Book review of sorts: The Lost Symbol
Not sure when I'll actually get around to finishing the book and then writing a review, so I'll just put up my notes thus far:
Notes for a review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown [SPOILER ALERT]
Although I’m only about 150 pages in (and skimmed the next hundred pages), I’m so pissed off with the book right now that I need to jot down some stuff. Maybe my expectations were simply too high. It has been about four or five years since I read The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, so maybe my taste in books has changed (this is a distinct possibility). Whatever it is, I’m really disappointed with this book, and I doubt the rest of it will change my mind.
What I found irksome:
- Trish Dunne’s death (WHY kill off the best character in the book? She grounded the book in some sort of normality.)
- Inoue Sato did not live up to her brilliant intro. I expected so much more from her than cranky, ruthless, entitled bitch.
- Katherine Solomon’s “blushing smile” at Robert Langdon’s number appearing on her caller ID. I swear, I had to reread three times to make sure it actually said blushing smile. She only met Langdon once years ago and only for fifteen minutes, so what's with the schoolgirl crush? She was a pretty cool character (with her own story to tell) before she became the Pretty Love Interest. Langdon could be the scholarly version of James Bond with the way a new woman flocks to him in each book.
- Mark Zoubianis not showing up again after “This is systems security for the Central Intelligence Agency. We would like to know why you are attempting to hack one of our classified databases?” (p. 140) I mean, c'mon, that deserves some sort of follow-up. I skimmed the rest of the book to see if he'd turn up again. Nope, nada.
- Mal’akh’s all-encompassing Evil and unrealistic backstory. Maybe I've been spoiled by three-dimensional villains with motives aside from boredom/insanity.
- Robert Langdon’s snotty, pretentious, that’s-what-all-the-middling-masses-think attitude and tendency to ramble on. There are only so many times I want to read his anecdotes about charming his college students. Langdon lacks any sympathetic quality whatsoever despite Dan Brown’s attempts otherwise.
- Melodramatic events and writing; Dan Brown makes it obvious we’re supposed to ooh and aah over all the esoteric symbolism and mysticism that crop up. It might be more interesting if I weren't constantly bludgeoned over the head by choppy scenes and ominous statements like "Abraham Lincoln's youngest son, Tad, had once gotten lost down there and almost perished. Anderson was starting to suspect that if Sato had her way, Robert Langdon might suffer a similar fate" (p. 116).
- A lot of character motivations make no sense.
- I’m utterly bored out of my mind with Langdon’s scenes and keep wanting to skip to the scenes with the side characters who are infinitely more interesting.
On the other hand:
- Awesome side characters
- First hundred pages are relatively fascinating. Dan Brown does a good job setting up the story, even if the Robert Langdon scenes tend to be a little repetitive and draggy.
Most importantly, I haven't actually finished the book yet. Both Christmas and exams are coming up though, so I'm not sure when I'll take the time to slog the rest of the way through.