The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown (4 of 5 Disguised Pyramids)

Tom Hanks...I mean Robert Langdon, is out saving the world again from secret societies and crazy villains. In typical Dan Brown style he has marketed the novel to the widest base of readers as humanly possible. You'll be hooked by Brown's book if you are interested in any of the following: secret societies (the Masons), Washington, DC landmarks, wealthy families, emerging sciences, Ivy League schools, religion, politics, new technologies, exotic animals, attractive women, tattoos, Europe, family disputes, psychology, airplanes, black op government agencies, fast cars, secret tunnels, codes, symbols, US history, libraries, guns, art history, mathematics, romance, iPhones, computer hacking...uh...did I miss anything?...oh yeah, lap swimming.

Don't get me wrong. Like the rest of Dan Brown's books, I enjoyed The Lost Symbol enough to read 500 pages in under 48 hours. I felt it was kind of obnoxious though how Brown was perhaps tainting the book by packing so many things into it just to sell more copies. Did anyone else feel that way? And all that religious preaching at the end...that was new. Does anyone see Brown being the next L. Ron Hubbard?... :)

My primary connection with the book was its setting in Washington, DC. Having spent last summer out there doing an internship, I was pretty familiar with all of the locations that Brown described. I was a little disappointed though that there weren't more locations mentioned. The only one I hadn't seen in person was the Smithsonian Support Center. Has anyone been there? From Google Maps it looks like it is outside of the DC limits, southeast of the Mall.

While Angels and Demons was definitely more absurd than The Lost Symbol I enjoyed the former more for just that reason. Part of the fun of reading A&D was seeing just how far Brown would push the limits of his book...anti-matter bombs under the Vatican? Jumping out of helicopters without a parachute? Artificial insemination? Was anyone else disappointed to see how the movie version removed these crazy plot twists? TLS also lacked the prominent "time lock" that A&D had. While both novels had the midnight deadline for pending world catastrophe, A&D was constantly reaffirming the necessity of catching the villain each hour. TLS only mentioned the deadline a few times, which allowed the tension to dissipate somewhat during the middle of the novel.

Oh well. So it goes. Props to Dan Brown for making the book as good as it was. I just think it could have been much better. What did the rest of you think of it of The Lost Symbol?