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A review by iainp
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
3.0
Not bad to start with, but gets incredibly waffly as it goes. Brown's characters' dialogue is better than some previous novels, but still stilted and unnatural in places.
The pace is great up until around half way when the chapters suddenly double in length and all the excitement seems to leave the story. Quick action gives way to long, boring philosophical arguments and the final "reveal" of the secret being searched for is incredibly underwhelming.
Also - page 578 - a progress bar and a task bar are different things. You'd think a guy who wrote a novel about the computer systems being used within the NSA would know this. Actually, remembering how poor that book was, perhaps not.
It still surprised me that Dan Brown is given so much credit for this genre of novel when he wasn't the first to write one, and when his are certainly not amongst the best. I guess he has a good publicity department.
The pace is great up until around half way when the chapters suddenly double in length and all the excitement seems to leave the story. Quick action gives way to long, boring philosophical arguments and the final "reveal" of the secret being searched for is incredibly underwhelming.
Also - page 578 - a progress bar and a task bar are different things. You'd think a guy who wrote a novel about the computer systems being used within the NSA would know this. Actually, remembering how poor that book was, perhaps not.
It still surprised me that Dan Brown is given so much credit for this genre of novel when he wasn't the first to write one, and when his are certainly not amongst the best. I guess he has a good publicity department.