The Lost Symbol

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

'The DaVinci Code' was a brilliant work, one-of-a-kind story (at least as far as I know), and I absolutely loved it. And I think that is what makes it difficult to match the expectations for any subsequent works.

'The Lost Symbol' takes its premise from the theological beliefs of the founding fathers of the capital of the USA, Washington. And other than this, it is painfully similar to 'The DaVinci code'. A society of powerful men, believing in a philosophy that is a mystery, a blasphemy to the public in general, protects an ancient secret, the trail to which is hidden in many different objects and monuments across the city. The perplexing code that hides the secret, ultimately just leads to the next piece in the puzzle. And there are those moments of absolute bewilderment before that 'eureka' moment.

In itself, its not a bad book - it is an interesting story, and a gripping thriller (no suspense however, IMHO). Unfortunately though, when you think of 'The DaVinci Code', it fades in comparison. It is too similar in theme and style, but unnecessarily long and complex, with a redundant sub-story, and rather repetitive - particularly frustrating are those incidents of sudden enlightenment on the "true meaning of a code".

So, if you are looking for another 'DaVinci Code', you are bound to be disappointed. But if are into thrillers and have a few hours to kill [or if, by some unimaginable coincidence, have not read 'DaVinci Code', but stumbled upon 'The Lost Symbol'], you can go for it.

Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons finally moved from my "next in my reading list" to "book review" section, many months after I acquired an intention to read it. It must be a rare few who would not have heard of 'Da Vinci Code', the book that took the world by storm, and propelled Dan Brown into fame. Frankly, I had not heard of Dan Brown (or his earlier works) before 'Da Vinci Code' arrived on the scene. When I read it, I adored it [even though there were certain things that were beyond my comprehension because of the context and the culture I am not familiar with] for the ingenious plot, as well as the well done research that tends to diffuse the line between the fact and fiction. Later on, I read his first book, 'Digital Fortress' as well [which made more sense to me, since codes and computers I am quite familiar with!] Earlier, and also then, I was recommended to read 'Angels and Demons'. Some of the people claimed that it was far better than 'Da Vinci Code'!

When a book captures my interest, I do not take long to finish it. So, one day on weekend was enough for me to complete 'Angels and Demons'. It was fortunate that I didn't have much else to do [or else I might have ended up reading half-way through the night ;-) ]. Yes, I liked the book, quite a lot, in fact. It was fast paced, with ample twists and turns [and the inevitable double cross]. It was also well researched, on facts of science as well as the church, as his other books. And it did not require as much understanding of Christian history as the 'Da Vinci Code'. However, to say it was better than 'Da vinci Code' would be quite a stretch. For one, there were a lot of similarities between the two, so it seemed somewhat repetitive. And secondly, the profiles of the murder victims - a Pope and four Cardinals, stretched the imagination too far. Perhaps my bias is in favour of 'Da Vinci Code' since I read that one first. And similarly, it is possibile that people who liked 'Angels and Demons' better, would have read that one before the other.

Digital Fortress

I borrowed this Dan Brown book from another colleague, to read in the vacation. Few days into the vacation, I had lost hope of being able to read it - with all the work that was going on, there was neither time, nor place, to sit down and read. After one tiring day that constituted of standing and supervising the painters and carpenters, apart of making endless cups of tea to beat the chilly weather, I read the first few pages before falling asleep. The story had me interested within these few pages, and completely gripped me by the time I read a few more. I love suspense thrillers! So, the next day I roamed about with the book in my hand, reading every minute I could snatch in-between. After the dinner, I focussed my full attention on it. I was avoiding staying up late, but I just could not go to sleep. At quarter past midnight, I finally turned the last page, before turning the light off. So, this is how I spent the new year eve :-).

This is the second Dan Brown book I read after 'Da Vinci Code'. The first one had, of course, taken the world by storm, literally. I found the pace of this one faster, though it could be because I am more familiar with the world of computers and cryptology, than I am with Christian history and mythology. The premise of the story - Uncle Sam's need to montior everything that goes around in the world - is nothing new. But the way it has been treated, the line between fact and fiction vanishes (which I found to be true of 'Da vinci Code' as well). In fact, that is what I like about my favorite english thriller writers - they do their research well. Their work of fiction are not just stories - you learn something about the way things are done in real world.

Though most of the "turn of events" could be intuitively predicted a little while before they happened, and at some places it seemed that the author deliberately tried to mislead the reader into a different direction than what was going to happen, I still liked the way the things take a turn, keeping me hooked. I like the fast pace and the battle of wits [which is why Alistair McLean is my most favorite author :-)]. I'll recommend it to all lovers of fiction, but with a word of caution - if the words like cryptography, encoding, algorithms are alien to you, the whole story may seem to have missing patches (not too many, though).