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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
I gave it 3 stars.... Dan Brown always has a great story, but he seems to want to either show off all his knowledge or let us know all the cool stuff he's researched. I got so bogged down in all the exposition and detail.... BUT, I still stayed up too late 2 nights in a row just because I wanted to find out what happened next, to get to the end of the mystery....
Left some "What in the world?" issue hanging, and I saw the big reveal a mile away....
SO -- good for a fun read, a distraction, but wouldn't make it "destination reading".
Left some "What in the world?" issue hanging, and I saw the big reveal a mile away....
SO -- good for a fun read, a distraction, but wouldn't make it "destination reading".
Utter crap. Calling Dan Brown a hack is being overly polite. (I read my stepfather's copy, so at least I didn't have to spend any money on it. But I can't get those hours of my life back, either.)
It looked promising at one point, but then went to the opposite spectrum. It has a nice story, but completely lacks a meaningful ending.
If I wanted to read Paolo Coelho, I would have done so.
If I wanted to read Paolo Coelho, I would have done so.
Not a bad book overall, although the long resolution was a bit drawn out and I found the ending of the antagonist completely unsatisfying considering the wrongs he committed. The tidy ending where Brown tries to unite the basic beliefs of ancient texts, be they the Bible, Koran, Torah, or whatever seemed a little forced and at times I felt he was sermonizing at me.
At certain points he seemed to infer that the original wise texts of humanity, like Bible were definitely "good" and he gave examples as evidence. But I can't help but come to the conclusion that because these were written by humans who lived in a political world, they were subject to bias from the get-go. One comment about the originators of these wise texts being either apolitical or in it just for the good of humanity seems wrong from what I know of the Muhammad and the beginning of the Koran. For one, it organized a social and political unit that immediately started going off to war - first for Medina then moving expanding outward to unite the pastoralist tribes.
Besides that I was annoyed by CIA OS Director Sato's treatment of Langdon as if he was simply going to go along with whatever she wanted despite his protests and hesitations because she said it was an issue of "national security" with no further explanation. The reason for her secrecy, we find later on, was something that Langdon could easily have understood and handled. Also, how the hell did the CIA know about the video? There was no point for Mal-akh to get them involved and he seemed surprised they were when he was told about them. Also, why the hell was that redacted CIA document even in the book? It served no purpose other than to create tension. It was not at all related to the story. It's like Brown just wanted to mention the Krptos at any cost.
At certain points he seemed to infer that the original wise texts of humanity, like Bible were definitely "good" and he gave examples as evidence. But I can't help but come to the conclusion that because these were written by humans who lived in a political world, they were subject to bias from the get-go. One comment about the originators of these wise texts being either apolitical or in it just for the good of humanity seems wrong from what I know of the Muhammad and the beginning of the Koran. For one, it organized a social and political unit that immediately started going off to war - first for Medina then moving expanding outward to unite the pastoralist tribes.
Besides that I was annoyed by CIA OS Director Sato's treatment of Langdon as if he was simply going to go along with whatever she wanted despite his protests and hesitations because she said it was an issue of "national security" with no further explanation. The reason for her secrecy, we find later on, was something that Langdon could easily have understood and handled. Also, how the hell did the CIA know about the video? There was no point for Mal-akh to get them involved and he seemed surprised they were when he was told about them. Also, why the hell was that redacted CIA document even in the book? It served no purpose other than to create tension. It was not at all related to the story. It's like Brown just wanted to mention the Krptos at any cost.
Wasn't nearly as exciting as Brown's other tales. It felt as though it were trying too hard to summon a third movie deal. Still an interesting read.
Way too long, could have been edited down to keep the interest of the reader. The history Dan Brown weaves into his books is always interesting.
The Lost Symbol is the third Dan Brown book about the character Robert Langdon. Dan Brown books seem to follow a pattern in the Style they are written. Because of this, if you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code you will probably enjoy The Lost Symbol. The chapters are short making it easy to read the book in small chunks one chapter at a time. What is lacking is the surprise of the other Robert Langdon stories. Many of the twist and surprises are predictable. The central focus in The Lost Symbol is Washington D.C. and The Masons. After finishing 1/4 of the book I had already figured out who the villain is and where The Lost Symbol was hidden. Many of the problems with this book are the same problems the movie versions of the last two Robert Langdon stories and I think that was Dan Brown's intention in order to make the book more movie script friendly. Even though I enjoyed The Lost Symbol, I only gave it three stars because I felt it could have been better if a movie version had not been thought about while writing the book.
Dan Brown has done it again.
Brown weaves together characters that don’t behave like real humans, dialogue that is decidedly unnatural, and absurd amounts of pointless information (in not-so-cleverly placed info dumps) into a paradoxically engrossing thriller. Every chapter ends with a cliffhanger because for some reason every character wants to hold onto every last bit of information until the last possible second. One thing that I will give Brown credit for here is that the female lead is not there just for Langdon to ogle, and so she actually is a useful character.
As always, Dan Brown writes utter garbage that is impossible to put down.
Brown weaves together characters that don’t behave like real humans, dialogue that is decidedly unnatural, and absurd amounts of pointless information (in not-so-cleverly placed info dumps) into a paradoxically engrossing thriller. Every chapter ends with a cliffhanger because for some reason every character wants to hold onto every last bit of information until the last possible second. One thing that I will give Brown credit for here is that the female lead is not there just for Langdon to ogle, and so she actually is a useful character.
As always, Dan Brown writes utter garbage that is impossible to put down.
Il libro è carino e segue lo stile (e la storia) di Angeli e demoni e Il codice Da Vinci. La storia è un po’ particolare, prendendo anche in ballo la scienza, anche se comunque c'è ancora uno psicopatico, simboli strani e la massoneria, che sono un po’ delle ripetizioni a mio avviso.
Me lo sono divorato tutto d'un fiato e non riuscivo proprio ad aspettare di essere a casa per leggerlo: 604 pagine in 3 giorni. Ed è proprio questo che mi piace di un libro: il non riuscire a staccarmici.
Me lo sono divorato tutto d'un fiato e non riuscivo proprio ad aspettare di essere a casa per leggerlo: 604 pagine in 3 giorni. Ed è proprio questo che mi piace di un libro: il non riuscire a staccarmici.