Every so often, I decide to pick up a commercial, bestsellery type book. I am too hard on popular culture, I say to myself, it is probably really good. After all, millions of readers can’t be wrong, can they?

Oh, yeah they can.

The last time I picked up a formulaic potboiler, it was The DaVinci Code. I wanted to hate it, I really did. Unfortunately, I loved it, I couldn’t put it down, even though I feverishly turned every page while thinking This is a horribly written book… I can’t wait to see what happens next!

So, I had hoped for a similar result with The Book of Fate. It involves many of the same elements that will appear in Dan Brown’s next- high level intrigues, Masonic symbolism in Washington, etc. Meltzer writes some of my favorite comic books, so I figured what the hey?

The plot was plodding and tedious. The characters were people I neither liked nor loathed. The red herrings are obvious, and the resolution was predictable. The only real twist I didn’t see coming, was that I kept reading.