100 of 135 people found the following review helpful:
A rollercoaster of a novel...with some issues.
Like many, I reserved my copy of Dan Brown's long awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code back in March. Yesterday the book fell through my letterbox and I pounced on it and proceeded, I plead guilty, to race my way through it in under 24 hours. The book is fantastic, the plot is well developed in the main and Robert Langdon continues to exude his appeal as the bookish...
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Dire
Dan Brown isn't a literary genius but I loved Angels and Demons and da Vinci Code (having both paperback and hardback illustrated versions) but the Lost Symbol is just plain dire. The previous books are rollicking yarns that have pace, tension, humour and a bit of controversy thrown in for fun.
In the Lost symbol the charcaters are unintelligent and annoying...
Dan Brown isn't a literary genius but I loved Angels and Demons and da Vinci Code (having both paperback and hardback illustrated versions) but the Lost Symbol is just plain dire. The previous books are rollicking yarns that have pace, tension, humour and a bit of controversy thrown in for fun.
In the Lost symbol the charcaters are unintelligent and annoying. It is not possible to care about them as they wandering aimless about without much rhyme or reason to avoid yet another weirdo (this time instead of being albino he is covered in tatoos but other than that...). Noetic 'science' (aka noetic tosh), too many pages filled up to make the book longer and an ending I just wanted to finish to say 'there done it, now I never have to see it again'.
The first two Dan Brown books weren't brilliant but at least they had some situations and ideas that made you occasionally think and more often laugh at the absurdity but at least they were entertaining. The Lost Symbol is just plain uninteresting, the story (for what it is worth) could have been written in about 50 pages (the rest of the book is pure padding). Ultimately it is too self referencing and tries too hard to spin some sort of ancient historical interest that the USA simply doesn't have.
It won't get read again for anything and I wouldn't insult anyone by trying to sell this second hand - it just deserves the paper recycling bin.
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I bought this book as I enjoyed all of Dan Brown's previous books, especially Angels & Demons. This book is nowhere near as good for me. The story never grabbed me, I did not see the point of it all, and I found myself towards the end, and even the last 30 or so pages, just scanning through it. I didn't care anymore, just couldn't wait to finish it, and move on to a better book. Disappointing for me.
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The Lost Symbol opens with Robert Langdon being called to Washington DC at short notice to deliver a speech. The request has come from his old friend, Peter Solomon, head of the Smithsonian Institution and also a high-ranking Mason. When Langdon gets to the Capitol Building, he quickly discovers that there is no event planned and that Solomon has not invited him. Instead he has been lured there because an unknown individual believes that Langdon can help him to unlock an "ancient portal" hidden in Washington DC. The first clue is delivered via a severed hand (Solomon's). In next to no time Langdon finds himself teaming up with Solomon's sister (a former romantic interest) frantically deceiphering clues in a bid to save his friend Peter, all the while on the run from the authorities - and also from a mysterious eunuch with a distinctive tatooed appearance who is desperate to discover the most closely guarded secrets of the Freemasons.
Whilst there are obvious similarities to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol focuses on new territory, specifically the world of Freemasons. Unfortunately, while interesting, the revelations lack the "wow" factor of The Da Vinci revelations. The Lost Symbol is still an enjoyable book, but it's definitely not as good as The Da Vinci Code. I'd put it more on a par with his earlier novels.
The book takes a while to find its momentum. The early chapters are cluttered with back story after back story. Also lots of "encyclopedia speak". Dan Brown has clearly done lots of research while writing this book, but do we need to be told ALL of it? Sometimes it felt more like I was reading excerpts from Wikipedia than a novel! The pace does pick up though, and Dan Brown is still the master of the hanging chapters that get you staying up late reading "just one more" - it's a long book, but you tear through it. You do need to be willing to ride with the (many) improbabilities, like the idea that Langdon could immediately identify the owner of a severed hand or that the CIA would let him help himself to criminal evidence or that he would totally forget that he was carrying a secret and vital box with him (until of course it was convenient for him to remember). The final chapters are also a let down: they drag out and the main twist is unlikely to come as a surprise.
Despite these flaws, most of The Lost Symbol moves at a good pace and kept me entertained throughout. Ultimately it delivers much what you would expect it to and if you've enjoyed previous novels by Dan Brown, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll enjoy this one too.
