The Lost Symbol Review

Submitted by Hunter Xu on Thursday, 17 September 2009No Comment

Author: Dan Brown
The Book Summary:
The story begins with five symbols, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object–artfully encoded with five symbols, it is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation… one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon–a prominent Mason and philanthropist–is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations–all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

The Lost Symbol Review:
The Lost Symbol is very similar to Dan Brown’s previous books, in that it has the same formulaic plot, structure, and theme, only this time it takes place in Washington, D.C. and involves the Freemasons instead of the Knights Templar. Just like in the Da Vinci Code, Langdon is called to Washington at a friend’s request, only to find him missing, and spends the rest of the book chasing clues throughout the city and trying to outwit a new villain who is seemingly as smart as he is.

I think The Lost Symbol is not the same depth as Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons, but far superior than Digital Fortress and Deception Point. This easy read left me much more interested in our own Capital and with many points to ponder for some time. Inspires further research. (Wikipedia here I come) I am a huge fan of Dan Brown’s writing style and welcome all his books.

By the end of the novel, you won’t be a 33rd Degree Mason and you won’t be like unto a god in any way you can quite wrap your mind around, but you will have experienced a high-adrenaline ride. This thrill is what the journey is all about. Perhaps reality lurks around the edge of the plot and theme and perhaps sacred messages lurk within the vast white spaces between the lines of black type, but that’s not why we’re turning the pages from 1 to 509.

That’s not to say that The Lost Symbol doesn’t have it’s faults. The first is most notably the writing. While it has certainly improved since The Da Vinci Code, it still seems rather sophomoric, and not on par with someone who is one of the biggest-selling authors in the last twenty years. Even though it’s fiction, some of the characters’ actions really made me wonder if Brown has had much human contact while writing the book. There are other annoyances that he continually repeats in the book, but I won’t bring them up for fear that mentioning them may cause future readers to have their attention constantly drawn to them. Overall though, the writing is not terrible and the plot is suspenseful enough that I can overlook it.

Certainly, I don’t have the knowledge to know how much Brown twisted history and fudged facts in The Lost Symbol. But, to be perfectly honest, I don’t care. The Lost Symbol is a novel and I read it as such. For the historical events alluded to in the story that piqued my interest , and happily, there were a number of them – I can do my own research. Doing just that after reading The DaVinci Code was half the fun of that book.

But, I still think that it is worth to read. Or high expectations cause the low evaluation. you can give up the evaluations, and read The Lost Symbol happily.

The Book Details: