Dan Brown returns -- with riddles aplenty

[Shana A]

Dan Brown returns -- with riddles aplenty

Posted by Jim Concannon  September 17, 2009 11:20 AM

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/blog/2009/09/dan_brown_retur.html

BOOK REVIEW

The Lost Symbol
By Dan Brown
Doubleday, 509 pp., $29.95

By Chuck Leddy

Perhaps the most notable quality of "The Lost Symbol" is the breezy
manner in which Brown's characters and his narrative examine truth,
God, and other grand topics. "Nowadays, eunuchs were shunned, although
the ancients understood the inherent power of this transmutational
sacrifice. Even the early Christians had heard Jesus Himself extol its
virtues," Brown writes. Readers are left wondering why
"transmutational sacrifice" gets such a bad rap. "Great men throughout
history have made deep personal sacrifices to protect the Ancient
Mysteries. You and I must do the same," one character tells Langdon,
sounding much like a boss trying to convince an exhausted employee to
work a weekend shift.

[Julie Marie]

I guess the author doesn't like Dan Brown.

Even Brown's most rabid fans don't need a secret decoder ring to know that his prose is leaden (No editor's alchemy could transform it into gold.) and that his characters sound more like mouthpieces for the author's off-the-wall philosophizing about the nature of God than they do real human beings.

Maybe he, like many detractors of Brown, didn't like The DaVinci Code because of how it portrayed the Catholic Church.

Whatever the reason, after weeding through the cynicism, I'd say it's a pretty good chance I'll pick this book up and become one of the many fans who seek an excuse to stay up reading well past their bedtimes [and] race headlong into the maze.  I find Brown's books do what a good novel should do, take you to a place that stimulates your imagination.

Julie