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I found this book truly awful and the last 50 odd pages not only unnecessary to the plot but almost unreadable. It was pure preaching - God and America, or rather, America and God.
So what if we have previous characters? They added nothing to the atmosphere. Robert Langdon remains a cipher, no other characterisations are any better. I tried to root for the villain but he turned out as boring as the rest.
I did learn at least one thing - what a circumpunct is. No doubt that will be a great thing in later life.
Personally, I think it would have been far better for everyone if the threatened broadcast had got through and nailed a lot of truly unpleasant people, high places or not.
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You would think that after all the millions of dollars that Dan Brown has earned in recent years, the one thing he could have afforded was to go on a writing course. But the simple fact is, he is no better a writer than he was when he produced Angels and Demons followed by The Da Vinci Code. The Lost Symbol is the third to feature Robert Langdon and it is in my opinion the weakest of the three, partly because it's just so familiar, so similar, so much like the other two. I am annoyed that I read it, because I could have read something a whole lot better from my 'to-be-read' pile. It's poorly written, the characters are uninteresting and engender no emotional attachment for the reader, and even the story isn't particularly interesting either - normally the one thing that Dan Brown can at least provide.
Reading the book was a bit like watching a film that was paused every few minutes while a lecturer pointed out historical details and intellectual significances to make sure the students understand what's going on. The irony of it all, though, is that despite the constant references to all this intellectual elitism, it insults the intelligence of even the average reader and calls into question the cognitive strengths of the author himself. I think he should stick to non-fiction, because the only areas in which he piqued my interest were - as usual - his mixing up of myth, legend and fact that gets the reader wondering if there could be some truth in his assertions. That was particularly true in The Da Vinci Code, and although he tried the same kind of approach in his new novel, it's a lot less controversial and won't get anywhere near as many tongues wagging as to any basis on fact or truth. The bottom line is that Dan Brown is not a very good writer of suspense mysteries or really any kind of fiction at all, and the only reason that this book will surely sell in huge volumes is a result of people buying it because everyone else is buying it. My advice, for those who haven't coughed up the readies yet, is don't bother, don't follow the herd, and read something better. It won't be hard to find.
Sadder news still, but no surprise at all, is the fact that The Lost Symbol is already at the development stage for another 'blockbuster' Hollywood film, although Hanks is unlikely to get his routine $25 million pay packet and there are rumours that Ron Howard might say 'Happy Days' for the first time in quite a while. The reasons for Hanks' paycut are two-fold: there's a recession out there somewhere, and even Columbia Pictures know this third instalment is nowhere near as good as the first (The Da Vinci Code) which has so far grossed over $750 million.
As for the book - give it a miss. Within the genre of mystery thrillers, there are so many better alternatives.
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Like many, I reserved my copy of Dan Brown's long awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code back in March. Yesterday the book fell through my letterbox and I pounced on it and proceeded, I plead guilty, to race my way through it in under 24 hours. The book is fantastic, the plot is well developed in the main and Robert Langdon continues to exude his appeal as the bookish Professor of symbols. My criticism however, lies in the plot and Langdon's interaction with other characters.
The plot is markedly similar in feeling to the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons - I felt that in the demand for a new book, Brown has merely recycled some parts of his previous book and included them in this one. Don't get me wrong, the recycled goods are sparkly and new, but readers who know The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons well will be aware that they'll have the occasional flashback to the older book whilst reading the new one. Brown knows his symbols and uses them to great effect in this novel, but there's just something that doesn't entirely fit. By the end of the book, Washington D.C feels almost like the Vatican. The basic premise, as it was in The Da Vinci Code, was that all is not as it seems. Newton and his band of brothers created symbols implanted everywhere and those with the relevant skill set can treat them and explore the knowledge within. A great plot that leaves the reader exhilarated throughout the book, the first time they read it.
