Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol.
A ‘Scapist reads / reviews The Lost Symbol – So You don’t have to.
Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol. Released September 15th, 2009.
Spoiler Free.
EXT. Washington National Cathedral.
Two characters approach via the shadows. They know they’re being tracked, but they have to reach their target. The fate of the world hangs on them successfully reaching their target, and finding that which must remain hidden…
New National Treasure Film? A rejected line from James Cameron’s Spider-Man screenplay? Or something potentially far, far worse…
By now you’re probably left in no doubt that there’s a new Dan Brown book out. For the last few months, stores have been enticing you to “Pre Order Your Copy” for weeks now, online retailers have been competing to undercut each other, and offer readers the chance to get our hands on the book for as cheap as possible, and Guardian newspaper readers (of which I’m one) have been busy practicing their sneers, ready to pounce on any poor sap who dared reveal they were considering buying a copy of the book.
Well now the wait is over – The Lost Symbol was finally unleashed just as summer vacations are finishing (which seems a little bit strange, given Browns previous books, especially The Da Vinci Code, were popular “Beach Books”), and now curious readers are finally able to read the book, a full 2-3 years before Tom Hanks, and more worryingly, Tom Hanks’ hair, show up in the inevitable film adaptation.
The Lost Symbol is Dan Browns follow-up to the 2003 Monster hit, The Da Vinci Code, which followed Harvard University Professor, Robert Langdon (originally described as “Harrison Ford in Tweed” – as opposed to Tom Hanks with a weird hair style.) as he’s caught up in a centuries old quest to protect The Holy Grail. This time round, the Harvard Symbologist is caught up in yet another battle between the forces of good and evil, and, yet again, he’s ideally suited to uncover secrets that have been hidden since the time of Newton. This time round, however, he’s not up against The Illuminati through the streets of Rome, or battling Opus Dei around parts of far-flung Europe – this time it’s the streets of Americas Capital, against, seemingly, a group of people who were heavily involved in the actual founding of America – The FreeMasons. The usual mix of cutting edge science (this time around it’s a branch of Science called Noetic Science) remains, as does the sense that, for a University Professor, Robert Langdon seems to handle himself pretty well in these situations.
The Da Vinci code was a huge commercial success, going on to sell over 80 million copies around the world. Fans of the book, eager for to read further adventures of the Harvard Symbologist, turned to one of Browns’ previous books, Angels and Demons, which follows the character, as he attempts to uncover the secrets of the Illuminati, and stop the potential destruction of Vatican City. As a result Browns older books enjoyed a sales bump, and eventually Angels & Demons itself received a film adaptation, though Ron Howard & co. changed the events of the books, so that it takes place after the events of The Da Vinci Code, as opposed to prior.
Not long after The Da Vinci codes’ release, Dan Brown announced that he already researching the background for his next book, which would also feature the character, and that an announcement would be made shortly. Fans waited, and waited, and waited.
Eventually, the name of Browns book was announced – The Solomon Key, and more importantly, it’s release date – 2006. I guess it goes without saying Mr. Brown was more than a little bit late – but was it worth the wait?
To save time – here’s three statements. Click the statement that’s closest to your opinion of Dan Brown & or his previous books, and you’ll magically jump to the part of the article that answers your question.
- The idea of reading a Dan Brown book makes my eyes bleed.
- The Da Vinci Code? – Yeah, I remember reading that – I’ll check this book out.
- Are you kidding – The Freemasons, a holy quest, in Washington DC – I’ve lived this book.
Or, of course, you could just read it all 🙂
It’s a straight forward question, but it’s not exactly a straight forward answer. Firstly, there’s the economy to consider (stay with me, it’ll make sense). Back in 2003, when The Da Vinci Code was first released, times weren’t quite so tough as they are now. The world wasn’t in the grip of a recession, running a car didn’t require you to sell body parts every few months, and more importantly, comic books didn’t cost $3.99 an issue – so the question is, comic books or The Lost Symbol? Luckily, Geekscape is here to supply you with the answer – comic books, of course! – less pages, more pictures, and quicker to read 😉
Joking aside, although the discounts offered by retailers mean that you can pick up the book for virtually free, the question remains – is it worth picking up – after all, it’s over 500 pages long, so that’s a commitment of at least 10 hours to read through it – time’s valuable after all.
In short, if you’re a fan of Browns previous books, and just as importantly, if you’re a fan of the 100s of similar books that publishers quickly rushed to publish following the success of The Da Vinci Code, then the answer’s Yes. Stop reading this article (but remember to come back to Geekscape regularly, ’cause it’s awesome, obviously), and when you think about it, order a copy of the book, safe in the knowledge that you’ll like it – Spidey gives it two thumbs up
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Dear reader – A Question. Is it safe to assume that you liked Browns previous books, but weren’t to impressed with the seemingly endless supply of similar books, complete with “better than The Da Vinci Code / Shows Brown how to write a true thriller / Look, there’s a symbol on the cover, you gotta buy this” tag lines? If that’s the case, then read on…
In short, I’d recommend the book, however, from my own personal point of view, it doesn’t “flow” as smoothly as either his previous Robert Langdon books, or indeed his other books (Digital Fortress & Deception Point). Part of that, in my opinion, comes down to the sheer amount of information that Brown tries to cram into the book – information that doesn’t usually come from his central protagonist.
