Having read Dan Brown‘s The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, I was anticipating Dan Brown’s follow up that would follow Robert Langdon. Last month, the next story released, The Lost Symbol and I, among millions around the world have enjoyed Brown’s new piece!
As the story opens, 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–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.
There is no doubt that this piece of fiction was a page turner, however the suspenseful plot that is created is written out in a slow pace and there seemed to be more time spent explaining theories and the meanings of myths, symbols, etc… than furthering the story, furthering character development, and creating less convenient plot twists and turns. That is not say that there weren’t fascinating plot twists, there were. What was quite fascinating was the setting which was parts of Washington D.C. readers have never been exposed to before. Brown has done it again mixing his abundant amount of research with his own writing, fiction.
However there is an inbalance of the two, as there seems to be more of Brown’s research than an incredible story that many Brown fans were expecting. Brown continues to create phenomenal imagery, however at times I wondered if he was writing parts of this book with a screenplay in mind consciously or not. For the record, I would rather not see this book turn into a film. Anyway, Brown’s sentence structure is quite simple when not writing about theories and such. I would say that all of the action makes up for the simple writing however Brown’s writing should improve as he publishes each new book.
What I do love about Brown’s writing is that he slips in humor all throughout the book with every character. Perhaps equally comedic as it was disturbing was how Robert Langdon seemed to be behind everyone else and not ahead of everyone else in resolving the situation at hand. By the end of the book, I was left feeling there was way more to the characters and this story that could have been told and the climax should not have been so rushed. Overall, this is an enjoyable piece – very thought provoking however, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons are way more thrilling.
Read an excerpt of The Lost Symbol.