The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
by Dan Brown
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Book Reviews of The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
Book Review: The secret is... How to Die
Summary: 4 Stars
Dan Brown, in The Lost Symbol takes us on another thrilling ride through the "Ancient Mysteries." Robert Langdon, the Harvard Symbologist, carries us along through numerous brink-of-death situations, giving the book edge-of-your-seat momentum. Numerous reviews have discussed the plot, so I will move directly to my comments.
First, I enjoyed the amusement park ride. Since I am often reading non-fiction titles, when I pick up fiction I want to be entertained, drawn into the story, intrigued. I read it in one sitting. The puzzles (ok, I confess I am a Sudoku fan, the magic square) the misdirection, the chases, I enjoyed the ride.
I also enjoyed these quotes sprinkled throughout the book. My favorites:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke, Futurist, (The Lost Symbol, pg 86) Instantly brought to mind my first experiences with a fax machine! The paper gets there how???
"Wide acceptance of an idea does not prove its validity." The Lost Symbol, pg 79 I love this one. It seems everyday our news reports include lady-in-the-Laundromat or the man-in-the-deli opinions validating a popular (but uninformed, unsubstantiated) opinion. Of course, here Brown uses it to fuel his challenge-all-religion stance... belittling myths of his choosing. Setting that aside, I still love the quote.
"If thoughts affect the world, then we must be very careful how we think. Destructive thoughts have influence, too, and we all know it's far easier to destroy than to create." Lost Symbol, pg 501. Can we make this every school's motto? I'm a positive thinker, I'm a half-full glass person, and have witnessed the power of prayer, so this resonates with me. In fact, when Brown's story descends to the depths, I cringed and almost stopped reading.
Thirdly, I thoroughly enjoyed the setting of Washington DC. On a recent visit to Alexandria, VA driving to the Old Town on Carlisle Drive, we stumbled upon stunning monument/museum called the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. I had completely forgotten that Washington was a freemason, and was amazed how "unhidden" it was, for this society with secrets. Brown mentions it in the book, along with numerous buildings and their histories. As an avid reader, and a book professional, I thoroughly enjoyed the character's "ride" on the circulation belt... something I would have loved to do! The Washington setting will undoubtedly boost the attraction of these majestic buildings.
On the negative side, I was distracted by the believability of his facts. As a widely read person, I was often thinking that doesn't sound true, I should research that. When I pick up fiction, I don't expect to get homework assignments! If you can remind yourself to stick to the story, and not remember the inaccuracies as fact, the read could still work. When you recommend a book to a friend, the fear is they could trustingly embrace it as historically accurate, hence the caution.
For example, the Akedah is a historically substantiated story of Abraham, in obedience to God's command, willing to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. God intervenes with a substitute sacrifice, showing His love for Abraham. In the Lost Symbol, pg 445, Brown invents an actual knife; the "Akedah Knife", gives it mystical properties and a "destiny" to fulfill. All the while alluding that his story, Peter Solomon/Zachary and Abraham/Isaac is one and the same. Brown's creating the son's desire to self-sacrifice and involve his father, twists this historical story into a meaningless one. One wonders why Brown's fiction needs to dig at the tenets of the various religious worldviews. Is it to create the controversy that sells lots of books? You decide.
Throughout the story we observe the premise "how to die", over and over. I, on the other hand would have celebrated the characters that portray, how to live. The love of a friend, sister, brother, fellow believer, to go to whatever lengths necessary to help.
Despite the inaccuracies, I would recommend this title to fiction readers who love to discuss the latest bestseller `round cocktails or the water cooler, readers who can separate fact from fiction, and to readers, who can suspend their disbelief and just enjoy the ride.
Book Review: A fun and exciting story, but more of the same
Summary: 3 Stars
After six years, "The Lost Symbol" -- author Dan Brown's long-awaited followup to his highly controversial international best-seller, "The Da Vinci Code" -- was released Sept. 15 by Doubleday Books. The book continues Brown's penchant for puzzles, conspiracies and arcane history, offering fans exactly what they've come to expect from his novels ... and nothing more.
Like all four of Brown's previous novels, "The Lost Symbol" follows symbologist Robert Langdon, as he's called to deliver a last -minute lecture in Washington D.C. It doesn't take long for Langdon to realize the real reason he was summoned, pulling him into a national security conflict that has him running for his life.
Anyone familiar with Brown's predictable prose style will not be surprised with his latest work. Much of formula behind "The Lost Symbol" has been copied from books like "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code."
