by Amanda Hanes

Created on: November 21, 2009

Dan Brown has been enjoying the spotlight in recent years with two books, Angels and Demons(2000) and The DaVinci Code(2003); both of which have topped best sellers lists around the world. Both of which, also, have been made into major motion pictures.

Is Dan Brown slipping? It seems that all of the success around the Robert Langdon series may be affecting Brown's ability to create a suspenseful story. The Lost Symbol(2009) was very difficult to get into. The story spun in many different directions right from the beginning and for the first time we had to look at Robert Langdon as just one of the stories main characters. I didn't start to enjoy the book until the middle. It had a lot of the same aspects of the first two books, but not as interesting. There wasn't as much reference to actual history which is my favourite part of the books. This story focussed a lot on the personal relationship between Robert Langdon and his mentor, Peter Solomon. When Solomon is kidnapped, Langdon must use clues hidden around the city to find him. Of course, Langdon seems to have no problem turning a riddle into an artifact, much like the first two books in the series, although, it was not nearly as fascinating. It was an interesting twist to have Langdon find the artifiact early on and work to hide it. However, most of the story was so far fetched and unbelievable that I found myself wondering 'Why am I reading this?"

The most interesting part of the story was something that wasn't incorporated into the main idea. We are introduced to Katherine Solomon, sister to Peter Solomon and love interest to Peter Langdon. Time is spent talking about her research. Basically Katherine feels that when someone dies, a miniscule amount of them leaves their bodies, presumably their souls. I found this part of the book the most interesting, yet, its purpose to me is unkown.

This book was most definitely rushed. I felt like there was too much going on; and there was no focus. The paths never all met up, which is a shame because the story was good.. I expected a lot more from this book and in the end I was disappointed. I wouldn't pick it up again which is saying a lot because I frequently re-read books. Overall, the book will be a success, but not to the same magnitude of the first two installments. The execution could have been better.

Learn more about this author, Amanda Hanes.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.