The beauty of The Da Vinci Code was that it was really very plausible. Millions of us flocked to the internet to look up everything in it that caught our interest. The thrill was amplified by the fact that a lot turned out to be true, if Google is accurate. However, the fact that the same situation is true in The Lost Symbol left me feeling as though the situation should have been changed, the book written differently - a case of been there and done that. The book reads, in large sections, like a tourist map of Washington, with Langdon and his friends as the guides. Langdon, with one encouraging word from another character, launches into huge drawn out explanations of know-it-all fact, leading the reader to feel as though they are in the Lecture Theatre being taught. This feeling was minimised in The Da Vinci Code, to the extent that one can read it over and over without feeling as though they're learning. The same cannot be said of The Lost Symbol - it's a very large lecture, an enjoyable one though.
The refreshing mix of fact and fiction left me feeling refreshed and exhilarated for The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, but in The Lost Symbol, I feel that the amount of fact in the novel, and therefore the amount of Langdon's explanations, was too much, and so it blurred the lines between fact and fiction and almost became a sequence of facts, linked together by Langdon's narrative and the situations created in the plot. One wonders if Dan Brown is a fiction writer or someone who has an excellent researcher whom he has relied upon a little heavily in writing this book. Obviously, following the sheer success of the previous book, there must have been a large amount of pressure to make it bigger, better, more complex. He's done this, but sadly, the narrative is strained by all the factual explanations to the point where the reader is aware they're being lectured.
The other criticism I had of the book is Langdon's character, particularly his character's involvement in the plot. I get the feeling that our dear Professor Langdon may fall prey to what I call the Jessica Fletcher Syndrome. Where a character is serialised, it can get to the point where the reader sees the writer struggling to come up with innovative situations to place their character in and so the plots get more and more outlandish until CIA Directors are taking a Symbols expert and sending him into buildings with CIA Agents, whilst naming him "one of the team". The other worrying claim was that Langdon was the "only person in the world" with the expertise to solve the puzzle - what happens if he dies...will the age old Masonic groups crumble, will government cease to work? In Dan Brown's world, it seems they would, which is troublesome. In previous novels, what made Langdon so good was that he felt as though he was out of his depth, relying on his instincts and education. In this book, he's a lot more of a celebrity, complete with being recognised. Much like the famous J.B. Fletcher. The same happened in Murder, She Wrote...wherever Jessica went, murder followed in increasingly bizarre ways. Given Brown's recent statement that he has around 23 more ideas for books involving Langdon, it seem's we may be subjected to the diluting of a great character over the next couple of decades. The great test of a writer, I believe, is that he or she knows when to stop writing a character; knows when all they set out to do has been accomplished and that playing with the character further would result in the degradation of it. I fear that Dan Brown will fall into this trap with Langdon.
Aside from those two issues, I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced with a great plot, although sometimes overly complex, and a good twist near the end. I read it non-stop and loved each moment of it, despite my misgivings. I would read it again, but ultimately felt that it was a bit forced. When reading The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, it felt natural and that they had been written with absolute devotion. With The Lost Symbol, I felt that it was more of an "I have to write another book" situation, rather than a "I'd really enjoy writing another one". I think long time Dan Brown fans will ultimately prefer the older novels such as Digital Fortress, Deception Point, Angels & Demons, and of course, the tour de force that is The Da Vinci Code.
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Having been a fan of Dan Brown since he started publishing I was very much looking forward to reading this book. I was very disappointed. The story was dull and relied to much on Masonic tales and rituals, none of which are particularly interesting to me.
Dan Brown is a victim of his own success. He invented a genre which has been taken up by many other writers, most of whom are capable of writing a far better and more readable book. I felt this book was written purely so that Hollywood can make another film, which I wont be bothering to go and see.
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So... What can I say?
I remember reading Angels and Demons and thinking, "This is a fast paced, intelligently researched and well written book!" Then I read The DaVinci Code and thought, "Hmm... Well it's an interesting idea, but ultimately it's just an average "fact" filled adventure book." So now I've read Dan Brown's new one and I think, "Why did I bother?"
We were asked to wait so long between The DV Code and this new one that we were fooled into thinking that it would actually be worth the wait. But trust me, it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, I like the rest of Brown's novels, in so much as you could mostly disengage your brain and let the story carry you along to the end. Brown has the uncanny knack of leaving the ending of every single chapter on a knife edge, meaning you have to read the next chapter to find out what's going to happen. But whereas his other books have made you want to see where he's going to take you next, with The Lost Symbol I honestly found myself not caring less.
