Essentially, the same review can be written about any of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books, and The Lost Symbol is no different. Langdon is called to Washington D.C., to give a lecture, but once he arrives, he discovers his friend Peter Solomon's hand in the middle of the Capitol rotunda, tattooed with strange symbols that only a practiced symbologist would understand. The symbol are clues, needed to help Langdon solve the puzzle and save his friend before the madman threatens the entire foundation of the U.S.
Robert Langdon: New Location, New Mystery, Same Plot and Storyline
This probably sounds pretty familiar to any on has read Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code - only with a different location and a different puzzle to be solved. This time, Langdon is looking to unearth the meaning behind a Masonic pyramid, which the kidnapper believes holds the secret to great wisdom.
Almost immediately, Langdon teams up with his beautiful, smart, and very wealthy side-kick. This time he finds her in Peter's sister, Katherine Solomon, a Noetic Scientist who is trying to prove that people have the ability to move things with their minds.
The madman in this story is not just any madman, either. He's the same man who broke into Peter's home ten years earlier, demanding the mystical pyramid and killing Peter's mother in the process.
As Langdon and Katherine traverse across D.C. to try to find the secret, they encounter both help and resistance from the CIA, are sent to a local clergyman, and find themselves staring into the face of the killer himself. Brown's books are fast-paced and exciting, but they are not easy reads. Trying to keep track of what symbol has what meaning and how the characters got to the next clue can be very confusing, and The Lost Symbol is much worse in that regard than Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Brown doesn't seem to lay out the steps as clearly in The Lost Symbol and the reader doesn't feel the same pull to continue readings as they did in previous Langdon book.
Self-Conscious Feelings Translated to Paper
Many interviews reported Brown saying that he was much more nervous and self-aware writing this book because he realized many more people would read it after the success of The Da Vinci Code. (One such interview can be read on the Guardian's website.)
As a result, it took Brown more than five years to finish The Lost Symbol, and his so-called "paralysis" is evident, as he prose of the novel are not nearly as gripping as previous works. The fact that the reader feels like they've read the book before does not help, either.
Twists, Turns, and Surprises Not Predictable
Despite the familiar formula, Brown manages to sneak in a few surprising twists, and even though the reader knows they are coming they cannot be predicted. Brown has done too good of a job of embedding the clues for the big surprise, and the reader will not put them together until the characters do it for them. While the book itself may not be all that different or all that intriguing, the shock at the end will stop the reader cold, giving them goosebumps - and reading that surprise is worth stumbling through the entire first 500 or so pages.
The Lost Symbol was published by Doubleday Books in 2009. ISBN: 978-0385504225
Kristen Nichols - Kristen is a freelance reporter and copywriter covering Olympic and Paralympic sport for Suite101.com. Kristen's love of sport developed ...
