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I began this book on holiday in 2025 in Mallorca Spain. What I noted from the start was that it was quite a long book even for Dan Brown. I had enjoyed the earlier novels of Dan Brown such as Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci code. Deception Point wasn't bad either. Inferno was OK but like a good rock band , the books started to sound the same. The protagonist a reowned cryptographer Robert would be residing in Harvard lecturing with his Mickey Mouse Watch because he is down with the people. He would be swimming lengths of a pool as he is a grrrrreat swimmer when some government agency calls upon him to decipher a code. Aliens, or Jesus or even both!! This would involve some supermodel who he ends up in bed with. He solves a load of puzzles while educating the reader and saves the world. The mickey mouse watch would be lost in the process but would turn up at the end like a lost family Golden Retriever. There is normal a bad guy who is deformed in some way to make him sound like a monster and this bad guy sometimes ends up coming good or being killed off all too easily. Anyway I wanted some of that again so I began it on holidays. This time Robert was doing a line ( dating in Ireland) with some expert in consciousness called Katerine Soloman. They are invited to an event in Prague where Katerine is about to launch her book about consciousness and she was going to reveal a breakthrough. Meanwhile some other crowd are secretly trying to wipe all copies of this book off the face of the earth because it could change the way we look at the world. DUM DUM DAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. The author also goes into detail about the history of Prague which makes me want to visit there again just like when his character was running around the Lourve or running around Rome educating us about different monuments etc.
Now the subject matter is quite complex about consciousness and it was quite interesting actually. Robert and Katherine would be hiding behind some barrel being shot at while Katerine would be explaining to Robert about Local Consciousness and Global Consciousness. They are running from some goons while she explains Gama Rays to him and when they are running away from a bomb she is explaining why people with epilepsy experience a really really good feeling like an orgasm when they are coming back to life after a seizure. And here I was feeling sorry for the neighbour whenever they had a seizure only to be educated with this tidbit over the course of the book. Katerine explains that consciousness is not just in us but all around us. Things like clairvoyance , remote viewing , people claiming full life flashbacks before they died only to be resuscitated. The Consciousness bit was very interesting and the parts of the book I quite liked. It was the rest of it that was a disappointment. I think Dan Browns interest is in the subject topic and he built the story around this. But the story wasn't that great although I did enjoy a couple of twists and turns. It just did not do it for me. I finished the book a year later in September 2026 and the reason I took so long was that the book was a hard slog and sleep would come when I read a page at night so I averaged about 2-3 pages per night because it was a book you could put down. That is two hard slogs in a row now with "How to Win the Premier League " and this one. The next book should be easier.
The more I write about The Secret of Secrets the more I like it actually but it was a tough one to get through and I am glad it is over. I will give it 60/100
Rating: 60/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/books.