Once again Langdon is called upon for his unique knowledge of symbols and secret societies. Here we replace Paris (or Rome) with Washington D.C.; Opus Dei (or the Illuminiati) with Freemasons; Sophie Neveu (or Vittoria Vetra) with Katherine Solomon, and Jacques Sauniere (or Leonardo Vetra) with Peter Solomon. Likewise, the archetype of Silas -- the pale-skinned albino assassin from "The Da Vinci Code" -- is equally represented in "The Lost Symbol" in the form of the grotesquely tattooed Mal'akh.
Brown is often panned by critics for going back to the same formula again and again, and he makes no attempt to prove them wrong in "The Lost Symbol." Say what you will, though, "The Da Vinci Code" alone has more than 80 million copies in print, and "The Lost Symbol" has an additional 5.6 million copies (2 million reportedly sold in its first week). Movies based upon his books have made $1.2 billion worldwide, and "The Lost Symbol" is already planned to hit theaters in 2012. Dan Brown is worth an estimated $350 million.
These are not the credits of an unsuccessful author.
As formulaic as his books may in fact be, they are no less exciting. Fans accept his predictable formula in exchange for feeding their love of intricate puzzles, conspiracies, secret societies, and odd historical facts (like knowing that the practice of wearing neckties came from Roman orators who wore them to keep their throats warm before speaking). The story picks up quickly and his trademark short chapters help keep the reader turning pages, unable to set the book down.
What really sets "The Lost Symbol" apart from Langdon's earlier adventures is that it's far more philosophical than we've seen before. The story focuses largely on man's relationship with God. It's less about outward answers and more about looking for God inside ourselves and man's own apotheosis. This philosophical turn may catch some readers off guard.
What disappointed me most about "The Lost Symbol" was simply that I didn't feel like it lived up to its predecessor. Honestly, how could it?
I was hoping for even more strange tidbits about our nation's capital, its history, and our political system. There certainly was a lot of that here, but not nearly as much as I had expected. I also didn't feel the threat was as menacing as it was in "Da Vinci" or "Angels."
It takes the reader more than 400 pages to learn what the national security threat is (I felt it was overstated), and then it's quickly played out within the next 20 pages. To be fair, the national security threat isn't what keeps readers interested anyway. It's more of a secondary plot. The final 50 pages of the book are reserved for bringing closure to the characters themselves, without any conflict, mystery, danger, or controversy. It's a rather slow, boring, and anti-climactic process. It took me just as long to read the last 15 pages as it took to read the previous 495 because I was so bored I set it down and walked away for a few days.
Though not nearly as good as his previous novels, if you're already a fan of Dan Brown's endless oddities and can accept him for what he is, you probably will enjoy his latest work. If, however, you have trouble suffering his predictable, formulaic, and anticlimactic habits, you'll find little solace here.
"The Lost Symbol" is little more than an unapologetic regurgitation of what Dan Brown does best. Love it or leave it.
PORTSMOUTH DAILY TIMES
Portsmouth, Ohio; Oct. 9, 2009
Book Review: Has it been worth the wait? Overall, yes.
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't think I can recall a book that has been as widely and thoroughly anticipated as THE LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown. I know, I know...that Potter kid has a lot of fans who stood in line at midnight for the privilege of being the first on their block to possess the latest volume. But it has been six years since THE DA VINCI CODE was published, and folks were overdue for the next installment. So here it is: the return of Harvard's own symbologist Robert Langdon in roughly 500 pages of him in a battle of wits with a truly deranged villain played out against the backdrop of Washington, D.C.
THE LOST SYMBOL takes place over a period of 10 hours or so in the Washington D.C. area, predominantly downtown. Langdon, being somewhat unfamiliar with America's capital, is a fish out of water. His presence is the result of a request of his old friend, Peter Solomon, to make a last-minute address at a private gala presented by the Smithsonian Institution. What begins as an attempt to help a friend, however, becomes a race against time. Langdon is forced to follow an enigmatic series of clues to obtain the solution to a puzzle that is believed to have the power to unleash a heretofore hidden and closely guarded secret. The guardians of this secret are the Masons, an order that is both publicly known and shrouded in mystery.
Langdon follows an ancient, clandestine and bloody trail across Washington, commencing with a grisly object displayed in the Capitol Building. While following the clues around the city, Langdon is pursued by the CIA, who seems bent on stopping him at any cost. The result is a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse as Langdon and Solomon's sister, Katherine, chase down a series of codes and symbols, some familiar and some going back to the beginning of recorded history. And the strings of this deadly game are being pulled by the imposing Mal'akh, a giant demon of a man who is truly deranged.
