First things first ? for Dan Brown fans, The Lost Symbol won?t be disappointing. May be a tad too long, keeping in mind the compulsions of commerce and the market, The Lost Symbol does extremely well to grip you from start to finish. Unlike in his prequels where Brown takes a bit more time to warm up, he is up and running from page one in this case. As soon as Robert Langdon gets the phone call to travel to Washington DC at the break of dawn to give what turns out to be a hoax lecture, this racy thriller gathers pace.
What follows is typical Dan Brown. A spectacular description of Washington with all the encouragement necessary for Ron Howard, Brown takes us at breathtaking pace through a story that is
fascinating and intriguing at the same time. Even when digressing to sermonising mode, he doesn?t lose the reader, perhaps the singular success of the book.
The plot is well woven together with Peter Solomon, a leading freemason and Langdon?s mentor, suddenly taken captive by a dangerous and physically all powerful man, one who is determined to avenge past wrongs done to him and achieve ultimate enlightenment at the same time. In his trying to do so, Langdon is his key to unravelling ancient mysteries of the past. Langdon, in possession of an unopened pyramid and capstone, entrusted to him with utmost secrecy by Solomon, is forced to break them open to try and save Solomon?s life.
Playing the role of intellectual second in command to Langdon is Katherine Solomon, a brilliant noetic scientist and sister of Peter, whose work is expected to have seminal impact on ways in which man sees the past and the future. In fact, unlike in Angels and Demons, where the female scientist has very little contribution to the plot, Katherine often overshadows Langdon with her brilliance making the choice of the ultimate female lead in the film that much more difficult. This is assuming The Lost Symbol will sooner than later be turned into a film.
The plot thickens mid way into the book thanks to some well-developed characters including a Japanese head of the CIA, portrayed as a chain smoker. Her steely resolve and unfailing will that has pulled her through cancer fails her when it comes to smoking! One wonders why? Barring this, Inoue Sato is a key cog in the wheel of the plot and helps retain the frenzied pace of the narrative.
Brown is at his best when he reveals that the giant demon trying to cause harm to Langdon and the Solomon family is none other than Peter Solomon?s son, Zachary, who feels betrayed by his all powerful father.
In describing his transformation from a weak child to a physically robust and all powerful demon, Brown draws attention to the ill effects of steroids and performance enhancing drugs can have on the human form. Zachary, tattoed all over, is presented as a scary physical masterpiece adept at resorting to novel scientific experiments to nail his adversaries.
Grotesque at times, the narrative has enough steam to take you through the 500 plus pages at one go, a mission that makes Brown what he is ? the ultimate storyteller of our generation.
I picked up The Lost Symbol while travelling to Amsterdam from Heathrow. Interestingly, in the British Airways flight that I boarded, more than 50% of the passengers had Dan Brown in hand, a testimony to his success as a writer over the years. With half a million copies already sold, there?s little doubt that The Lost Symbol is already a success. Now it?s time to await the film. It will be of interest to see if Tom Hanks tries his hand again at the forty plus Langdon and if Audrey Tatou is brought back to play Katherine Solomon.
Enough questions to keep the excitement going!