The Lost Symbol

By Dan Brown

I believe Dan Brown has written some good books save for his latest one, “The Lost Symbol”. Before I get into the actual review, let me give some brief details on how I got the book. I pre-booked the book well in advance, sometime toward the end of July. On 15th September night, around 9:30 PM, when they were about to close the shop, I managed to get the book. With a lot of expectations, I started reading. Like “The Da Vinci’s Code” or the “Angels and Daemons”, the starting was so captivating that I hardly felt like keeping the book down.

The story starts with Langdon flying down to Washington D.C for a lecture only to find that there’s no lecture scheduled and he had been tricked into coming. Confusion slowly mutates into fear when he finds the lifeless severed hand of his friend and guide Peter Solomon (also a Mason). The kidnapper bargains with Langdon to help him uncover a Masonic secret in return for Solomon’s life. Desperate to save his friend’s life, Langdon falls in the game, only to earn suspicion from the hawk-like CIA Office of Security Director, Sato.

The entire novel revolves around a small pyramid shaped object that was given to Langdon by Peter and believed to embalm a mystical secret. Along with Katherine Solomon, Peter’s sister, Langdon runs from Sato to save Peter. The monstrous, beastly tattooed villain Mal’akh manages to capture Katherine and Robert and tortures them for deciphering the secret. It's then we realize that Sato’s intentions are a matter of National Security as Mal’akh is threatening to reveal a video degrading Masons.

All ends well when Mal’akh fails in his endeavor and Sato accomplishes her goal. Peter now reveals the ancient secret to Langdon. Take my word—you’d definitely get disappointed with the secret. With all the commotion and tragedy it created, this is not the secret that you wanted to know. The secret was the sole force that drove me reading even after losing interest. While the secret in itself is something for us to understand and appreciate, there’s no reason for the masons to protect and hide it.

The story and the characters were very bland and uninspiring. The language is just mediocre. The characterization should have been better. The 33rd degree Mason Peter Solomon with all his knowledge and riches is portrayed as a withered soul who’s certainly inappropriate to hold the powers. The only character that’s quite clear and interesting is Mal’akh who has recently gone through a spiritual epiphany. The locations are not vividly explained and I could feel only abstract statues and frescos rather than the places as such.

I managed to nap when there were only 50 pages left to finish the book! The story was slipping out of the track to explain the Masonic theories and rituals--often too verbose. While this may interest a specialized group curious on the Masons, it terribly fails to captivate an average reader. It’s a decent page turner, but for some reason I find the charisma missing, unlike his other books. “The Deception Point” and “The Digital Fortress” can be considered reasonable compared to this book. This might be due to the ultimate failure of the author’s perception that every reader is familiar with Washington, Masons, and Masonic temples.

A thoroughly disappointing read, after all, for the hype it created, I expected something better. Read it at your own risk.