Title: The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown
Number of Pages: 509
Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Action, Drama, Fiction
Series/Standalone: Standalone but revolved around the same male character as previous works
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: 15th September, 2009
The Plot:
Famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon answers an unexpected summons to appear at the U.S. Capitol Building. His planned lecture is interrupted when a disturbing object - artfully encoded with five symbols - is discovered in the building. Langdon recognises in the find an ancient invitation into a lost world esoteric, potentially dangerous wisdom.
When his mentor Peter Soloman - a longstanding Mason and beloved philanthropist - is kidnapped, Langdon realises that the only way to save Solomon is to accept the mystical invitation and plunge headlong into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and one inconceivable truth.
My Thoughts:
Out of all of Dan Brown's books that I've read I think this is my least favourite. The Lost Symbol follows the familiar Dan Brown formula that follows conspiracy theories, a threat to humanity and a rather large (and fairly unpredictable) twist. Once again, he doesn't disappoint. However, it also felt different. His writing style seemed different almost ... bad in places. Which infuriated me because the plot was actually really good.
Yet even though the writing style is ... inadequate in places it was strangely addictive. It took quite along time for me to get into the book (I actually started the book in November 2014) but once the action began I could hardly put it down.
If there is one thing that Dan Brown is good at, it is his plot twists.
Angels and Demons haunted me for weeks with the multiple twists it holds and I remember reacting rather loudly on a public train when I reached the climatic twist in The Da Vinci Code. All of them I did not predict yet when I thought about it I saw it coming from the tiny hints throughout.
But this twist blew me away. It took me a good half an hour to understand what happened. It was so far fetched that even now I can't comprehend it fully. There are tiny hints but really, I feel, that it's one big plot hole. Which really is annoying because it's brilliant.
I think the poor quality (yet addictive quantity) is to do with the large gap between writing the Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol. Yes he wrote another book between them but not following Robert Langdon so he lost his style slightly ... his writing flow. It makes sense really.
Rating:
I may have adored the plot line but the writing itself was so poor that sadly I can only give the book ***
-IAMAGEEKINGGINGER!
Book Total of 2015 - 62
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