ISBN-13: 9780385504225 Availability: Readily Available Published: Doubleday, 09/01/2009
I honestly didn’t think I was going to read Dan Brown’s newest Robert Langdon thriller. As popular as The DaVinci Code was, I didn’t need to read it; the novel was going to sell itself. But I was curious; could Brown rise to the enormous expectations his previous successes created? The fact that I lost sleep once again to a Dan Brown novel means yes, he succeeded.
Robert Langdon is called by a close friend to Washington D.C. to deliver a last minute lecture. But the call is a ruse and if Langdon wants his friend to live, he needs to find the Freemason pyramid and unravel the secrets it holds, which reveals the Lost Symbol.
I really have nothing but good news to report. Dan Brown has a tried and true formula which results in a thrilling read! If you want something other than that formula, find another author.
Specifically, I really liked the setting -- Washington, D.C. Because Robert Langdon is a symbologist, the reader learns a lot of historical trivia about our nation’s capitol. Hopefully, The Lost Symbol does for D.C. what The DaVinci Code did for Paris: bring in lots of tourists. The pacing of the novel is great. When I finished the 500-page book, I couldn’t believe less than 24 hours had passed in Langdon’s life. Talk about a roller coaster ride! The “Big Twist” wasn’t perhaps quite as big as the author intended, but it was fun to feel almost as smart as Langdon. Pure fun! ~Patti
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I became a fan of Mitchell after I read his wildly inventive Cloud
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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the sweeping story of the Dutch
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combination of Patrick O'Brien's nautical historical fiction, the
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The City & the City by China Mieville
I think good Science Fiction uses an altered reality to reveal something
about the real world that couldn’t be revealed without that altered
setting. Great Science Fiction does this and entertains as well. China
Mieville’s The City and the City is really great Sci-fi. It
begins feeling like a dark, well-written, noir-style mystery – a body
has been found in the city of Beszel, detective Borlu has been assigned
to investigate – but the story quickly takes a sci-fi turn... read the rest of Lillian's review.