Thoughts on Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol
Well it had to have happened at some point..
Where do I even begin with this book? Like most serious readers I like my books well-written. And Dan Brown with his seemingly inexhaustible talent for writing engrossing page-turners and for clever puzzles and plot twists had set a pretty high bar. So what happened here? Well apparently the gas is now running on empty.
Dan Brown is a publishing phenomenon and even if he had written a novel about the secret, dark history of Spongebob Squarepants people would be running out in droves to buy it, but even the most gifted of writers have editors for a reason. Dan Brown needs one desperately, and not just to smooth over the more awkward dialogue. The plot in The Lost Symbol is an absolute travesty. Long digressions, unnecessary exposition disguised as dialogue, suspect character motivations, and a ending that dragged on and on...and on...
I kept plugging along until about half-way through when i realized that absolutely NOTHING had really happened in the storyline. It didn't even feel like a Dan Brown book. The excitement, and nervous anticipation I've felt while devouring his previous books, was nowhere to be found. My eyes were literally glazing over from Brown's attempt to sound scholarly about the minutest details of the most boring, and inexplicable 'scientific' subjects. Noetic science..Please!
While his previous books succeeded in grabbing my attention right away with intriguing plots and believable characters, this book felt cold, stiff and reading religious text instead of a novel.
The writing was bland and formulaic. It seemed he was re-writing his own material with a different setting. Crammed with pointless sub-plots which exists only as an excuse for some character to begin a long winded, encyclopedia-esque explanation of useless concepts, flooded with unbearable cliches, thrown in multiple times for good measure.
Upon reflection there is so much wrong with this book it would be a major waste of my personal time to go about them in detail but here some of the things which really irked me -
1) Why is Langdon so dumbed down? This is the same guy who could decipher secret codes and had the open mind to propose there were secret messages hidden in Leonardo's art and that Jesus was married and had a baby, all ideas which are difficult to swallow, won't believe that what's going on in this book is literal and not metaphorical? His continued scepticism for the vast portion of the book, even towards the end, is particularly annoying.
2) Where is the threat? In all his previous efforts Brown was able to establish a very real threat which the protagonists were up against (usually a race against the clock). What is the threat here? Is there a time bomb ticking some place? Has Ma'Lak kidnapped the president!? No..he has a bunch of Washington officials on video tape performing a Masonic ritual. Not even a Satanic ritual. A Masonic ritual! Hardly a national security threat I would think, and no one in the story seemed to take seriously anyway save the chain smoking director Sato.
And speaking of, why is this "threat" being investigated by a CIA's watchdog group who's primary function is to spy on CIA?!? Isn't this a matter for some other body? The FBI? DC Police? Just wondering. Another prime example of Brown introducing the audience to an organization simply to inform they exist. Ditto for Noetic science. Early on while reading I thought that maybe there was a bad side effect relating noetic science which maybe the threat later..But this piece really didn't go anywhere. In fact the character of Katherine Solomon could've been conveniently avoided.
I'm certain that Dan Brown will quickly rebound and regain his deft touch. Among contemprary writers in terms of popularity he is right up there with J.K Rowling, Stephen King etc. And he should make sure he doesnt lose his audience.
And I know it'll be pretty tough but Mr.Brown also needs to step away from Wikipedia.
Nav
Where do I even begin with this book? Like most serious readers I like my books well-written. And Dan Brown with his seemingly inexhaustible talent for writing engrossing page-turners and for clever puzzles and plot twists had set a pretty high bar. So what happened here? Well apparently the gas is now running on empty.
Dan Brown is a publishing phenomenon and even if he had written a novel about the secret, dark history of Spongebob Squarepants people would be running out in droves to buy it, but even the most gifted of writers have editors for a reason. Dan Brown needs one desperately, and not just to smooth over the more awkward dialogue. The plot in The Lost Symbol is an absolute travesty. Long digressions, unnecessary exposition disguised as dialogue, suspect character motivations, and a ending that dragged on and on...and on...
I kept plugging along until about half-way through when i realized that absolutely NOTHING had really happened in the storyline. It didn't even feel like a Dan Brown book. The excitement, and nervous anticipation I've felt while devouring his previous books, was nowhere to be found. My eyes were literally glazing over from Brown's attempt to sound scholarly about the minutest details of the most boring, and inexplicable 'scientific' subjects. Noetic science..Please!
While his previous books succeeded in grabbing my attention right away with intriguing plots and believable characters, this book felt cold, stiff and reading religious text instead of a novel.
The writing was bland and formulaic. It seemed he was re-writing his own material with a different setting. Crammed with pointless sub-plots which exists only as an excuse for some character to begin a long winded, encyclopedia-esque explanation of useless concepts, flooded with unbearable cliches, thrown in multiple times for good measure.
Upon reflection there is so much wrong with this book it would be a major waste of my personal time to go about them in detail but here some of the things which really irked me -
1) Why is Langdon so dumbed down? This is the same guy who could decipher secret codes and had the open mind to propose there were secret messages hidden in Leonardo's art and that Jesus was married and had a baby, all ideas which are difficult to swallow, won't believe that what's going on in this book is literal and not metaphorical? His continued scepticism for the vast portion of the book, even towards the end, is particularly annoying.
2) Where is the threat? In all his previous efforts Brown was able to establish a very real threat which the protagonists were up against (usually a race against the clock). What is the threat here? Is there a time bomb ticking some place? Has Ma'Lak kidnapped the president!? No..he has a bunch of Washington officials on video tape performing a Masonic ritual. Not even a Satanic ritual. A Masonic ritual! Hardly a national security threat I would think, and no one in the story seemed to take seriously anyway save the chain smoking director Sato.
And speaking of, why is this "threat" being investigated by a CIA's watchdog group who's primary function is to spy on CIA?!? Isn't this a matter for some other body? The FBI? DC Police? Just wondering. Another prime example of Brown introducing the audience to an organization simply to inform they exist. Ditto for Noetic science. Early on while reading I thought that maybe there was a bad side effect relating noetic science which maybe the threat later..But this piece really didn't go anywhere. In fact the character of Katherine Solomon could've been conveniently avoided.
I'm certain that Dan Brown will quickly rebound and regain his deft touch. Among contemprary writers in terms of popularity he is right up there with J.K Rowling, Stephen King etc. And he should make sure he doesnt lose his audience.
And I know it'll be pretty tough but Mr.Brown also needs to step away from Wikipedia.
Nav
Labels: Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
posted by Nav at 8:59 PM
3 comments
