Book Report: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol
by Dan Brown

I read The Da Vinci Code and another book by Dan Brown about a meteor that crashes at one of the poles, I think the North.  I really didn't want to read the book about the meteor but I mentioned to an older woman at work that I had read The Da Vinci Code and when I said it wasn't my cup of tea, the next day she brought me the meteor book for me to read.  I usually have a pile of books I'm working through, and thanks to the iPad I have even more that I've been downloading for cheap or free or at $9.99 from Amazon.  I probably have a hundred books on my iPad that I have to get to, not to mention the 300 or so books on my shelves that say 100 - 150 need to be cracked open.  I both love and hate going to bookstores.  This is why I hate when people force books upon me.  It's not just "you should check that out when you get a chance;" but, "here you go.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it."  It's kind of rude if you ask me.  Anyway, it was work so I read the meteor fucker in like a week and I remember it being a pretty thick book but more enjoyable than Da Vinci. This was due to the fact that at this point in his career, Dan Brown was trying to be a poor man's Michael Crichton.  This was not an easy task since at this point in his career, Michael Crichton had turned himself into the poor man's Michael Crichton.  This is coming from someone who loved Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man and even Jurassic Park.  I had read everything by Crichton and somewhere around Timeline I thought he was just churning out the same old formula.  I didn't even finish it.  Same was true with Airframe.  But that's neither here nor there.  

A couple of months ago Amazon had Kindle version of The Lost Symbol for $3.99 and I impulse-bought.  And since I have about 20 pages to go I figured I could write the book report.  The reason for this is that the main story ended with about 70 pages to go and right now Robert Langdon is just experiencing some crazy Mason shit with his friend who had his right hand cut off.  I'm an atheist so I have to admit that sometimes it's a challenge to suspend disbelief when it comes to the supernatural.  And I've had my work cut out for me throughout The Lost Symbol.

Like Mr. Crichton, Dan Brown is sticking to the formula that made him a success:  Crazy fucking stories that star the symbologist Robert Langdon.  I'm not against the ideas of series.  I love the Fletch books and am a fan of Michael Connelly.  So I don't really care that it's another story about Robert Langdon.  Good for you, Mr. Brown.  Good for you.

The story starts with Robert Langdon being contacted by a friend and told to come to Washington DC to attend a party but when he gets there he finds a severed hand in the center of the Capitol Rotunda.  Much like the beginnings of his other books, where we had I believe a naked old dead guy in the middle of some crazy shit.  This starts a series of events that takes him through all the Masonic landmarks in Washington DC.  Mostly with a pyramid and a capstone that is there because some crazy fuck thinks that if he unlocks the secret of the pyramid he will gain ultimate knowledge or something like that.  Kind of like the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture where Viger transmits all its knowledge to Will Deker and that hot bald woman (who I think died a few years back).  But I digress.

Like his other books there is a sexy and brainy woman there to offer assistance.  She is the sister of the guy who owns the severed hand and is doing this top-secret science project into Noetics.  Noetics is the study of the soul and prayers so right away I thought that to be nonsense.  And Brown notes at the beginning of the book that there is currently people studying Noetics, like because someone is studying something that makes it real.

The book sails along at a fierce pace.  I'll give it to Brown, once you're hooked you just have to keep on  reading and even if I didn't believe what was going on I was entertained.  Like Crichton's books, it reads like a movie and compared to The Da Vinci Code, there seemed to be less chunks of exposition.  Of course the book was much bigger. On the whole I guess that if you're into this kind of a book you'll like it.  For myself I was entertained enough to give it a B-.  I wasn't blown away.

Les

Update:  Okay, I read the ending and I am not wrong for saying that the main story ended and the last 40 or so pages were made up of crazy Masonic/Religious ideas.  I have a friend who I used to drink beer with. He is a great guy and loved doing Yoga.  Cool.  Then he quit drinking beer and started telling me about how there were yogis that could make themselves levitate through meditation.  He said that they would go up to these sacred caves and they would meditate straight through for days and suddenly they would start floating.  My friend said he read it in a book so that must mean it was true.  haha.  I asked him about the yogis not eating and maybe they thought they were floating because they hadn't eaten for days.  He told me that I can't understand what's going on because I won't open my mind to the possibilities.  The end of The Lost Symbol felt like I was talking to my friend and I couldn't wait until it was over so I could get myself a beer.