Book: The Lost Symbol -Dan Brown
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Title: The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown
Rating: 5/10
Impression:If you like puzzles, thrillers, and overblown conspiracy theories, give this book a try. If you hate Dan Brown’s writing style, don’t bother. Once again we meet Robert Langdon just in time for him to be pulled into a fast paced adventure through the world of arcane symbolism. As mentioned previously, Brown seems to understand that he is not a writer of high-quality epic fiction. Indeed, this book wears a bit thin at times with the same types of formulaic characters we have met in previous stories: Langdon, a female assistant, an over-dramatic and dogged law-enforcement type, and a creepy lone villain with a twisted past. But it is still a fun ride.
My greatest complaint: Langdon never seems to grow as a character. Sure, he is a mature man whose personality should be stable. But what about Sophie healing his claustrophobia in The DaVinci Code? What about a little hint of being open to new ideas after, oh, personally re-writing history in two previous adventures. At least this time the most he has to deal with is acknowledging that the founders of America were obsessed with philosophy. Not hard, given that he probably already knew that from his middle school History classes.
All this isn’t to say that The Lost Symbol is a bad book. I personally enjoyed it. I just won’t be telling anyone they have to read it.