was released this week amid incredible fanfare and today is ranked number one on Kindle with nineteen reviews and a whopping $14.99 price tag. Achieving and maintaining this lofty spot on the best seller list quite possibly means dozens of downloads per minute. Dan Brown has certainly won the literary lottery.

Albeit two of the reviews are one star, today Dan Brown is king and his book is the law of the literary land. I am sure Brown does not like bad reviews, but he probably looks at his bank balance and finds very few number ones. The naysayers are undoubtedly soon forgotten in the comparison. If I were he, I would remind myself that the greatest artists and writers in our history also received some amount of negative feedback. After all, you cannot please everyone.

Doubleday seems pleased; they are reportedly printing an incredible four million copies of this, fourth in the series, tome. I am certain they have no worries that those volumes will gather dust on the store shelves.

It has been four years since Robert Langdon’s last symbology riddled adventure. This chapter in his story promises to continue pleasing Brown fans as it is replete with the requisite enigmatic characters, art, science, criminal enterprise and human angst. Aided in great detail by Dante’s Divine Comedy the hero races through the streets of Florence assisted by this version’s adhoc, platonic heroine.

Of course the story depends upon the threat of a global conspiracy. Fortunately, in this new millennium of conspiracy theories the thesis becomes even more believable than before.

I say if you don’t like it, don’t read it. I admire Brown for his work and his success. I would never consider myself qualified to negatively critique an author who draws readers like moths to the flame. Rather, I say thank you Mr. Brown for showing the rest of us what is possible.

Bravo!

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

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