Review: The Lost Symbol

I made a reservation for this book with the expectation indeed that I wont get Literature with a capital L. As an extra mileage of the book, yes it can prompt me to Google and research more on some of the purported "Facts" used in the fiction

But in the end this really is something you finish very fast, more of a junk-food of a book. You won't expect going back to any sentence to savor any well-turned phrase. Instead one should expect the clichés, and overused adjectives.

Dan Brown repeated so many times "staring right in the face," "so obvious," "it was so simple" too much in each revelation, it's a bit annoying. There's also "starled," "stared in horror," "held his breath," peppered in generously. To any reader, as an appeasement, I recommend you just credit everything to writing style. Just plow long. Dan Brown anyway is now a confirmed master of cliffhanger chapters. He makes it a point that you keep on reading--this is a credit.

My primary problem in the book is in its building up to a very shallow prize (relative to the Da Vinci Code). The last pages are almost a disappointment because of this. The ending made me ask... "that's it?" To my mind, it's unbelievable for an organization to go to great lengths to hide in symbol something so not worth it. This makes the book weaker than the Da Vinci Code. I wonder whether the author tried to avoid too much controversy in writing this one or this is really the conspiracy thing lined up for discussion. I think even the first National Treasure movie (also regarding masons) one-upped the book in this regard.

Also as mentioned elsewhere, it's almost the same package, half of the book: the single assassin who had to be naked again, an intelligent lady partner with a personal stake, running from authorities, the running, and escaping so close, etcetera. Im sure Ron Howard is now scratching his head, thinking about putting into film another book of the same exact flow.

Finally, was it worth my money and time nonetheless. I believe, yes. Still good entertainment. And Circumpunct is a funny word, I don't know why it sounds funny to me. Circumpunct! Say it out loud! Makes me smile everytime.