In 1991, a document was locked in the safe of the director of the CIA. The document is still there today. Its cryptic text includes references to an ancient portal and an unknown location underground. The document also contains the phrase 'It's buried out there somewhere.'
All organizations in this novel exist, including the Freemasons, the Invisible College, the Office of Security, the SMSC, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
All rituals, science, artwork, and monuments in this novel are real.
--Fact Page from The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I'M FINALLY DONE perusing the pages of The Lost Symbol—the latest installment of the world-renowned thriller writer, Dan Brown, and with no surprise my brain was once again stimulated by symbols, codes, and secrets. A lot of thanks to my Haley for lending me the book.
The Lost Symbol would be a good read unsurprisingly, especially if you love novels impregnated with historical and scientific facts, and mysteries, impeccably intertwined with an excellent fictional story-telling. Dan Brown is very well-known for blurring the lines between fact and fiction—which had proven successful in raising certain peoples’ eyebrows. Well, for me I don’t give much thought anymore as to what’re considered facts or fiction in his works. As long as they could tease my curiosity and could make my mouth hang open, I’m totally cool with it. I applaud Brown for his skill in connecting parallels that he could use for his story and for setting the flow of the plot in a lightning-paced mode. These are the key factors that made his novels into gripping page-turners and fall into nothing short of interesting.
If you happen to like his other two novels that featured the Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon, Angels and Demons and the controversial The Da Vinci Code, you’d probably enjoy The Lost Symbol. However, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities and the recurring themes, and approaches Dan Brown had used to tell his novels. Perhaps, I was just expecting too much from this book or that I hoped that Dan Brown could outwrite himself this time but I think The Lost Symbol is the weakest from him since the Deception Point. The characters were flat. I am not sure if this was because of the pace of the story. The twists and the revelations in the end weren’t strong enough. They fell short of the buildup, I think. It’s an easy book to read, the trivial arguments were effective, and the process of discovery was thrilling but Dan just didn’t have new and fresh ways to deliver it.
One thing in the book that tweaked my curiosity the most was the science known as Noetics. It basically aims to prove ancient mystical knowledge using modern technology and science, focusing primarily on the untapped yet powerful potential of the human mind and how intangible thoughts can affect physical entities. Telekinesis immediately popped in my head when I first encountered this. Just imagine if a thought has a certain mass. And as we all know everything that has mass has a certain gravitational force. It basically pulls anything that has mass towards it. But what if all people think of the same thought, hence the thought increases in accumulative mass, and therefore gain a gargantuan gravitational force and pulls entities in the physical realm. I can’t exactly picture how it works but it’s really mind boggling don’t you think? And what if I tell you that even a soul has mass? Very curious indeed.
I have a feeling the Christian community will have their brows raised once again because the Holy Bible was put in a pedestal in this novel. This novel is bombarded with a lot of Bible passages. Also it explains certain Biblical events differently as compared to what the Church had taught the masses. Some topics include the Apocalypse, The End of the World, miracles, and the Bible being the ultimate cipher book.
I highly recommend this book but if I were you, I’d wait for the paperback version due early next year.
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