Perhaps the biggest reason why The Da Vinci Code captured peoples imaginations, and went onto to sell the number of copies that it did, is because it managed to balance elements of fact and fiction, in a way that kept people entertained, and more importantly, guessing. Reading the book for the first time, back in 2003, I think it’s safe to say that most people weren’t all that familiar with names and organisations such as Opus Dei, The Priory of Sion, etc, etc. The reason why the book worked, or to put it more specifically, the reason why I liked the book, when I first read it, is that it managed to perfectly mix three of the key ingredients that I personally look for – interesting characters, doing interesting things, in an interesting way. The characters in The Da Vinci Code were, to me, quite interesting, they were involved in an interesting plot, and the fact Brown peppered the book with references to “real-life” historical events, and facts, made it all the more interesting.
The Lost Symbol sees Brown again attempting this, but for me, he veers to far into the “facts” side of the equation, and focuses less on the actual story. Where as in The Da Vinci Code, the historical information that Brown references, either outside of the main story, or through his central characters helped the central story, this time round it stopped the story from progressing. The following comment on Amazon sums this up perfectly:
“…The refreshing mix of fact and fiction left me feeling refreshed and exhilarated for The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, but in The Lost Symbol, I feel that the amount of fact in the novel, and therefore the amount of Langdon’s explanations, was too much, and so it blurred the lines between fact and fiction and almost became a sequence of facts, linked together by Langdon’s narrative and the situations created in the plot. One wonders if Dan Brown is a fiction writer or someone who has an excellent researcher whom he has relied upon a little heavily in writing this book. Obviously, following the sheer success of the previous book, there must have been a large amount of pressure to make it bigger, better, more complex. He’s done this, but sadly, the narrative is strained by all the factual explanations to the point where the reader is aware they’re being lectured…“
It might also be true, that Brown, in response to the sheer number of people who complained about the historical accuracy of his previous books, perhaps focused too much of his attention on getting the facts to back up his story, as opposed to focusing on the actual story. It’d explain the 3 year delay in getting the book published.
So, to summarize – Would I recommend picking a copy of The Lost Symbol? Definitely. Although not being as entertaining as the previous books in the Robert Langdon series, it is worth a read – just don’t expect anything that’ll rock your world.
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If the concept of reading another Dan Brown book, or indeed a Dan Brown book, makes your eyes bleed, and the fact the book sold 1m copies during its first day of release, including 300,000 copies in the UK, makes you weep for Humanity, then there’s not really all that much anyone can suggest, least of all me, that’ll change your mind. It’s a fact of life, especially on the internet, that the more popular something is, the more vocal the criticism against it, even if it’s only emanating from a small minority. Harry Potter, Twilight, Jar Jar Binks, etc, etc all elicit a passionate response, both positive and negative, and Dan Browns book, in particular The Da Vinci Code, are no different.
Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that goes without saying. However, I’d like to end this article by briefly (because I’m conscious of the fact that I’m already approaching the 1800 word mark) addressing one of the more common complaints that’s made against his books – they’re not “real books”, or they’re not worthy of being classed alongside works by <>.
At the end of the day, it’s the same argument that’s made against J.K. Rowlings’ wonderful (my opinion, obviously) Harry Potter Series – “How dare they put it on the school syllabus, with works by William Shakespeare.”. I don’t think anyone would suggest that the quality of JKs books are anywhere near the level of Shakespeare’s, however, from my own personal point of view, a good book doesn’t have to be a wonderful piece of literature. To my mind the reason why books such as the Harry Potter books, and The Da Vinci Code have sold the number of books they have, obviously isn’t because of the quality of the writing, but the quality of the story. To my mind, JK Rowlings Harry Potter books, when looked at in their entirety, are every bit as good, and worthy of praise, as some of the so-called “Classics” – not because of the quality of the writing, but because of the way the books grab you.
The characters, the storylines, the sense of adventure – being transported to another time, another world, experiencing an event through the eyes of someone we’re not – these are what most people are looking for when they read a book, not the books literary value. That, to me, is why authors such as Dan Brown, Lee Child, James Patterson, and company, sell millions of books each year – because they allow people to experience these very emotions.
As for the question of rotting the soul? I’ve always had a simple way of summing up the question this raises. These so-called “Event Books” (i.e. books by the afore mentioned Dan Brown, Lee Child, etc) are perfectly fine. In short, they’re no different from summer blockbusters, or 800+ calorie desserts – if consumed in limited dosages they’re perfectly fine, and good for you – but if consumed on a regular basis, it’s a different story.
Typing about a different story – I promised the review would be spoiler free, so I won’t go into plot specifics, but what I will say, is that Chapter 44 honestly made me laugh out loud – I’m not quite sure if Dan Brown wrote that chapter deliberately, or if it was “suggested”, but I definitely liked it.
