Review ~ "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown

Say what you want about Dan Brown - the man can write a gripping and fascinating tale by weaving in art and architecture and history. Since I love all those things, I really loved both "Angels and Demons" and "The DaVinci Code". (I slightly prefer "Angels and Demons".) Anyway, when I heard his newest book was finally coming out, I snatched it up, hoping for another fast paced adventure that was hard to put down.

In "The Lost Symbol", Robert Langdon, the Harvard professor from the previous 2 books, finds himself running around Washington D.C. Someone is in trouble, and apparently Robert is the only one who can save him. It's hard to give a decent synopsis without giving too much of the book away.

The book was good. But I didn't like it anywhere near as much as I liked his previous 2 efforts. Since I'm a big American history buff, I thought a book set in our nation's capitol would appeal to me. But sadly the book does not really infuse art, history and architecture as much as the previous 2 efforts - instead it focuses mainly on the history and workings of the Freemasons, which is a famous organization I'm sure you've heard of. Well, they play a huge role in this book, and while there was still interesting history, art and architecture tidbits, it just wasn't much. It just wasn't the same. 

Aside from that, I found that while I cared about what happened in the book, I really had no trouble putting it down. Unlike the other 2 books, which I quickly devoured, I kind of read this one leisurely, over the course of a week. The story is good, but it's not quite as fascinating as the other two books. There are shocking moments, but I have to say only one really got me. The others didn't really do much to affect me emotionally.

And while all of this books have moments where you step back and realize how absurd the whole thing is, I've always been able to kind of overlook that in the other books. In this one, however, I found that much harder. I even found myself rolling my eyes a couple of things at the actions of Langdon and his comrades. And I didn't really care for the ending either.

I know it sounds like I'm being really hard on the book - if you're a Dan Brown fan, I still suggest reading it. It's more of the same, but I don't think it's up to the same standards. I was disappointed. In the end, I was hoping for more than the book delivered. But I think he had a lot to measure up to based on the success of his previous two books. It's not easy to always live up to the hype. He still manages to weave a good tale, and his use of mixing history with fiction is still pretty strong. 

If you've never read one of his books, though, I wouldn't start with this one. I'd start at the beginning - read Angels and Demons. Save this one for when you've got some time to kill.