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Amazon.co.uk Review
Firstly, it should be noted that The Lost Symbol has incorporated all the elements that so transfixed readers in The Da Vinci Code: a complex, mystifying plot (with the reader set quite as many challenges as the protagonist); breathless, helter-skelter pace (James Patterson's patented technique of keeping readers hooked by ending chapters with a tantalisingly unresolved situation is very much part of Dan Brown’s armoury). And, of course, the winning central character, resourceful symbologist Robert Langdon, is back, risking his life to crack a dangerous mystery involving the Freemasons (replacing the controversial trappings of the Catholic Church and homicidal monks of the last book). And while Dan Brown will never win any prizes for literary elegance, his prose is always succinctly at the service of delivering a thoroughly involving thriller narrative in vividly evoked locales (here, Washington DC, colourfully conjured).
Robert Langdon flies to Washington after an urgent invitation to speak in the Capitol building. The invitation appears to have come from a friend with copper-bottomed Masonic connections, Peter Solomon. But Langdon has been tricked: Solomon has, in fact, been kidnapped, and (echoing the grisly opening of the last book) a macabre mutilation plunges Langdon into a tortuous quest. His friend’s severed hand lies in the Capitol building, positioned to point to a George Washington portrait that shows the father of his country as a pagan deity. The ruthless criminal nemesis here is another terrifying figure in Brown’s gallery of grotesques: Mal’akh, a powerfully built eunuch with a body festooned with tattoos. Mal’akh is seeking a Masonic pyramid that possesses a formidable supernatural power, and a pulse-pounding hunt is afoot, with Langdon stalled rather than aided by the CIA.
Caveats are pointless here; Dan Brown, comfortably the world’s most successful author, is utterly review-proof. And there's no arguing with the fact that he has his finger on the pulse of the modern thriller reader, furnishing the mechanics of the blockbuster adventure with energy and invention. Like its predecessor, The Lost Symbol will unquestionably be--in fact, already is--a publishing phenomenon. --Barry Forshaw
Review
Unputdownable...Gripping...Jaw-dropping...The blockbuster read of the year. --News of the World
You'll devour this latest offering - it's been well worth the wait. --The Sun
So compelling that several times I came close to a cardiac arrest...The Lost Symbol is as perfectly constructed as the Washington architecture it escorts us around. --Sunday Express
With best-seller status never in doubt, Brown has written another page-turner...A gripping read --BBC News
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
90 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Rather Predictible,
By
This review is from: The Lost Symbol (Hardcover)
I can understand why this book has received varied reviews - anything from "it's an unputdownable classic" to "what a load of tosh."
I fall somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed it but towards the end it dragged and the unravelling of the lost symbol was hugely disappointing as all Dan Brown books seem to be. It's almost is if the author is pulling back from producing something ground shattering because 1/he runs out of ideas and 2/ is afraid to take the book out of its believable past. Brown wants us to believe in his symbolism, but he stretches the point. Firstly let's take the positive points: 1/ It is a good read. The early chapters rattle past 2/ Much of what occurs is intriguing. On more than one occasion I stopped reading to look up information and claims on the internet 3/ There is plenty of action Now to the negatives which sadly outweigh the positives. 1/ The characters have become wooden. I no longer care what happens to Robert Langdon and when it looked as if he had been drowned I was quietly pleased. 2/ Much of the action is contrived and ridiculous 3/ The "baddie" is a typical Brown character that we have seen so many times in his previous books 4/ Brown seems to have run out of ideas - just forcing into us numeorus codes 5/ He has an annoying ability to end every chapter as a cliffhanger with pompous phrases leading us to believe that a stunning revelation is about to be uncovered. 6/ The stunning revelations never come leading to a feeling of so what. 7/ The action is, as with all of his books, very difficult to visualise. 8/ The plot twists and turns and the whole thing becomes very dull towards the end where one of the main characters acts as if nothing has happened despite the fact his son has been killed and he has had a hand chopped off (a fact he seemingly ignores as being pretty irrelevant). Brown seems scared to geniuinely give is a catyclismic novel, preferring to lead us on, promising much but delivering relatively little. For the first half of this novel I was intrigued but it then got rather dull and predictible.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
pretty damn good,
This review is from: The Lost Symbol (Hardcover)
It's been an absolutely absorbing book, especially if your into the whole conspiracy type of thing. The only let down which I get what the other reviews are about is the ending there is no massive mystery that is implied throughout the whole book. Other than that still a great book I'll be looking forward to the next one!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Complete Garbage,
By
This review is from: The Lost Symbol (Paperback)
This book really is complete garbage! It has almost the same plot as the previous Dan Brown books i.e. two intellectual dimwits trying to solve a string of improbable clues whilst being pursued by a psychotic killer, coupled with the poorest ending imaginable.
It may appeal to a conspiracy theory teenager, but in the end there was not even any conspiracy, so it is a totally pointless story. A waste of paper!
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