OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown returns after the highly successful and controversial ‘Da Vinci Code’ with another frantic adventure of problem solving, code breaking and all round survival skills, this time focused on the sights and sounds of Washington DC.

The story starts with Professor Robert Langdon, protagonist of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels & Demons’, being called to Washington DC on extremely short notice to deliver a speech as favour to friend and mentor, Peter Solomon, a highly influential and connected individual who also happens to a prominent Mason. Arriving at the United States Capitol Building to give the speech, it seems that Langdon has been tricked; after speaking to the individual supposedly representing Solomon a series of screams comes from another room. Langdon goes bounding in to see a mounted severed hand pointing towards the ceiling that Langdon recognises as the symbolic ‘Hand of the Mysteries’. But if that isn’t enough to get you going, Langdon identifies the owner of the hand as being of his friend, Peter ‘The Silent-Clap’ Solomon.

And so we start a typical Langdon-esque narrative, pacey prose with dollops of intrigue, jeopardy, code-breaking and symbology; this time focused upon the architecture and artefacts of Washington DC, the obscure domain of Noetic Science (the exploration of extending human capabilities such as many acting as a single consciousness) and the shady dealings of the secret society, the Masons.

Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star? (deleted scenes from the Lost Symbol)

But if you’ve read either ‘Angels & Demons’ or ‘The Da Vinci Code’ the structure of the story will be of no surprise to you. There’s Langdon seemingly out of his depth, struggling under pressure as a single malevolent antagonist who lures him down a trail of historical cryptic codes and unsolvable problems to save an individual, armed with only a condescending approach of solving said problems and his lifetime of study in Symbology and Religion to back him up. The usual cast of scheming law enforcers and shifty friend of friends also make appearances as Langdon fights the good fight barely keeping out of reach of the bad guy and the ‘are they, aren’t they’ good guys. In fact, the first three quarters is so much like the previous books, it is almost borders on plagiarism.

On the plus side with previous Langdon books, the blend of historical reference and fiction can make some intriguing reading and may have you (like me) Googling for specific phrases and keywords. Certainly you cannot fault some of the research that has gone into the book such as the references to architecture, statues and other works. But as with the previous books, the subject matter was more compelling than the actual fiction, for instance the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, the various chronicles of Christ and that whole Holy Grail / vagina thing. Unfortunately, unlike the previous books the aura of the Masons and to a lesser degree, Washington DC, simply do not have the same lustre and mystery as the Christian Church or Paris and Rome regardless of the amount of cliffhangers at the end of each and every chapter.

Overall, The Lost Symbol is a shadow of its early contemporaries and while the subject matter wasn’t as strong with this offering, there was certainly potential to take a different approach with his narrative to create a compelling story. In the end he took the path of least resistance and created a so-so book that isn’t particular memorable.

Bottom Line

I do tend to be a Dan Brown apologist and his books are generally accessible easy going reads, ideal for commutes or holidays. While the Lost Symbol doesn't have the drama nor engagement of 'Angels & Demons' and suffers from the same la-di-da ending as the 'The Da Vinci Code', it does have it moments as a no-brainer page turner.