I bought this book last February 9 and I was able to finish reading it yesterday. All in all, it took me almost 3 weeks to finish a 500/600-paged paperback novel. Do you think it's a reasonable length of time? hmm... Anyway, here's what I think about the book...
If you've read Dan Brown's other books featuring the funny and intelligent (which, for me, is a rare and sexy combination) symbologist from Harvard, you can practically plot the twists of 'The Lost Symbol' before even finishing Chapter 1.
I don't like to say it, because I've been fond of Dan Brown's (DB) knack of coming up with clever plots and his ingenious way of weaving intrigue through a string of facts and making it sound so exciting you'd wish it's all true, but DB was kind of predictable in 'The Lost Symbol'.
I can almost hear myself blurting out what Langdon will do next. Also, the way characters think and act in the book does not quite match their impressive profiles. I would expect a Noetic Scientist not to immediately trust someone whom she just talked to in an anonymous phone call. You're not supposed to follow what that someone tells you to do. And Langdon, of all people, should not be surprised every time he realizes that there are codes hidden within codes which turn out to be more complex than the first set. After what he went through in Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, he should already be in a state of mind where he sees things not as they seem. He should know better. Langdon failed to evolve in this book.
For the first time, I skipped through chapters. There was a part where I wasn't so much enjoying the word-play anymore. I eagerly wanted to see what the lost symbol is that the novel's chapters have so draggingly tried to conceal from me.
But then of course, I still like DB and (I think) I understand him and what he's probably going through (even if I haven't been there). I remember Man-Man and I discussing about Lost Symbol's predictability. And we concluded that maybe DB felt pressured that his next Robert Langdon novel would be as big a hit as the other two.
Elizabeth Gilbert had the same problem when, after the epic success of 'Eat Pray Love', she felt dizzy of what the book has become to the point that she decided to stop writing for a while and spend her time tending the tomatoes in her backyard garden. This, she did, to try to separate herself from the enormity of it all and re-focus her perspective.
Maybe DB didn't do the same. Maybe he doesn't have a garden :-) To not sound too all-knowing about this writer's dilemma because I am, after all, not a certified writer least of all, novelist, I will consider DB. We can never feel for ourselves the pressure he must have felt.
All the same, aside from the predictability factor, nothing's irritating about 'The Lost Symbol'. It featured DB's worst villain yet - a crazy, frightening fellow covered with tattoos! I also wished Robert Langdon exists in real life!
And comes that familiar feeling in the end - the novel's desire to open our minds and keep it open for things- facts and scenarios that hold so much possibility in them! It also reveals a fascinating information about the Holy Bible. In a very good way, 'The Lost Symbol' encouraged me to read the bible and to desperately try to uncover the valuable wisdom that it reserves only for those who are worthy enough to receive it.
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