(annex) Discussion: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (spoliers)
 

Per Daffy's suggestion we have an (annex) to the book club for this month. It seems like alot of people are reading this book. Lets talk about it.

If you want to talk about Dan Brown please choose another thread.

;)

BOb

I'm not finished with the book yet but one thing's for sure -- I often consult Google while reading it to get a better feel of what's happening in the story :)

Right now, I'm googling "melencolia I" to verify how it was described in the story.

LOL. I did the same thing...and I will also admit to guiltily dialing Peter Solomon's phone number to hear his voice mail.

I'm always a sucker for conspiracy theories. My only regret so far was the pain in the ass that it's been to flip back and forth between pages as Langdon uncovers the symbols. It's not exactly easy to line things up side by side on an eReader yet....Asus book get here soon :-)

SPOILER ALERT WITHOUT TOO MUCH SPECIFICS

Ok, I finished reading Lost Symbol.

Here is a quick impression.

All in all, its a GOOD read, but it may be me and all the hype that this book generated, I do not give an EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS rating to this book.

And altogether I guess it gives a much needed elixir to the troubled times today, giving people hope and a general ground to forget their mutual issues and misconceptions, to forgive and to live together as a collective one, respecting each other and their rights to peacefully co exist.

Maybe the author tried to make amendments with all the earlier controversies that he created, but without sounding too appeasing, the book tries to generate goodwill and harmony among all the major religious beliefs.

One should not expect ground breaking revelations escalating to myth-bursting heights, but definitely thought provoking and all in all a happy ending.

Regards everybody

Wow, I promise to only use my power for good! ;) I guess I better start reading! :p

Thanks BOb!

I enjoyed the book. Yes, it followed a formula but then I wasn't looking to read the story for any other reason than for enjoyment. IMO, it is the worst of the Langdon trilogy, I enjoyed the first two much better. And unlike the first two, I won't buy the illustrated hback because I don't think pictures will help with the story (the first two had more art in them and seeing pictures did helped). Will I reread the book like I do with the majority of my books, probably not, but still a worthwhile read.
As to why I won't reread it, I'm not sure. I do think that it has been given a lot of hype for the type of book it is. I also know that for some reason, if National Treasure 1 & 2 were in book format, I would enjoy them more than The Lost Symbol. Something about the plot of NT draws me more than TLS and I can't put my finger on it; which is wierd because I believe that NT was supposed to be a TLS knockoff.
At least the Roman Catholic church shouldn't have a reason to dislike the book so much (except about the part that humans are like gods).

Finished reading the book yesterday and it felt like I went through a mashup of "Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons". Did it find the book interesting? Yes! I seem to have loved the tidbits of trivia that was interspersed among the story. Will I be re-reading the book? Hell no! As I've said, I felt as if I already read the book and finishing it was like re-reading his earlier works ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Did I like the book? Yes! But not enough to overly analyze its contents. Is it a "good read"? Definitely!

Frankly, I'm astonished that anyone who enjoyed A & D and TDVC found this book at all satisfying. Those books may have been terribly written, but I couldn't put them down. I kept having to force myself to finish TLS. There just were no surprises. The reveal on the antagonist was actually tedious because I knew who he was several hundred pages before the big "revelation", as did everyone but the characters themselves. The conspiracy theory angle was dull this time because he never made me really believe that the Masons could posses anything of interest.

Admittedly I have complained about DB's annoying use of deus ex machinas (jumping out of an helicopter - really?), but now I admit that any plot contrivance, no matter how absurd, is better than page after page of dialogue (including an entire lecture!) about new-age philosophy.

I agree with everyone who finds the plot very similar to its predecessors.
Also there are huge gaps.

SPOILER ALERT
Zachary Solomon appears to die in prison. The villain has got hold of young Soloman's personal fortune.
Now, on hearing about young Solomon's death in prison, didn't it occur to his father, Peter Solomon, to wind up his son's estate, trace the money and see where it had gone? After all, in the absence of a will, he would be his son's heir. And Peter Solomon has already spoken of the family fortune as needing to be used responsibly.
You would think that he would check it out. On finding that the fortune had been transferred hours before his son's death, he would surely have tried to trace the person who had acquired it.

How about running around town with a recently severed hand. I'm thinking the act of chopping off a hand sans anesthetic and then cauterizing the wound would result in shock (especially combined with the other trauma). If it wasn't cauterized, then he would have bled to death.

However, these things (and the hundreds more we could mention) are nits. It's a Dan Brown novel. You volunteer to sacrifice credibility (and almost every other literary virtue) at the altar of an exciting plot. The problem with this book is that after making the necessary sacrifices, the reader gets nothing in return.

I am probably not the world's sharpest reader, but what you mention just occured to me on the last couple of pages.

It was a good read, but it felt rather forced, to me, as if the author was not enjoying himself.

The end was a let-down, and while I did yearn to continue reading during the day, after I finished it I think that all the hype is unjustified.

Yet, I must say that the idea of there not being a "god" in the traditional, religious preachings does appeal to me.

I'm maybe a quarter or a bit more into it. I'm enjoying it--not as much as Angel's & Demons or The DaVinci Code yet, but it's a fun read so far.

His books aren't serious literature by any means, but I like reading some disposable fiction just like I enjoy a good popcorn movie--nice way to shut off the brain and unwind after a long day of work.

I've posted before that these days I read only to be entertained, which A&D and TDVC certainly did, page turners even with their poor execution.

I found the lost symbol exceedingly boring, apart from a brief section 3/4 of the way through. For me it was full of unnecessary irrelevancies and I had to force myself to finish it.

I agree with mores comment above:-
Other than this I thought not only was he not enjoying it but maybe was just producing something to cover the advances.

For me a less than one star read.

I enjoyed it. Not great literature, but a fun read, and full of extremely interesting "trivia".

Really? The "trivia" seemed like the same new-age pseudoscience that I've been hearing for years.