The main protagonist (Robert Langdon) has gone from an intellectual Indiana Jones, to a bumbling uncle who's had one too many sherry's and is not quite sure where he is or why he's even there. The reasoning behind the way he acts is so at odds with what real people would do, it leads to him being a totally unreal character who simply does and says the things he does to carry the story to it's next destination. The other characters that are presented are very one dimensional and totally unbelievable. Character study in Brown's novels has never been great but in this he has seriously left the realms of reality.
The story arc follows his previous novels almost to the letter with just a few differences here and there. If you haven't got the money to buy this book, just take a second hand copy of Angels and Demons and every time you come across the word "Rome" cross it out and write "Washington". Do the same for "Freemasons" and "Illuminati" and you'll pretty much have yourself a copy of this book. It's the tired old formula of presenting a question, having the hero figure out the answer just at the right time, before another question pops up that means he has to go somewhere else to figure out another answer. Not exactly original material here. There's not a lot of intrigue, and because of the unbelievable characters you'll find yourself not really caring if the characters solve the clues presented to them or not. Oh, and if the "twist" towards the end of the novel comes as a shock to you, then 1)congratulations for making it that far, and 2) really, you didn't see it coming?
Information wise, it's almost as if Dan Brown has shares in Wikipedia. There is so much information (I would call it fact, but I'm not so sure if a lot of it is) crammed between the covers that every chapter invariably ends up feeling like you're reading a school history text book. In previous books Brown presents mostly smaller snippets of info which makes them easier to digest. Here he writes so much information all clumped together that you'll find yourself reading the first few sentences then simply scanning the rest waiting for the action to start up again.
And as for the ending (or rather the central idea behind the novel), the whole "Hidden Mysteries" reveal at the end, that you'll read over 500 pages to get to, it's such a let down, you have to ask yourself "really, is that it?" You will be disappointed!
As you might have guessed, overall I was sorely disappointed with The Lost Symbol. I expected Brown to present a new take on Robert Langdon after all he experienced in the previous novels he featured in. I expected an interesting new story line that would take the "believable" characters in a new direction on an adventure that didn't follow all the seen before cliches. I expected interesting facts delivered in a way that made me want to learn more about them.
What I got was a main character I now don't care at all about. A totally unoriginal story line filled with cardboard characters doing unrealistic things for the worst possible reasoning. Information crammed down my throat that has already been regurgitated in half a dozen adventure fiction books in the last five years, and a complete pummeling into me that America was founded on "such great ideals" (seriously, this novel couldn't get more stand up red white and blue if it tried).
Unfortunately, this novel will sell by the shed load (hell, I bought one as soon as it was released) due to the fact The DaVinci code was a so so decent read, and Dan Brown will make squillions of Dollars (no doubt he is already scouring Wikipedia for the plot of his next novel).
With so many great action/adventure fiction novels out there (I'm thinking Scott Mariani, Andy McDermott, James Rollins etc), you really have no need to read this unless you are a true die hard Dan Brown fan.
Save yourself some money and watch the (better) movie version, I think it was called "National Treasure".
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As a big fan of all his previous books, Lost Symbol was a severe let-down. It lacks the suspense, shock and tightly wound plot of all its predecessors. As many people have noted, there's far too much turgid filler information that is as unwelcome a disruption as having to answer a phone call during sex. The whole experience felt like a schizophrenic combination of thriller, textbook and the 'Religious Shouting Man' at Oxford Circus, with no side fully satisfied.
The visual diagrams were unexciting and mediocre, and nowhere near the ingenious reversible Illuminati symbols featured in Angels and Demons. Characters were completely two-dimensional with clicheed back stories and contrived motivations (although this done in many other books, they were drawn with more sympathy). Not a single character in this book was appealing nor made you feel you're on their side.
The jokes were repetitive and flat. One quip about 'not being able to use an iPhone' would have been mildly funny if seen once but it was repeated throughout the book at least 4-5 times, by which time any vestige of humour had been thoroughly beaten out. There were also copious self-referential allusions (eg the meaning of "Sincerely" from Digital Fortress) which may have been added for entertainment but just serve to make the plot feel poorly-researched and recycled.