Langdon must use all of his skills and knowledge to stop Mal'akh, prevent the death of his friend, Peter, and foil a plan that culminates with the toppling of the United States government. As forces both old and new converge on one of Washington's most unusual structures, the fate of many hangs in the balance as a madman's carefully calculated plan comes near success with only Langdon --- in an uneasy partnership with one of the United States' most powerful agencies --- standing in his way.
Has it been worth the wait? Overall, yes. But that's not to say that the book is without its shortcomings. For one, THE LOST SYMBOL could easily have been a hundred pages shorter since it tends to drag occasionally, usually when Brown shows his research hand a bit too much. And there is one segment between the climax and the ultimate conclusion where Brown prattles on a bit too long. Additionally, there are a couple of points where credibility is strained, not unlike what one might be inclined to believe watching an episode of "24." I'm not sure how some of the characters couldn't figure out the identity of Mal'akh, the imposing and frightening villain of the piece, a bit sooner. And there are a few moments where injuries are seemingly healed way too quickly, so everyone can move from a life-threatening situation to just hours later touring national monuments without a stop at a medical facility in between for a few days of rest and relaxation. You'll understand once you read the book.
But be warned: after reading THE LOST SYMBOL, it will be almost impossible to resist a long and leisurely trip to Washington, D.C to visit the places that Brown so skillfully weaves and elegantly describes throughout his narrative. He clearly did his research, and he enjoys sharing it with readers. Although he vividly illustrates both the city and Langdon's brilliance, the most riveting character is Mal'akh, who becomes more frightening, bizarre, and yes, memorable as one delves more deeply into the novel. And while THE LOST SYMBOL lacks some of the more controversial aspects of THE DA VINCI CODE (the most powerful group in the book, the Masons, are portrayed as good fellows here, and religion in general is attacked half-heartedly when attacked at all), it is doubtful that you'll ever look at a dollar bill or D.C. the same way again.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Book Review: Much slower than earlier books [3.5 stars]
Summary: 4 Stars
Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol continues the adventures of Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of Symbology, a genius with an eidetic memory whose peculiar ability to interpret symbols lands him in hot water more often than his job description would lead you to suspect. This time around Langdon is summoned to Washington D.C. by an old friend, Peter Solomon, who asks him at the last minute to give a talk in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. Needless to say, the trip doesn't go as planned, and Langdon finds himself plunged into yet another crisis, this one brought on by a religious crazy with a thing for tattoos. Saving the world--or at least the United States--involves Langdon in a sort of treasure hunt that leads him to explore the Masonic underpinnings of the country and the Masonic imagery that decorates many of its monuments.
I've enjoyed Dan Brown's books in the past because they are--or have been--page-turners. The DaVinci Code, for example, starts with an exciting scene, as a killer chases the curator of the Louvre through the museum. Strangely--unfortunately--The Lost Symbol is very slow to get going. The action doesn't begin in earnest until about a third of the way in. Instead, there's a lot of exposition--Langdon explaining the significance of this or that symbol. When things do finally get moving the story moves quickly, though it's still periodically slowed by further explanatory passages. Similarly, the final ten percent or so of the book is extremely dull, the surviving characters blathering on about religion with the unwelcome fervor of evangelical door-knockers. This 50-odd pages of boring (mostly) dialogue is tacked on after the dramatic stuff is over, which is to say that it's close to completely unnecessary to the story. It's also hard to believe, after everything the characters have been through by this point, that they'd opt to tour some Washington landmarks and lecture one another about religion and science instead of going home to nap. This part really should have been cut.
A few other things bothered me about the book. In no particular order:
-- Inoue Sato, Director of the CIA's Office of Security, does not come off as a credible character. I also found it impossible not to picture her as the diminutive, accented seamstress in The Incredibles.
-- Particularly in the first third of the book, the prose is interrupted frequently by the characters' italicized thoughts. Used more sparingly, this would have been fine, but it's overdone, the must mundane of thoughts sometimes meriting this kind of attention:
"Langdon left his coffee half made and hurried toward his study to return the call.
"_I hope he's okay._"
-- In addition to threatening the lives of Langdon's friends, the chaos planned by this book's bad guy also threatens national security, as we're frequently told. Hence the involvement of the CIA. But while the impending crisis might indeed have serious repercussions, it somehow fails to terrify. It's rather like threatening someone with a really bad splinter that will eventually become infected and might result in the loss of a limb. Worrisome, to be sure, but it doesn't get one's attention the way, say, the threat of a gouged-out eyeball would.
