Book: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

[Krishna]

** Original post Feb 6 2013 **

After the spectacular success of his fourth book (The Da Vinci Code – See the review elsewhere in this forum) , this is his latest book. All the normal Dan Brown ingredients are there: The World’s Shortest Chapters, the taut suspense at the end of each chapter, the tension, the famous hero Robert Langdon – the symbologist – everything is there. The storytelling style is familiar and even the explosive twist is there in the book – and yet, it does not look as taut as the last two books of Dan Brown. This time it is Washington DC that is chosen as the locale of unexpected wonders.

When Langdon is called for a lecture to Washington, he is asked to bring in a box that was given to him for safekeeping. When he enters the auditorium where he is expected to give his lecture, he is already a few minutes late and is frantic. But when he enters the lecture hall and finds no one waiting for him, he realizes that something is very wrong. He is not aware that he has started on a desperate race to solve a puzzle and save his mentor and friend, Peter Solomon, whose severed hand is left as a clue on the centre of the hallway of the building.

And so starts another treasure hunt of symbols, chase by the FBI and keeping one step ahead of both the police and a vicious killer Malakh, who is determined to get to the end of the puzzle with Langdon’s help.

The story races ahead with a lot of trivia and technical wizardry. The tension is there, a cute girl is there, and a puzzle to solve.

The story is not as gripping as the Da Vinci Code since the subject matter is mundane. Religion and the bible enter the picture again but only peripherally. The story, in my view, ends quite a few pages (about 40) before the end of the book and that is a disappointment. What is even more disappointing is what fills the last 40 pages. If Dan Brown thought that material is exciting enough to fill in for the story at the end, I suppose he is in a minority.

The story is also incredible. After suffering a great loss (to tell you more would be to give away the plot), in the very next scene the characters behave as if nothing at all has happened and are ‘excited to show Langdon the greatest spectacle he has ever seen’. Really? It is like those cartoons where Sylvester Cat is chopped to bits and the next scene it is whole, doing its next prank.

The story is still good and keeps your interest, but is this the best book he has written? No. I would rank his books personally in the following order, from best to least good: Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol (this one), Deception Point and lastly Digital Fortress.

Back to this book: Let us say a 7/10

— Krishna