If you want the Snow Crash version of Da Vinci Code, then you might like The Illuminatus Trilogy. Robert Anton Wilson is something else. Umberto Eco's book Foucault's Pendulum is a slightly different vibe, but very entertaining read.
If you want the Snow Crash version of Da Vinci Code, then you might like The Illuminatus Trilogy. Robert Anton Wilson is something else. Umberto Eco's book Foucault's Pendulum is a slightly different vibe, but very entertaining read.
I’m convinced Dan Brown read Foucault’s Pendulum and thought “cool idea, I’ll write two dozen sequels where the Plan is real and nobody is punished for their epistemological sins. Also what the hell is a semiotician? My hero will be a Symbologist!”
Umberto Eco claimed that Dan Brown was a character he invented.
Beautiful
I'm pretty much convinced that Brown cribbed his Da Vinci Code from a pulpy 80s book, this one. Annoyingly the authors didn't win their copyright case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Blood_and_the_Holy_Gr...
I remember reading it in the 90s and being very put off by the insanity and lack of logic. As it later turned out: The conspiracy theory of HBHG and DVC was in the end invented by a French document forger who in his own forgery seemed to be the last merovingian king/descendent of Christ:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Plantard
I've read most of the first two books. They're difficult because there's often no real structure to them. It's like written acid. Everything just jams together and you'll read all of the words, but somewhere along the line you'll notice you've started with a cop investigating a crime and now you're in the submarine of a crazy rich person.
It's an interesting book, and it does engage, but it is also quite the trip.
Seconding this. Rare to see almost exactly the same vibe layed out like this by 3 different authors like they were doing exactly the same thing but optimizing for different levels of reader sophistication / paranoia / drug usage.
This is sometimes called conspiracy fiction, and one cool thing about it is that the form as such doesn’t strictly imply or require a specific genre, so it works just as well with any or all of sci-fi / noir / historical fiction. Apparently renowned author Dan brown can easily understand that mixing with actual treasure hunt instead of some kind of forbidden knowledge is part of the formula for giving it the most popular appeal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_fiction
While we’re at it as the op of the post I’d also suggest people give ‘murderbot diaries’ a read. Lighthearted fun books is my jam and these are right up that alley.