The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

528 Pages (Fiction) Hardcover

After reading the Malazan series of books I was looking for a light read that would entertain. A friend had given me the book after finishing it and I enjoyed Angels and Demons and The Davinci Code. I wasn't expecting a lot out of the book. I was expecting a quick read that wouldn't challenge me much. I got what I was expecting.

Brown follows a similar path as his other books I have read. Robert Langdon is invited to give a last minute speech in Washington D.C. He arrives and is quickly drawn into a mystery that requires him to decode various clues hidden throughout the architecture and artwork around Washington. He becomes a suspect of the CIA and is being cajoled by members of the Masons to find the Masons Pyramid. The pyramid is supposedly hidden somewhere in Washington and hidden at the bottom of a great stairway. It holds the secrets of history.

I am sure many will disagree with me, but Dan Brown is not a very good writer. He is adept at coming up with a story and he is good at researching his subjects. His most appealing ability is taking all of these real historical artifacts and connecting them together. What he fails at is good writing. He is very bland and almost a slave to the minimum amount of language to tell a story. One thing that bothers me the most is the way he structures his chapters. The book is a little over 500 pages and there are over 130 chapters. That means chapters average about four pages. FOUR PAGES! Are we in elementary school? Start that with half a page displaying the chapter number and half of the last page blank and the book is really only about 300 pages. Brown tries very hard to leave each chapter with a mini cliff hanger that encourages the reader to read the next page. I think the biggest draw of Brown's writing is that a reader can tear through a 500 page book in a week and feel good about it themselves.

I think maybe my biggest issue with the book and maybe the genre in general is that it is supposed to be a mystery, but the reader isn't given a chance to solve it. A story is made and a line from point a to z is made. Brown takes you on this path for an adventure, but the reader is purely a spectator and never a part of the story.

I do have to admit that I was drawn into the book and did get pleasure out of devouring a book in a few days. That said I still can't recommend it to others.

3 Intellectual/Emotional - I didn't care about the characters and though parts of the history are interesting; over all it was spoon fed to me. The only redeeming quality is the historical and art connections. I typically drew up a picture of the work in question and looked at it along with the characters.

2 Style/Readability - It was extremely readable, but not in a good way.

2 Long Term Impact - Dan Brown has sold millions of books. He is popular around the world. He is bound to have impact on work that comes in the future. Let's hope this is a example of what not to do.

7 out of 13. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. I enjoyed Angels and Demons and The Davinci Code, you would be better rewarded reading them or some other books.

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