Raven’s Range
Blather around a virtual range

I can’t vouch for the historical accuracy of this tale, which centers around a mysterious journal sent to the supposed heir in England from a hitherto unknown relative. The book, however, has the feel of one that has been well researched, and the historical details ring true. Alas, I cannot say the same for the plot.

The novel is a story in two parts. Roughly one half is given over to the story told in the journal, which was of a young Scot who becomes a seaman on one of the earlier colonization journeys to the New World. The voyage has a “secret purpose” and that’s the basis of the other story–a set of mismatched contemporaries following its trail to a very special artifact. It’s a thriller, and it’s intriguing, but the book falls down sadly on its characters.

The characters are truly two-dimensional and wooden. The banter between the main character, an antique book seller, and a hitherto “hated” colleague is stiff and pointless. The Elizabethan sailor is a weird mixture of prudish and foolhardy. There’s some allusion to sexual attraction between the 20th century characters, but it’s almost an embarrassed afterthought added because that’s what sells books these days. Throw in a rich “feisty” heiress who, after making one half-hearted pass can be labeled a man-eater, add a mystery expert that nobody really knows, and you’ve got a fabulous four as the counterfoil to some fundamentalist religious baddies. The story literally drips clichés and the baddies are a lot smarter than the goodies.

It’s sad, because it could have been so much better. It’s not a bad novel–I wanted to know how the end would play out (it was obvious what would happen, just not entirely how). There’s some fun, interesting stuff about 16th century navigation at sea, the quest for a perfect measure of latitude, but it struck me that the author was more interested in the science of his story than his people. It was also much too James Bond for such essentially ordinary people who, in the real world, would most likely have involved the authorities.

I didn’t like or connect with a single one of the characters. And that, I guess, is why Dan Brown need not worry.

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