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Resources » Entertainment » Others »
The Lost Symbol : Dan Brown disappoints with his new novel
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Déjà vu (something tediously familiar) and Cliché (hackneyed idea) – these are two beautiful English words of French origin that are often used by the critics in the film and book reviews. These two words keep on pounding at your brain while you read Dan Brown’s latest offering ‘The Lost Symbol’ and this is certainly not good for an author who had avoided media glare most of the times in the past 6 years to complete the sequel to ‘Da Vinci code’.
The plot of the novel is as follows
Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon is called urgently by his friend and mentor Peter Solomon to deliver a lecture in US Capitol, Washington. Upon reaching there Langdon finds the hall empty and discovers the severed hand of his friend Peter, a 33rd degree Mason, with some ancient symbols tattooed on it. He is then contacted by Mal'akh, the antagonist of the novel, who informs Robert that he has kidnapped Peter and to save him he must unlock the ancient Mysteries. Situation becomes complicated with the arrival of Sato, the director of CIA’s office of security who has some idea about the proceedings. Robert begins the search for the ancient mysteries and is soon joined by Katherine Solomon, the sister of Peter and a brilliant scientist, in his quest. They have only 12 hours at their hands now – the deadline set by Mal'akh for them to find the small stone pyramid and the secret it holds.
‘Angles and Demons’ was published in 2000 and ‘Da Vinci Code’ in 2003. Before the publication of latter, Brown was a somewhat obscure author. But the success of ‘Da Vinci Code’ brought spotlight on to his earlier works and a time came when all 4 novels of him featured in NY best sellers list in the same week. I believe, like me, most of the people would have read Brown’s novels in the reverse order of their publication i.e. beginning from ‘Da Vinci’ and then going to ‘Angles & Demons’ before moving to the other two. When you begin with the best of the series and then move backward, the satisfaction that you had in the first read will be definitely missing in the latter ones. After reading all the 4 novels I was waiting eagerly for the new Robert Langdon thriller. A 6 years wait is quite long (J K Rowling released her last 3 novels of Harry Potter series in 2003-2007, though she didn’t need to do any research for them), but was this wait worth for the Brown (or should I say Da Vinci) fans? The answer is no. This novel fails to reach anywhere near its mega successful prequel.
I am dividing the novel’s review in 3 parts
1. The biggest drawback of the novel is that there is a sense of déjà vu through out the novel. The characters, the events, basic plot, few twists – all have a clichéd elements attached to them. So you see another scientist in Katherine Solomon after Vetra (Angels and Demons). Sato (director of CIA) reminds you of CERN director (Angles and Demons) and French detective Fache. Then there is a victim in the form of Peter Solomon who is reminiscent of Jacques Saunière (Da Vinci). The main antagonist of the novel, Mal'akh, is in fact a combo of Silas and Hassasin. He is a religious fanatic like former and a meticulous cold blooded killer like latter.
Just like previous Langdon adventures, he is suddenly called to a place where he gets entangled in very complex proceedings which see him running all around Washington. There is lot of science involved in this novel too in the form of Noetic Sciences. Previously Brown had mentioned antimatter in Angels and Demons. And yet again a mad man is behind a secret that would shake the world. Due to so much similarity in the characters and key features in the plot the novel looks more like a cocktail of previous two novels albeit in a new bottle and with few additional ingredients. Even certain twists in the novel have that jaded feeling.
2. Angels and demons introduced us to Illuminati while Da Vinci Code focused on Priory of Sion and Opus Dei. The lost symbol tells readers about yet another clandestine organization - Free masons. But unlike previous novels, free masons fail to bring in any thrill in the proceedings. There are a no. of reasons behind it. Free masons are as unknown to most of the readers outside Europe and USA as were the Priory of Sion and Illuminati. They have been involved in development of early USA and many classy European and USA monuments can be attributed to them. But they don’t have a interesting history like Priory of Sion or Illuminati. The secret traditions of Masons do incite some interest but it ends there. There is nothing like story of Friday the 13th (Priory of Sion) or revolt of scientists against the church and its atrocities (Illuminati). There is no scientific group bent on revenge or an ages old organization holding a deadly secret here. Moreover masons are the victims in this novel.
As novel deals with the free masons, a lot of stuff related to them and their work is given in the novel. Definitely Brown has put a lot of efforts in researching for this novel and the people having interest in monuments and constructions would love all the description. But for a general reader, it becomes boring over the time. The story associated with US capitol building is much less interesting then that behind Monalisa or The last Supper (Da Vinci Code), and far more complex to understand completely. Angels and demons too had a lot of space being given to the various architectures of Vatican but there it served the purpose of finding the places where the cardinals would be killed. Here most of the times the novel’s pace is slackened by the descriptions of the monuments and masons by Langdon.
3. But the biggest disappointment of the novel is its climax. There is absolutely no thrill, zing or vigor in it. It is completely dull. Moreover, taking a clue from Agatha Christie’s novels, Brown tries to shadow the killer’s identity by showing the events from a different perspective then the actual ones. Only towards the end, after the killer’s identity is revealed, does the reader know how the chain of events came into the motion. But not everyone will be pleased with this approach. First of all this is like fooling the readers and secondly all the logic and reasoning given is not convincing.
What follows is even more disappointing. The final revelation isn’t as thrilling like the one in Da Vinci code. It is not even close to the shock one receives in the end of Angles and Demons. A reader might wonder how that secret thing hidden by masons can shake the world. To explain it, Brown has extended this novel by 20-25 pages after climax but most of it goes over an average reader’s head. In fact the last 25 pages are the most boring in the whole novel.
Are there any positives in this novel? Oh Yes. Brown as a writer hasn’t lost his panache and it is evident at many places. A no. of twists are very interesting in the novel. Readers will be definitely shocked while reading how Langdon is sealed in a chamber filling with water by the villain and he takes his last breath. The concept of Noetic Science discussed in it as interesting as antimatter in Angles and Demons. But the other factors I mentioned above outweigh these positives. For a first time reader the novel is good and worth reading once. But for those who had been waiting for a worthy follower to Da Vinci Code will have to settle with this so-so stuff.
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