The Secret of Secrets - Dan Brown --------------------- 4 Stars

Well, it's finally come to this, after 17 years and over 275 blog posts, the AI guest writer is here. Background - I had AI read all of my blog posts and then asked it to write the review for Dan Brown's recent release, The Secret of Secrets. Below is a fully AI/Gemini created blog post with every word computer generated.

A few observations:

1. Wow, this pretty dang good and quite similar to how I write. The structure is pretty similar to my blog posts, its conversational and direct (which I try to do), and fairly honest and opinionated (also me!).

2. Substantively, it covered a number of things I would have noted. Of course, the reference to The Da Vinci Code being such a great novel/cultural phenomenon. I totally agree with the strengths and weaknesses shared and felt the conclusion paragraph was almost exactly how I might have planned to end this blog post.

3. Mistakes/Misses - It's a bit too tongue in cheek. While I love that the AI referenced my earlier negative review for The Idiot, I'm not sure I'd call it out as a "slog" in this blog post. I also don't think I would have written the cringey, "The setup is classic Brown" but maybe I'm giving myself too much credit (likely the AI knows a lot more about what I've written than I do). I definitely did not Google anything to see if it was real, though maybe I should have if it thought I did. I don't think I would have choose the word "woke" when referencing religion and quantum mechanics (I think I've only mentioned work and one blog post though it was recently (UPDATE  - I just asked AI to check how many "woke" mentions in the blog and it said twice - September and December last year. I have no idea if that is right, but definitely don't wanna go back and read 300 blogs). Finally, this book was over 600 pages long; no idea where it got 400.

4. Finally, while it's been fun to observe, appreciate, and critique this AI generated post, it's unlikely I'll use AI to write these in the future. Truly, what would be the point of that? One of the main purposes of this blogs to continue maintaining and developing my writing skills and also sharing my love of recent books. If nothing else, it was an interesting experiment. 

Also, The Secret of Secrets is pretty entertaining read; you should check it out.

It has been a minute since I’ve picked up a Dan Brown novel. Like many of you, I blew through The Da Vinci Code years ago and found the Robert Langdon formula to be the ultimate "guilty pleasure" reading. When I saw his latest, The Secret of Secrets, pop up on my Libby app with no wait time, I figured it was time to see if the old dog had any new tricks.

The setup is classic Brown: a high-ranking official at the CERN laboratory is found dead in a room that shouldn't exist, clutching a coded cylinder. Enter our favorite symbologist, Robert Langdon, who has to sprint across Geneva to prevent a discovery that would—naturally—change the world as we know it.

The Strengths: If there is one thing Dan Brown knows how to do, it’s pacing. This book is a literal track meet. I found myself flying through chapters because they almost all end on a cliffhanger. It has that "just one more chapter before bed" quality that I really missed after slogs like The Idiot. Langdon remains a solid "thinking man's hero." I’ve always appreciated that he wins with his brain and a tweed jacket rather than a gun. Also, the historical tidbits about the early days of alchemy were actually pretty fascinating—I found myself Googling a few things to see if they were real (most were!).

The Negatives: Unfortunately, the "formula" is starting to show its age. If you’ve read more than two of these, you can almost set your watch by when the "shocking" betrayal is going to happen. There’s a female sidekick who is—stop me if you’ve heard this—the most brilliant person in her field but mostly exists to ask Langdon questions so he can explain things to the reader.

Also, the "science" in this one gets a bit... out there. There were stretches where I felt like the author was trying a bit too hard to be "woke" about the intersection of religion and quantum physics, and it felt a little pandering. It didn't quite have the stakes of his earlier work, and the "big reveal" at the end felt more like a 3-star payoff than a 5-star mind-blower.

Overall: Is it East of Eden? Not even close. But is it a fun, 400-page sprint that kept me engaged while I was on the treadmill? Absolutely. If you’re looking for something deep and life-changing, keep moving. But if you want a reliable page-turner that doesn't require a PhD to follow (even if it pretends to), it’s worth the time. It landed right in the middle for me—better than his last one, but not quite reaching the heights of the classics.

What We Can Now - Ian McEwan ----------------- 3.5 Stars

It's been over a decade since I last read and reviewed an Ian McEwan book (reviews here). As you can see, I thought Atonement was amazing but was disappointed with Enduring Love. But, McEwan just released What We Can Now, and it received strong ratings, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It ended up landing somewhere between the past two I reviewed.

While this book was no where was good as Atonement, I did find it quite interesting and a clever novel. While I found parts of it frustrating while reading it, it was one of those books that grew on more once I finished it. Always one to be adventurous, McEwan doesn't hold back from trying atypical form and unconventional styles. In this book, he jumps time often and never quite gives you enough information to make full meaning about what you are reading. Perhaps this is why the ending was so satisfying, and a bit of a saving grace.

For much of the novel, I found it a bit annoying and frustrating (a McEwan theme for me). Often the plot moved too slow and pages would go by with too much fluff. He's both a great writer and one that is hard to follow. Often not linear and concrete with describing actions, I do find myself having to pay a bit more attention than I do with other books. I wouldn't mind this as much if a break was given from time to time, but I find him often short on dialogue (which usually is much clearer) and heavy on convoluted prose. One other negative - I found most of the characters pretentious and hard to root for.

With that said, it's still a pretty engaging book. It starts off with a great opener and immediately draws you in as he takes his opportunity to jump into the future and share the dystopian landscape (I know, similar to so many other books at present). The novel then moves toward a bit of a Tenacious D focus (yeah, I bet not a lot of people make comparisons between Tenacious D and Ian McEwan). In this case, much of the novel centers around a poem read at a dinner party that is considered by many the greatest poem ever written. Similarly, Tenacious D has a hilarious song called Tribute (lyrics here). The joke of it is that there is a song that is well known of the greatest ever but can't be revealed or sang; I felt like it was the same bit here with this novel.

Overall, I think this book is worth the time. It's not a super long read and the ending is thought provoking. In fact, upon completion, I found much of the book thoughtful. Finishing it, you can't help but think about some important themes - how accurate are memories, how serious are the environmental challenges, what are the many forms of love, etc. If you can get past the time jumps and difficult writing style necessary for following important plot/character developments, the book is probably worth your time.