Reviews for King Coal

The average rating for King Coal based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-12-18 00:00:00 Katrina Glynn There's a reason why everyone talks about The DaVinci Code and not about this book. I have no idea what that reason would be, because I thought Angels & Demons was mediocre so I never bothered to read the The DaVinci Code. Anyway, I was bored and a copy of this was sitting at the library for a quarter and I thought "WTF, mate, I'll give it a go." The first page of chapter 1 starts with Susan Fletcher waking from a romantic dream to the ringing of the telephone: "Susan, it's David. Did I wake you?" She smiled, rolling over in bed. "I was just dreaming of you. Come over and play." He laughed. "It's still dark out." "Mmm." She moaned sensuously. "Then definitely come over and play. We can sleep in before we head north." That is not a transcription typo, or the manifestation of my unfocused rage. It really does read '"Mmm." She moaned sensuously.' Please feel free to vomit if you need to; I'll wait. David then proceeds to postpone their plans to celebrate their six-month engagement due to something hush-hush, like maybe his being a big homo. C'mon, what sort of man is going to pass up some sweet, sweet lovin' before disappearing on a mystery mission? The kind who likes other men, that's what kind. A handful of pages later, it becomes clear that Dan Brown has read too many Clive Cussler novels as we're treated to a description of David Becker: "Becker was dark--a rugged, youthful thirty-five with sharp green eyes and a wit to match. His strong jaw and taut features reminded Susan of carved marble. Over six feet tall, Becker moved across a squash court faster than any of his colleagues could comprehend. After soundly beating his opponent, he would cool off by dousing his head in a drinking fountain and soaking his tuft of thick, black hair. Then, still dripping, he'd treat his opponent to a fruit shake and a bagel." Is it just me or does this read like Dan Brown was typing this with one hand? Why does Mr. Stud have the same initials as the author? Why would anyone want a sharp green wit? And is 'fruit shake' some sort of code for gay sex? Is that why he is still dripping? So then, after all this ran through my immature little mind, I remembered I had other books to read--books that didn't suck horrifically within the first ten pages. Yay for other books! Oh, and I sold it to a used book shop for a dollar, so it was worth the quarter. Yay for used book shops!

Review # 2 was written on 2018-03-08 00:00:00 Christopher Dowling One could already see the direction Brown would go with his recipe of conspiring the heck out of the literary world with his first work. Not as good as Angels and Demons and The da Vinci code, but not as bad as The lost symbol, Digital fortress is the career start of a novelist who used good oldfashioned knowledge in a unique, new way on his way to literary immortality. The art part is small in this one, as it´s more of a technothriller than the more blockbuster mystery high speed pursuit style of the following novels. One can see that Brown is still tinkering around with his writing style, not always sure where to go and more trying to go futuristic and techy than uchronic and historic. I am heavily biased towards anything Sci-Fi, so I do definitively just give 4 stars because of the setting, without it, it would be closer to a 3. It´s very funny that the infamous „I don´t care about technical accuracy, have no interest in research, and don´t ask experts to proofread" mentality is already big in this one, Brown just doesn´t care, the cryptography and tech are hilariously facepalmy. In this case, it´s even more extreme, as it are not just some elements as in the other novels, but the whole plot revolving around topics Brown obviously has no knowledge about, making it unwittingly comedic. But one also has to have the courage to publish a novel and just don´t caring about it, it´s a special kind of badass attitude and effrontery I appreciate (sorry for that, the dark side strong in me is), although it´s very cheeky and transports false knowledge into poor readers´minds. Bonus points for showing the NSA in a shady light in the year 1998 (and not in 2013, when it became soooo mainstream) and letting his protagonists dealing with the topics of privacy, protection, and the rule of the surveillance, pardon Freudian typo, of course constitutional state. Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: