The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (book review)

Alright, I purchased this book for the Kindle app on my phone shortly before Christmas. On Christmas day I find a Nook under the tree and suddenly my Kindle app isn't getting much attention. over the coming months i only read The Lost Symbol when my Nook isn't immediately available. The result is that it's taken me about 7 months to finish this book while Nook books were finished nearly weekly. 

That being said; I enjoyed the book immensely. I don't think it was quite as gripping as Angles and Demons or The Da Vinci Code, but it had it's strong points. Perhaps it was the settings of the former two books that I found so fascinating. That and the info about various artist and philosophers whose marks have been left on the culture of France and Italy. And I can't discount the appeal of reading stories set in these locations that I've never visited but have longed to all my life. While the Washington D.C. setting was intriguing in it's own right, I found myself pining for a more foreign background.

The story itself was very compelling and Dan Brown once again proves to be very informative as he weaves another suspenseful tale into various factual topics such as the Stone Masons and the historical sites of D.C. What I've found most impressive, even inspiring, about Dan Brown's work is his willingness to present different ideas about faith, religion, and the bible. There are some that see these ideas as blasphemy, but I see them as interesting theories and ideas that can be taken into account along with a nearly endless amount of possibilities about the existence of man, God, and the universe itself. Pondering the possibilities, after all, is far more fun than committing to a faith entirely.

Then there was the story. While there were a couple of instances where plot points were a little too convenient, the villain was surely warped and creepy enough to keep things moving along at a pretty good pace. As with any of Brown's books, this one is laced with truths, one just has to be willing and able to separate them from the fiction. This is a nice addition to this series and a great read for those open-minded enough to entertain a different interpretation of religion in general.


****
4 of 5 stars

The Lost Symbol on Kindle