Customer Reviews

The Lost Symbol: Special Illustrated Edition: A Novel

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

When it comes to Dan Brown books there is a certain level of disbelief that the reader must suspend. I'm okay with that. I sign up for it the minute I buy a book by him. If I accept the idea that there is a particle based bomb made by a religious scientist working for a wheelchair bound relic at CERN does the rest of the story make sense? If yes, then the story is enjoyable. In no, then I have a man jumping from a helicopter into the Tiber by using a piece of cardboard to airsurf to safety from great heights. In this latest book not only is the reader asked to suspend disbelief, they are asked to suspend all levels of logic. Brown spends 450 pages detailing the physical incapacity of a main character only to have him descend 550 stairs without breaking a sweat. Really? Brown has an antagonist whose origin is absurd. Really? Brown's book has a 'plot twist' that reveals only what a reasonable person would have figured out by page 40. This. Book. Is. Bad. Pass on it. My only comfort is that I got it for 50% off.

Despite their far fetched plots I enjoyed Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. The pace of the books grabbed you and they were hard to put down. This book just feels like exploitation - a writer past his peak, in need of another bottle, having one last attempt to make a buck.

The book is slow paced and a tedious read. It is enormously contrived and the supposed twist at the end is very weak. Spend your money on the new James Ellroy.

After having enjoyed all four of Dan Brown's previous novels, I was looking forward to reading The Lost Symbol. What new secret would be unveiled? What controversy would be ignited? Unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed with his latest story.

Had I read of all his books without knowing when they were released, I would've guessed The Lost Symbol was his first novel. The structure showed some potential but the pace was slow, the action unexciting, the plot highly predictable and the denouement unsatisfying. This felt like the first novel of a promising yet unpolished writer. However, this is his fifth book and I expected much more. At times, I felt I was reading an old Emile Zola novel where the author extended scene descriptions because he got paid by the word. In this case, I had the feeling Dan Brown embarked on a journey that even he was uncertain of and confused by. It seemed that he extended scenes and explanations simply to fill 500 pages. Without spoiling anything, one of the main intrigues of this book is so obvious that you're almost angry at the author for thinking so little of the reader. The main character also gets duped more than once by a similar ploy. The only part of the book I enjoyed was the first 50 or so pages when it seems the pace will suddenly pick up and you'll be swept up by the story...unfortunately that never happens.

In the end, this felt like the work of a weak writer trying to copy the style of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons but falling far short.

[Cross-posted to LibraryThing and LivingSocial]

Oh Dan Brown. What happened? You had such momentum from The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, neither of which were fantastically written but that had interesting stories and fast-paced plots. You had a good premise, expanding on the Masons that you'd touched on in Angels & Demons. You even had lots of time - The Lost Symbol didn't exactly get rushed to the printers. So what happened? Did you have a fight with your editor? Was your 'delete' key not working? Something must have happened because I can't think how else The Lost Symbol became so bloated and boring.

The focus in this instalment of Robert Langdon's adventures is on the Freemasons and there is a lot of information about their rituals, their symbols, and their legends. Most of it is interesting and relevant to the plot. But Brown also insists on adding extra information throughout the novel that serves no purpose other than to show how good Brown is at research. Instead of a tight storyline, where the information comes in as needed to develop characters or drive the plot forward, we get little bits of action broken up by long passages of information, much of which gets really repetitive after a while. By the last hundred pages or so, I couldn't care less what happened to Langdon or anyone else. I just wanted to be done with it and move on.

A common complaint in other reviews is that the novel reads more like a screenplay. I didn't really feel that way, although it did seem like Langdon's character was written as Tom Hanks much more than in the previous two books. Everyone else just felt like the same person, they all blended together with no distinct personalities. Another reason why I didn't care what happened at the end.

Overall: a disappointment, even for Dan Brown.

I bought this book last week.

When a book is interesting, I devour it in a couple of days. In the last 6 days I've managed to read 58 pages of this book because it's so boring that I keep falling asleep!

I hope it picks up because there is no way I'm subjecting myself to much more of it unless it does.

IMHO if it makes the best sellers list it's only because his name is on the book, not because the book is a good one.

As always Dan Brown produces 'page turning' books in his own inimitable style. Full of facts and figures that can be mind boggling but this still has those glimmers of 'truths' that can have you turning to your computer for verification! I am still not at the conclusion of this Masonic tale, and this time Langdon's knowledge is helped along with the aid of Katherine Solomon, along with the seemingly evil CIA Boss Sato..... read, enjoy and wonder!

Fast paced, lots of silliness and such, intriguing ideas brought forth that are actually worth thinking about, such as the research the heroine was conducting. The rest was pretty good fantasy fiction...

It clarified so many questions ,however I still want to know the true clear beginning of the agree Masons
Dab Brown books are deep ,requires 100%focus

Dan Brown, you such an amazing author. Lost Symbol is an Interesting book with nice pictures illustration. I can't go to bed early because of you.

Robert Langdon, respected symbologist and well-known protagonist of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, is back on the job. Summoned by an early-morning phone call, Robert makes a hurried flight to Washington, DC. He is prepared to address a gathering of the chic and famous, filling in for a last minute cancellation. Instead, Robert finds himself racing the clock to decode hidden clues and follow the directions of a mysterious tattooed man. His only thought is to save the life of his mentor, Peter Solomon. It soon seems that there is more at stake.

This book is action-packed, and filled with both unfathomable mysteries and too-predictable characters. The puzzles are interesting and Brown does set the reader up to understand a few of them before the characters do. You have to love a story that makes you feel smart, don't you? But several of the characters, while acting predictably, have beliefs and motivations that don't make a lot of sense. It also strains credulity that so many symbols and ancient artifacts stay just where a famous someone put them centuries ago, waiting for a less-famous someone to deduce their significance. It's odd that a clever person in the past would create a plan that relies on this happening, over and over.

The audio version of this book was well-done. Paul Michael creates distinct vocal personalities for a fairly broad collection of male and female characters. I was glad to have the relentlessly-advancing audio medium to help me move through the book, which could have benefitted from some editing. I notice that the abridged audio book is just over a third the size of the unabridged. I initially judged this cut-down version harshly, but now think the abridgers may be wiser than I credited.

Dan Brown and Robert Langdon fans should not miss this book. Less devoted readers might think twice before making the substantial time commitment.