On the upside, Lost Symbol did have a few classic Dan Brown moments. Original and bizarre settings, a few plot twists and the inevitable acquisition of obscure general knowledge. However if filmed in live-action this would be the equivalent of a lukewarm X-files episode, and very far shot from a Hollywood blockbuster. This ranks as the most disappointing story in series, and definitely not worth the price to buy it in hardback!
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I had a very strong sense of deja-vu reading this book. Robert Langdon becomes embroiled in trying the uncover the secrets of the Freemasons by deciphering the coded messages contained within the closely guarded Masonic Pyramid whilst on a jaunt around the major landmarks of Washington DC in order to save his long time friend and Master Mason who has been held hostage by the villain of the piece, whilst accompanied by the hostage's brilliant scientist sister. Does this all sound a bit familiar? Well it should, because it's basically the Da Vinci code with the Roman Catholic church substituted for the Freemasons, moved from Paris and London to Washington DC. There are the same coded symbols, mathematical puzzles, and lectures on artistic symbolism that we know so well. The plot is also something of a conjuring trick, because we realise at the end that there is no great secret. The solution of the coded pyramid takes us to what is basically a rather trite conclusion and appears to be already known to Peter Solomon, the guardian of the Masonic Pyramid. Therefore, when all is revealed the whole plot becomes a bit of a 'so what'. A very disappointing conclusion.
The book contains a lot of factual information and descriptions of buildings in Washington DC, reading in many places like a guide book and pages from Wikipedia. The Washington DC tourist board will no doubt be raising a few glasses to Mr Brown. Not being very familar with the lay out of central Wasington DC, a map included in the front of the book would have been useful to me.
There has been a lot of criticism of Brown's writing style, which is no doubt very sensationalist with lots of hyperbole and over the top descriptions and adjectives. However, the result is undoubtedly a great pager turner despite the fact that it ultimately leads absolutely nowhere. As usual characterisation isn't a very strong point. Robert Langdon's two dimensional cardboard cut-out character in tweed jacket and suede loafers only serves to make the main villain, the deranged and tatooed Mal'akh, seem uneven more implausible. The vertically challenged CIA Director is almost as equally unbelievable. In fact, the whole plotting is really pretty unbelievable! Towards the end of the book Robert Langdon survives a near death experience which would have put most people in a hospital bed for a few days at least, but not our tweed-jacket and chino-clad symbol cracking super sleuth! Oh, no! He just dries himself off and resumes his relentless charge around Washington DC, together with Peter Solomon who almost as miraculously levers himself out of his wheel chair minus a hand. The identity of the villain Mal'akh, which turns out to be a major twist in the story, is telegraphed in the extreme. Was there anyone who didn't work this out??
I note there are some lists of 'great' (or not so great!) Dan Brown sentences complied from his previous works. From this novel three favourites I managed to find were;
P285 - "The Upper West Side apartment offered breathtaking views of Central Park. Andros has chosen it because the sea of green outside his window reminded him of his lost view of the Adriatic." I can picture the similarity only too readily: the sun, the sand, the sea, the tavernas etc..... In any case as Andros went to the Greek Islands I assume he actually meant the Aegean or Ionian Seas.
P314 - "That's why science has advanced more in the last five years than the last five thousand." Can anyone remember the dark days of 2004? Really, Dan, are you 'aving a laugh!??
P440 - "According to Nola's spec sheet, the UH60 had a chassis-mounted, laser-sighted, six-gigahertz magnetron with a fifty-dB-gain horn that yielded a ten giga-Watt pulse." Blimey! I wonder if I can get one of those on E-Bay!????
In conclusion, it is the rather familiar formula which has made DB such a popular author. Very readable, very unbelievable, with a very anti-climatic ending, involving secret code-breaking, artistic symbolism, pyramids and (again) Sir Isaac Newton.
For the next installment, I'm putting my money on Robert Langdon charging around London (replete in tweed jacket, loafers and Mickey Mouse watch....of course) in search of Lord Lucan, deciphering hidden clues on Cleopatra's Needle and the National Gallery that will lead him to Central America, the lost treasures of the Aztecs and Lord Lucan himself living in a cardboard box at the top of Chichen Itza temples. Remember.....you first heard it here!
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