Review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

So I finished it! Now it's time for the review I promised in the last post. :-) Now I can't wait to get to Louisiana to my copy of Decoding the Lost Symbol. Just one more week!

Title: The Lost Symbol

Author: Dan Brown

Rating:

What I Have To Say: The Lost Symbol will have you sitting on the edge of your seat with bated breath, wondering what's going to happen next, fingers crossed that it's not what you think it will be. It's an intriguing fast-paced read that will sometimes leave you short of breath. Dan Brown masterfully weaves old myths and truths about the Freemasons into his extraordinary tale, thus giving the reader an exciting history lesson along with this fabulous read. It will leave your imagination running wild. I found his presentation of Noetic Science to be fascinating, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.
On the surface, "The Lost Symbol" is just another thriller, but, especially towards the end, Dan Brown turns it into so much more for the attentive reader. He asks intriguing questions that have no answers. And then he proposes answers. He preaches the importance of unity, open-mindedness, and understanding, and he manages to do this without proselytizing (although it did at some points feel didactic). One of the key themes of "The Lost Symbol" is religious tolerance, and Dan Brown presents a convincing case that really, all religions are one and the same.
I'll say something I've said before: There has been quite a bit of hoopla over whether or not Dan Brown is actually a good author or whether he just got lucky with "The DaVinci Code." I can't say. I don't feel I have any kind of qualifications to judge whether or not an author is "good" or "bad." What I can say is that I loved "the DaVinci Code," I liked "Angels and Demons," and I loved "The Lost Symbol." It kept me excitedly turning pages until the very end, and for me, that's what's most important about a book. It also taught me something and made me curious to learn more, which, again for me, is also extremely important in a book.
That's not to say that it was perfect. There were times when it got extremely repetitive. Someone had a revelation, and in the next chapter a different person had that same revelation, and in the chapter after that, another person would be having that revelation, and so on. . . You catch my drift. There is also the small problem of Robert Langdon himself. I get that he's a skeptic, but I think Dan Brown took his skepticism too far in this book. He would take ages to come to some completely obvious understanding, just because he didn't believe it could be true. He's supposed to be a smart man, but at times, in large part because of his over-played-out skepticism, I sort-of thought he was an idiot.
Still, in the end, it was exciting and anything but slow. An utterly enjoyable, entertaining, and informative read.

Summary (from GoodReads): In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world’s most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling--a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon--a prominent Mason and philanthropist--is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations--all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

Final Question:How do you feel about the idea presented in the Lost Symbol, that each and every one of us is God? And that the God seen in all religious works is one and the same? Do you find it intriguing, truthful, or blasphemous? Or something else entirely? Or is it something you never think about?