Antony's Library #1 - The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
This year, I have made a sort of 'New Year's Resolution' that I would read more fiction books having only read a handful since finishing school 5 and half years ago.
To help with this, I received a shiny new Amazon Kindle meaning I now hundreds of thousands of books at the tip of my fingers and can buy any book without worrying about storage or carrying around big books.
So I set myself a target: 12 books in 12 months. This seems pretty low, but it is based on my reading habits of the past few years. I am pretty sure that I am going to beat it.
Anyway, I have decided to do little reviews on this blog. Look, I even have a little logo for this feature.
To kick things off, I read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This is the third book in the 'Robert Langdon' series and it the longest
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Like the previous 2, Robert Langdon is sent on a quest to decipher a code. This time his friend's life is at stake. Brown does a great job hiding information and slowly drip feeding the answers throughout the book. This style of writing keeps you reading.
I also love how he switches points of views to all the characters. This is usually between chapters but also within the same chapter. So we are not just following Robert Langdon, but we are getting into the minds of all of the characters and finding out exactly what they are thinking.
My only negative point is that because it is longer than the previous 2, the pace is a lot slower.
Another thing that a lot of people didn't like in the Amazon reviews is that it followed the same formula as the previous books: a code to crack, a race against time, a beefed up antagonist, even a member of security/authorities whose motives appear suspicious and bad but actually turns out to be good.
But in my opinion, if a formula appears to work in the previous books, why change? It still had me enticed and interested right up to the last pages with many twists and turns along the way.
In conclusion, it is an excellent book. But if I were to compare it against the previous 2, I would say it was my least favorite of the 3. I plan to read the 4th book Inferno at some point this year so it will be interesting to see how that compares.
Next Time...
The next book I am reading is Follow Us Home by Mark Edwards. It is a psychological thriller and only came out in the Summer. I have never read a psychological thriller before, so I am interested in what this will bring.