-- For all his brilliance and his ability to make startling intellectual leaps, Langdon sometimes comes across as profoundly stubborn and rather slow. (I actually beat him in recognizing the meaning of one series of symbols near the book's end. This does not speak well for Robert.)
-- It was inevitable that some drama or other would play out in the pitch dark of pod 5 of the Smithsonian Museum Support Center, where Katherine Solomon, Peter Solomon's sister, has her lab. I thus understand why things had to be left dark for dramatic reasons, but for the life of me I can't imagine otherwise why the woman never invested in a flashlight.
In short, a lot bothered me about the story, but the main problem is that it's a good hundred pages too long. Cut out the lectures so the book is action-packed right out of the gate and doesn't end with a whimper, and it would be a much better read, on a par with the author's earlier works.
-- Debra Hamel
Book Review: FIll In The Blanks?
Summary: 2 Stars
SPOILER ALERT!
Dan Brown must use a plot generator that goes something like this:
- Start with Robert Langdon, renowned symbologist who, despite being thrown into multiple international secrets, scandals and run-ins with assassins, is permanently perplexed (in an attempt at humility) as to why anyone wants his help with, you know, his life's passion.
- Add one secret society, ancient or otherwise, and the secret "only they hold".
- Place in an appropriate city which coincidentally has a high percentage of landmarks pertaining to this secret society.
- Add a member/someone aware of this secret society who is killed/maimed/kidnapped. Helps if he knows or has met Langdon in the past (thereby preventing them from calling some other world renowned symbologist for help in the investigation).
- Add a mysterious, intelligent, single woman who has some relation to the aforementioned killed/maimed/kidnapped secret society member and who Langdon constantly uses as an intellectual crutch when he can't put the pieces together. Obligitory romance may ensue.
- One dash of a high-ranking police/security official who will be under suspicion of being "the bad guy/the traitor" for 2/3 of the novel before being redeemed when it's revealed they were just doing their job the entire time.
- A peppering of an elderly, sage helper who either reaches out to Langdon, or whom Langdon knew all along, to fill in those pesky blanks he couldn't figure out.
- For flavor, make sure your villian is so ridiculously, melodramatically diabolical that only the darkest heart could sympathize. He should also be mysterious, a near-perfect physical specimen, highly trained in not only firearms but hand-to-hand combat, and comfortable with riddles and over-complicated revenge tactics. And of course, he has a life-long blood feud against the secret society in question, whether or not they currently exist.
- Insert secret traitor here.
- Bake with a race-against-time urgency of no more than twelve hours.
- Be sure to cool the anger of whichever secret group you pissed off by copping out at the end and revealing the assassin's hatred was misplaced under a black-and-white worldview because of some past emotional pain, and assure your reader that yes, this secret group does have positive aspects to it and was never really a threat in the first place.
- Don't forget to reveal your big ultra secret secret, no matter how stupid of a secret it may be, thereby making you wonder how this secret was ever kept for thousands of years, since everyone seems to be jumping at the chance to tell Langdon what it is.
- Happily ever after.
Bottom line: The Lost Symbol was a classic, albiet uninspired, Dan Brown novel, and I'm sad to say that is no longer a "good thing". When compared to the much more earth-shaking consequences of Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, "Symbol"'s big twist falls flat on its face. A video of self-proclaimed Masons performing their rights? That's supposed to compete with the Vatican, all its knowledge, art, treasures and God knows how many people being blown to smithereens? Hmmmm. Tough to decide just which is more horrifying.
Angels and Demons was by far his best novel. Da Vinci Code was an acceptable follow-up, though the aformentioned plot repetition had started to bother me about halfway through DVC. Now that he's done it a third time, I just can't shake how ridiculous it is that he can't try just a LITTLE harder to build a realistic plot.
Also, the constant reminder from several minor characters about Brown's previous books was insulting. "This is the guy that ran from Interpol?" thought the guard. "I've had run-ins with the Vatican," revealed Robert. Yes, Mr. Brown, we are well aware of Langdon's prior adventures. Your constant reminders of the other books you've written come across as desperate as a girl waiting by the phone for a boy to ask her to the dance.
I'm actually sad my husband wasted his money giving this as a gift, and sad I was so excited to read it. Bored to tears through much of it. Do these mainstream writers even try anymore?