Book Review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Rating
3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis
Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned at the last minute to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object - gruesomely encoded with five symbols - is discovered at the epicentre of the Rotunda. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's revered mentor, Peter Solomon - philanthropist and prominent mason - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon finds himself quickly swept behind the facade of America's most historic city into the unseen chambers, temples and tunnels which exist there. All that was familiar is transformed into a shadowy, clandestine world of an artfully concealed past in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth. A brilliantly composed tapestry of veiled histories, arcane icons and enigmatic codes, The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced thriller that offers surprises at every turn. For, as Robert Langdon will discover, there is nothing more extraordinary or shocking than the secret which hides in plain sight...

My Review:
Ok so this was one of the most hyped up pre-ordered books of all time apparently. The third and latest Robert Langdon book. Wow! So did it live up to the hype?...

Ok so I have a couple points/ feelings towards this book. First off: De Ja Vu. This is without giving the plot away the normal Robert Langdon story. Langdon sees himself brought into to some kind of situation. All of a sudden it is a race against time, normally involving a car chase. Robert 'super Kriss cross solver' Langon has to solve loads of clues runs around loads of historical sites (always a library close to hand) and solves the clues to unviel many 'secret' idealogoies that could change the world... Oh and lets not forget the strong, beautiful, intelligent, yet damsel in distress sidekick... Thats it.

I was looking forward to this as I loved The Da Vinci code and liked Angels and Demons. I have never heard much about the Freemasons to begin with so this intrigued me alot, and was hoping that by the end of the book I would want to hook up to google and get me a piece of freemason action. The start was good. The first page was a message from Brown stating that the organisations involved in the story, all arts, places etc etc were all FACT! Wow! I was salivating already. As the book goes on I felt like this was actually, the least 'realistic' of all three books. I could not imagine, nor care for the 'facts' that he was exposing. I was quite often thinking really? Are your sure? I just felt like he was bending the truth more than Uri Gellar bends spoons.

But apart from my moans and grumbles, I read the book in two days, and the quick pace of the books got me through it.Yet I was turning every page thinking where is that Dan Brown "Kerpow" That little piece of information or thought that gets you thinking. I personally found nothing like that in the book.

All in all it was not that bad where I put it down could not get ito it, and leftit beside the bed. It was a run of the mill thriller. That's unfortunately all that it was.

Pros: Typical Dan Brown. Easy to read.

Cons: Same old. I found the storyline not as good as the rest.