The Lost Symbol

Finally finished Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol - which I enjoyed. The body count of the walk on parts was a bit on the high side for my taste and I'm claustrophobic so some of the scenes were read with one eye shut as it were. I had guessed the identity of the villain very early on but that didn't spoil the suspense and I certainly could not have predicted the ending.

The villain is very much a product of the 21st century with his obsession with his body and identity. Ultimately his undoing is his failure to realise other people don't have his values and priorities. Some of the other characters were a little wooden and Robert Langdon himself could have done with a bit more flesh on the bones. I liked the scientist Katherine Solomon and the priest Colin Galloway as well as the Japanese CIA lady - definitely scary! I did question briefly whether the Americans would have employed someone from Japan in the CIA but no matter - it was convincing.

It was a good fast paced read with an intriguing background of codes and symbols and less well known scientific research. Yes people are going to trash it because no one seems to like success these days. I have read worse written books than this and after all thrillers are not meant to have characters who get in the way of the action. I read a review which criticised it because all the dialogue was plot driven. Well actually that's how it should be in a thriller otherwise it slows down the action. All creative writing books tell you to take out the irrelevant dialogue for that very reason. So for me that was not an issue. In fact the book is a good one for budding thriller writers to study for that very reason.

If you're visiting Washington - read it - it's as good as a guide book to some of that city's famous landmarks.

The Lost Symbol

I jumped on the bandwagon and bought a copy of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol when Amazon reduced the price to £4.99. I've read about 200 pages so far and the story is good. Yes the characters are a bit two dimensional and some of the writing is a bit clunky but it's a good story - which is what it's meant to be.

I can't actually understand why so many people say it's rubbish and shouldn't be published. Why not? I've certainly read worse books than his and it's not as if it's encouraging people to commit crimes or take part in dangerous activities. It's the fight between good and evil as depicted in James Bond, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. The plot is not original - but then there's no such thing as an original plot since there are only 7 basic plots.

Maybe he hasn't got the factual details right - who cares? This is fiction not fact, guys, and if you want fact you would not expect to get it from a novel. Authors distort fact to fit the purposes of their plot. If they were writing non-fiction that would be different and they could be legitimately criticised if they got a fact wrong. Many people don't seem to realise publishing is a balancing act. Get a sure fire winner like this and you might be able to afford to publish books which are aimed at a narrower segment of society. Look at Bloomsbury's output now. They can afford to publish books which appeal to a minority because they've got all the money coming in from Harry Potter. And they've had commercial successes with books which at one time would not have been regarded as commercial at all so there are winners and - oh yes, winners - all round.