Dan Brown's follow-up to his phenonmenal bestseller The Da Vinci Code is more of the same, which is probably exactly what audiences wanted. The author was, admittedly, in sticky situation. Like it or loathe it, Code was a phenomenal bestseller. How could Brown live up to all the hype that was inevitably associated with his follow-up? His answer seems to be to whip up a sequel whose pace and tone feels very much like its predecessor.
Symbologist Robert Langdon is drawn into a mystery - this time in Washington D.C. - and runs into what are becoming Brown's stock characters - the possessed, oddly transformed villian and the intelligent, female partner. With a story firmly set on American soil, this adventure is steeped in American history, with well-known locales such as the Smithsonian and the Capitol serving as more than story backdrop. Brown's flashbacks uncharacteristically jar the pace of the narrative, but his characters are well drawn particularly Inoue Sato, the CIA's security chief, and it's always fun to imagine Tom Hanks delivering Langdon's dialogue (the actor having portrayed the character in the film adaptations of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons).
The Lost Symbol is not a bad novel by any stretch, it just suffered under the weight of all the inevitable hype which accompanied its release.
-Michael
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