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An ancient organization is hiding a secret that has the power to change the world by allowing humans to realize their full potential.Someone wants to destroy the secret which the organization is not planning to reveal anyway.And our favourite (and only) symbologist, Robert Langdon has to work overtime to find the secret to help someone.Sounds familiar?

The Lost Symbol starts with Robert Langdon accepting a last minute invitation to deliver a lecture on behest of his mentor, Peter Solomon at the Capitol Hill. Of course, nothing is what it seems. Instead of quiet evening ending with a big applause, the symbologist gets involved in more rounds of deciphering cryptic codes under duress, visiting hidden chambers and tunnels, revealing secrets of a hidden cult (whose membership as always includes one of the greatest human minds ever), saving the world by realizing but NOT revealing an earth shattering truth, trying to escape the bad guys with a beautiful woman for company, a trail of dead bodies left by a psychopathic zealot facing death etc etc. It is literally,just another day in the life of Robert Langdon.

Looking at earlier works of Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol is closer to Angels and Demons than Da Vinci Code. The basis of story is ancient, suppressed wisdom and science providing a basis for religious beliefs.This is justified by using the words of great thinkers (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic- Arthur C Clarke”), common jargon (“mind over matter”), ancient texts and their connection to modern science.The Lost Symbol believes in existence of philosophical and religious beliefs like afterlife, soul, human consciousness, collective consciousness etc and explains them through Noetic Science- a fairly recent phenomenon.

This is where it slips up. His earlier works dealt with an alternate, possible explanation of events e.g. Vinci Code dealt with a different explanation of events in the bible. The Lost Symbol veers into the abstract and loses the reader. It even copies an experiment to calculate the weight of the soul but does not mention that the same experiment concluded that dogs do not have souls.Also,the whole idea of consciousness/God/soul has been discussed with only human species as the focus.

Personally, my first question to someone who tells me “Humans die and go to heaven/hell” is “Where do other species go?” The reply to that question is usually a blank stare or a pitying look.I could not identify with many of the concepts having a scientific basis but as said in the book, people did believe that world is flat. However, it will take more than a work of fiction to convince me.

The key to Dan Brown novels are not the plots but the stories built on those plots- The twists and turns, the “Aha moments” when everything falls in place only for next piece of jigsaw to be more convoluted than earlier ones, the fast narrative including history and symbology lessons, the secrets hidden in plain sight, the art, the architecture etc. The Lost Symbol has all of that but they are not as numerous as in his earlier works. Most of the puzzles and cryptic codes are based on a common, recurring factor being used in different ways which makes them somewhat predictable. Also, there is a role reversal with Robert Langdon playing a skeptic and others, playing believers trying to convince him.This results in fewer words and even fewer memorable monologues from the main character.

The Lost Symbol carries over the biggest flaw from earlier Dan Brown novel- the stretched, lame ending (Seriously, who did not know the answer to the last,most important puzzle in Digital Fortress except the best cryptographers in the world who took pages and pages looking for the answer. Apparently, they knew cryptography but not googling) and leaves the reader feeling foolish, though not in a good way though.

The Lost Symbol has its moments e.g. the lectures of Robert Langdon, initial puzzles, the masonic history etc which make it an interesting read but not a must read. The non-definitive end which will leave many people confused along with many negatives make it not as unputdownable as DaVinci Code. The Lost Symbol is like a movie with an engrossing first half and a tepid, predictable second half with a stretched, open-ended climax.

Digital Fortress, Angels & Demons and Da Vinci Code are some of the most engrossing books around. However, the Lost Symbol is to Dan Brown what Order of the Phoenix is to JK Rowling- Books that were fillers and the reader has to finish instead of hoping for more. Hopefully, future stories of Robert Langdon (Dan Brown recently said there will be 12 in total) will be better.

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Comments:

a.If a psychopath needs some information that only you have, it is advisable not to tell him and outlive your usefulness.Apparently, ancient wisdom missed out on that and hence, characters in the Lost Symbol did too.

b. If ancient texts like Upanishads, Bible etc talk about String Theory, Relativity etc, maybe Neanderthals knew about Unified Theory. Some say it was because of aliens, some say because of God and some say because they were wiser than us. Couldnt it be just that we are reading too much into it?

c. The Solomon Key is a far better name than The Lost Symbol. It becomes a brilliant pun with one of the lead character as Solomon. It would not have affected the story or the end. The reason for this would be a spoiler.