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The Lost Symbol
By the end of this book, I came to know one thing. It was how Dan Brown feeds us the agnostic views like a slow drug. I believed Dan Brown was more inclined to the scientific and the atheistic side, but he stood in between both the sides. Initially, it felt like he was being sarcastic but after reading this novel, my suspicion got confirmed.
This book mainly deals with Freemasons and their secret and as with all the
other Dan Brown novels, the core of this book was to talk about Noetic Science.
Noetic Science is a kind of Science which connects science with Spirituality. We all would’ve heard of the story where our body losses weight after we die. And it was explained by the fact that when we die, our soul leaves our body causing the decrease in our body weight. So, basically this is what Noetic Science deals with, in a deeper manner.
I was stupefied by the fact that Dan Brown is an agnostic and after I finished reading this novel, I searched for answers; to know about Dan Brown more. I started watching a lot of interviews and found out that he was brought up in such a way that he had strong feeling for both Science and Religion.
Dan Brown’s father was a maths teacher.
His mother was a huge devotee of Christianity.
When he was a young boy, he asked a priest in the church about our origin and he got a reply that good boys would not ask such questions. This made him to know about science more and his father was a huge support for him.
In fact, Dan Brown had named his fictional character, Robert Langdon, from one of his father’s friend. His name was John Langdon who designed the Ambigrams seen in A&D.
Dan is a punctual guy who starts writing his novel from early morning 4 AM on wards. He claims that his brain would work without any hesitation at that time of the day.
I liked the Lost Symbol more than the DaVinci Code. Because the final reveal of this book had a huge impact on me. The technique he tried in this book to conceal the final reveal was the high point of deceiving. He literally conned my guesses. After I read the final reveal, I was staring at the book for a good 5 minutes.
I didn’t like the way this book ended though and that’s why the Davinci Code still topped my ranking of Dan Brown Books.
One more fascinating fact I noticed in this book was the character development of Robert Langdon.
In his previous two novels, there were nothing to know about Robert Langdon as a person and in this novel, the premise itself deals with Robert Langdon trying to save his mentor from the hands of the evil.
Also, I came to know that Robert Langdon feared Rats. From the previous two novels, we came to know that Robert Langdon has claustrophobia and he wears a mickey mouse watch which was a gift from his parents. Also, In A&D, Robert Langdon dreams about someone reaching out a hand when both climbing on a mountain (I think it was a pyramid, I am not sure). Shockingly the silhouette was a woman smiling at him and teasing him. I don’t want to judge anything, but it would be nice to know about Langdon’s past life in the upcoming novels.
Inferno
I instantly picked this book after reading the Lost Symbol. Usually, I would take a break of one or two days before starting to read one book from the next book. But I didn’t have any work that day; I mean the night shift.
I started reading the book at evening and before sleeping I completed reading one fifth of the book. But after that my pace got slow because I started hating the novel. It didn’t offer anything new but the same old formula. I didn’t hate the formula that Dan Brown usually uses to write his novels but, I didn’t like the arcs of this book because it felt like a cliché.
The premise of this book was a great one. Robert Langdon wakes up at a hospital bed after having a weird and creepy nightmare. Later he came to know that someone was trying to assassinate him, and he flees with his attending doctor Sienna Brooks.
This was the only Dan Brown book I guessed the final reveal with facts, and I was correct. Surprising it may seem, but it was written in an obvious way.
After identifying the final reveal, I know where this story would go. But after few chapters after the final reveal, it had a minor reveal which was way too filmsy and ridiculous. Not in my wildest dream, I had expected such a turn of events and I hated it.
To simply put, I didn’t like the execution of this novel the way I liked his previous books.
It was not until the end; I was planning to rate it 1 star in Goodreads. If Goodreads had a 0.5-star system, I probably would’ve rated it as 0.5 stars. When the book reached it’s final 10 chapters, it hit me.
Every Dan Brown book has a message. But none of them affected as much as this book did. Even I liked the DaVinci code because of its nostalgic moments and execution. The Sacred Feminine was not that great because every Dan Brown books showcases this in one way or another. But what the Inferno explained was out of the world.
When I said out of the world, I meant it literally.
It gives a solution (I hope not) for the over population problem. The climax of the book tackled this crisis in a different manner that I never expected. If it happens then not only the crisis of over population but, all the other crisis that arises due to the birth of any child would be obliterated to smithereens.
Otha! That was a mind-fucking climax I have ever read!
SPOILERS OF THE LOST SYMBOL
The Lost Symbol
The collector's edition Mickey Mouse watch had been a gift from his parents on his ninth birthday. "I wear it to remind me to slow down and take life less seriously."
Professor Witherspoon comparative religion course.
So, this story involves in science (not history) but a different one - Noetic Science. It implies that human thoughts have mass and stimulating the mass will do many astonishing things. (like bending spoon with only our gaze or something) Feasibly, I get the feeling that this theory relates to the kind of aur we get when we are in temple ie., the positive vibrations we get when everyone in the temple emits positive thoughts!
104 Pages into The Lost Symbol. Mystery meter is similar to that of Dan's earlier novels. This one has 4 mysteries so far.
1, Who is the guy with the tattoos?
2, What did Katherine asked Trish to search (by giving her a bunch of keywords)? - The hacker find out that its from CIA's confidential files.
3, What does the talisman, that Peter left with Robert, contains? (or is it even a talisman?) - It contains a tiny pyramid that is made up of gold (which has some text on it). It apparently acts as a key to some masonic secrets.
4, How Sato knows that Robert was there in Capitol DC? - proably the guy with the tattoo had told her. - well it wasnt.
Robert Langdon is scared of Rats!!!
200 pages completed and I like this better than A&D but lesser likable when compared to Davinci code.
No new mysteries but there was a hint of backstory about the villain (Mal-Ahk)
318 Pages and last hundred pages were filled with a lot mysteries. It had compensated for the previously dull 100 pages.
1, Sato's mysterioys box and Bellamy's terrible mistake?
2, Peter Solomon's masonic two headed phoenix ring and the cube mystery
The part I dislike about this book is the explanation of mystic power and relating with with science. I contradicted with my favourite author Sujatha when he explained gods via science. Being an atheist, I cant bring myself to accept this concept.
399 pages done!
These was a slow read. But I enjoyed every moment of it. The last 5 chapters or so was unbelievable and astonishing.
Robert Langdon was literally dead in the last chapter and this story involves souls and calculating its weight when a person dies.
1, The cube mystery is still there with some reveal. The twist is basically the same when Robert and Katherine solved the first magic square by rearranging the phrase to get latinized name of Issac Newton. The same has been applied here for revealing the final location.
2, The Nola (CIA cyper specialist) had find something to do with the redationed article (supposedly owed by Sato's boss - who is Mason it seems) and the mystery revolving it is not yet revealed.
3, Finally katherine and peter had reunited but not a good one though. Mal'Akh is trying to blackmail peter to do as he says and if he refuses, katherine would die of blood loss. What is he gonna do with Peter? - My guess is in the finale, Mal-Akh would try some kind of transfering souls between bodies (கூடு விட்டு கூடு பாய்றது )
I have never experienced this level of twist in my life. Otha... Chapter 119.. Best chapter of all Dan Brown Books.
Finished this book..
I loved this book a lot but the concept preached in the finale was not what I would like.
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