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Title: The Lost Symbol
ISBN: 0739319175
Author:
Dan Brown
Publicate Date: 2009-09-15
Publish: 2009-09-15
List Price: $50.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Audio CD
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $26.82
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $15.04
Amazon Merchant Price: $30.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Another great one by Dan Brown
I have read all of Dan Brown's books. With the exception of the Digital Fortress I found them all to be great reads.
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2: The "Easy to Figure Out" Lost Symbol
My Thoughts:
Okay now that you know what Daphne Durham from Amazon.com thought of this book I will give you a little bit of what I thought about Dan Brown's newest book. I want to set up a disclaimer right of the bat, I didn't read the other two books by Mr. Brown, I watched their movie equivalent. That is an important piece of information as I may have not a full outlook on how this series has gone.
I titled this post exactly how I felt about the story. IT WAS A GOOD STORY, however, it was very easy to figure out if you paid halfway attention to it. Maybe that is Mr. Brown's skill, he makes you fell like his main character. Even if you aren't highly educated or super smart you fell that way reading a Dan Brown Novel (or watching it as a movie).
I wanted this book to be mystical, I wanted Dan Brown to finally reveal that the magic stuff in his stories is real...I was let down again. Especially in the last film we are pulled along a path that makes you think...wow he really is going to embrace the supernatural - and then bam! He brings you back to a logical and reasonable world. That is a fun thing, but I really wanted him to let that go with this story.
I wanted the main villain to be a supernatural character, he wasn't. The bad thing is that it didn't take long to figure that out. That is where this book falls apart for me, the fine line of feeling smart but not know what is going to happen next (a perfect thriller feeling) didn't happen. I knew that the main villain was the son, it just made sense. I apologize already for those of you that didn't figure it out...but it was pretty apparent.
Good things - I loved the Washington D.C. material, learning about all the ins and out of the capital was simply fascinating. If Dan Brown just wrote non-fiction history books...he would still be very successful. I think he should do that, I really do. Dan Brown, if your listening, cross over to the non-fiction side. Sure there isn't as much money involved...but you have made your fortune.
I found the story enjoyable in "The Lost Symbol" but I this isn't amazing material. It is entertainment, and Mr. Brown does a great job of that. Don't think too hard and you are going to be fine.
People's Thoughts:
A Fair Review and Some Advice
A page-turner, but often for the wrong reasons
Life:
So how do you relate what you learn in The Lost Symbol into your life. Well, I found a new research project in studying noetics and superstring theory. In fact this whole book is responsible for taking me down a dark rabbit hole of science and physics. For that I am grateful.
I love it when a work of fiction makes you change something or start to studying something in real life, that shows value. Value is what you look for in fiction. Why read it if it is just non-sense? (Sometimes there is a reason, see [...] We all have limited time and we need to make sure we aren't spending it on drivel.
3 out of 5!
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3: Fast paced page turner. I will read it again.
Takes a dramatic look at the mysteries that surrounded the original leaders of America. I would recommend it to those who love mystery and are open to old/new ideas.
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4: "lost" to be sure
Another physically freakish villain kills off unsuspecting secondary characters as he chases two-dimensional family members around D.C. landmarks to uncover a silly string of Masonic codes and magic squares which lead to...absolutely nothing! [...]
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5: Decent Read, but Predictable
All due respect to Dan Brown and fellow readers, I must say that while I was excited to read his latest book, I found myself extremely disappointed about half-way through. It wasn't that the book was poorly written (though I must agree with other reviewers that certain elements were extraneous), but rather that the story felt suspiciously familiar: I'm sure many will remember the Bruckheimer blockbuster "National Treasure" that all but tells the same story--though, in my opinion? Theirs was better.
On the whole, the book was very interesting. Brown did a great job of introducing mass numbers of readers to a newer field of science that is unlikely to be commonly known and, as some others have said: good for him for spawning the thousands of subsequent Google searches. However, for all the elements that are individual to the novel, the story was far too predictable for my taste, and, as I said earlier: far too close to "National Treasure." Don't get me wrong, mostly--I enjoyed the book. I got a little bogged down in certain areas because the book tended to drag along--but mostly, it was very fascinating historical material that did its job in making me curious enough to keep reading (that and, after paying so much for a hardback, I was certainly going to finish the thing). But the formula felt desperate--it seemed to follow almost the exact general idea of "National Treasure", though the specifics were different. The characters are in DC, searching for some great mythological 'treasure' and there's a token bad guy desperate to beat them to it. While that summary is extremely generalized, if I were to go into detail it would get boring.
Basically, I found the book good up until about half way through when I realized I could already see the exact path it was going to take. Even the scenes of suspense were simple enough to guess how they would play out, and some even felt desperately contrived (ie: Langdon's "experience" at the end--not to give anything away). I give Brown major points for turning out what is considered a bestseller with such pressure after two previous hits (especially after the success of "The Da Vinci Code")--but I think there was too much pressure on him to create a book of the same caliber, and in the end I found this to be far below the bar set for it. It wasn't a horrible book by any means--it was entertaining enough and paced well enough that I got through it. Plus, I give him credit for delving into dark details that would likely make a lot of people uncomfortable. I won't lie: there were parts of that book that just plain creeped me out--but that was the nature of the subject material he was investigating and I have to give him props for being willing to go there knowing the type of fan-base he'd have reading the novel. Also: to start the action with a severed hand? That's brave. It wasn't just some hand--it was the hand of a character you'd already been introduced to and predisposed to feel compassion for. For this and similar elements, I was hoping the book would have the same feel of academic adventure as the previous two--but in the end, I felt as if the plot were pushing an agenda (not unlike Da Vinci Code) and the whole last third of the book was not too difficult to dissect and predict. Now, that is not likely a typcial result for readers, and again: no offense to those who praise this as a work of literary brilliance--but simply for my own opinion? I'd much rather sit and watch Bruckheimer's film every day than ever read this book again, and I sincerely hope that this novel has not already been offered a film contract because I truly think the stories would be far too similar for it to be properly enjoyed.
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