Comments on: Book Review: ‘The Lost Symbol’

By: Brad Vertrees

Brad Vertrees — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:14:53 +0000

Hi Playfulimp, thank you for your comment!

It appears that the horrible ending is a pretty common complaint among the people I’ve talked to so far. The one part of the book I did enjoy was learning a lot of little facts about Washington D.C.. I found myself Googling a lot stuff in the novel to learn more about it.

Dan Brown’s writing is a very decisive issue. People love it or hate it, with a few in between. I’m sort of in the middle. Writing can always be improved on, yet Dan Brown sells a lot of books, so he’s laughing all the way to the bank. And as I mentioned in my post, Shakespeare was heavily criticized during his time, so who knows how future generations will judge Dan Brown (I’m in no way comparing Brown to Shakespeare, just saying it’s up to future critics to decide).

Thank again for your comment!

By: Brad Vertrees

Brad Vertrees — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:08:41 +0000

Hi Elle, thank you for your comment!

The only other Dan Brown book I have read is ‘Angels & Demons’ which was much better than his latest.

If Brown had cut out that annoying ending and took out most of the flashback scenes then the book would have been half the length. I read it all the way through though. The fact that they really didn’t ‘find’ anything made me feel let down.

Still, the book kept me entertained for a few days and for the most part, it was a page turner.

By: Playfulimp

Playfulimp — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:20:52 +0000

I just finished Lost Symbol and agree that the book should have ended 50 or so pages before it did. The last 50 pages could have been shortened to 20 and all included in an epilogue after some time recouperating in a hospital or at home on bed rest.
I agree with some of the points Brown was trying to make ( not all of them ), but I was annoyed to be preached at. I bought this book in the hopes of being entertained, and I enjoyed most of the story.
Dan Brown is an excellent writter, so the language and discriptions he used make it easy to get lost in the story. I felt like I was experiencing the emotions of some of the victims, and the parts that were fast paced kept me completely engrossed.
I was dissapointed in not having the tense feeling of “who dun it” like the previous Robert Langdon novels. I wish there had been more mystery about the current situation and less about philosophical ideals.

I think the only thing needed to make this novel great instead of good would have been better editing. I would rather have my books a month or so later than feeling un-finished, or in this case over-finished. No excuses for that ending.

By: Elle

Elle — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:52:44 +0000

I just finished the book and frankly, I was disappointed. I felt like I was led on a wild goosechase. This is my least favourite book by Dan Brown – I’ve enjoyed all of his other works immensely. I agree the book was too long and I felt preached to. The last 20-30 pages, instead of wanting to finish it, I put it down disgusted.

I totally agree that after the traumas lived through I found it hard to stomach that they would take that last tour. Solomon in reality would have been grieving on many different levels rather than “rewarding” Langdon with anything.

The worst part is the believability of the pyramid and what it was “hiding” – should have stayed hidden in my opinion lol.