Engdy's Journal: Decipher

I just finished reading Stel Pavlou's Decipher, as previously reviewed here on slashdot.

I am quite surprised at the reviewer's high praise for this book. I was highly disappointed in it, myself. It was full of bad or unlikely science, but I think what irked me most was the team of heroes and how they interacted with each other. They would have these conversations where something one person said triggered something unrelated in the next. Example (not a real one from the book):

Scientist 1: Hey! Blue crystals. Cool!

Scientist 2: I like blue ice cream.

Scientist 3: Cream is good for removing wrinkles.

Marine sgt: Wrinkles in time-space are gonna make the sun blow up in 15 mins!

You could tell the author has experience writing screenplays. Lots of good Hollywood action sequences, lots of good down-to-the-last-minute cliff hangers, lots of "well shoot, why didn't we notice that earlier" science revelation, lots of Bruce Willis character development.