The Lost Symbol

It is now book three of the five book series of Robert Langdon.

In The Lost Symbol, Robert finds himself back home in the States, innocently working on his book that is way overdue. He is invited last minute to give a talk in DC by someone he has known for a long time in his field of symbology, Peter Solomon. Additionally, Robert is told to bring an item that Peter had given him to hold on to for safekeeping years and years ago. Upon arrival, Robert finds himself in a predicament of having to solve yet another symbolic treasure map against pressing time in order Peter from an insane narcissistic psychopath while also running from the government. So basically, the usual.

Either I am finding that I am not a book series kind of person, or I am just running out of steam for this particular one. Based off of seeing the reviews of others, I am not alone. The Lost Symbol is that one book in the series where very quickly it was just a slow and painful thing to work through. I had caught on to the formula of the series, what with the unnecessary explanations for why he has the Mickey Mouse watch, his claustrophobia, his innocent attitude that is also endearing and kind, and the frequent stops his group makes so that he can solve a puzzle using his extensive background in art history and symbology. There is no reason for him to always have trouble following him everywhere, yet somehow he finds himself in predicaments.

The two main differences between this part of the series and previous parts were the setting being in the US rather than Europe, which for some reason means that Robert does not mention his previous experiences, and this time it involved someone Robert already personally knew. It made Robert look more rounded in his expertise in that Peter is the reason why Robert knows the secret society talked about in this book. Hey, at least it is better than always having the answers. Putting Robert close to home and making it a personal matter has us see him in a different area of distress. I want to be positive in that those differences are what would make The Lost Symbol possibly better, but it was not enough for me.

I will say, in terms of type of villain, this one was a different kind: surprise twist and straight up maniacal asshole. [Spoiler]I will hand it to Dan Brown, I got got with the villian’s identity reveal, and the many many years of planning and scheming versus last two villains who were thought that they were doing their evildoing for noble causes. This guy was just on a hellbent quest for ultimate enlightenment and spiritual power only to fail because he panicked when he got to the homestretch. He never needed to reveal who his real identity was; that should never have mattered. The villain fooled the reader into thinking he was an asshole through and through, when there will still a child with daddy issues buried deep inside.

As you can tell, The Lost Symbol was just one that could have had something going for it, but dropped the ball tremendously, to a point where I needed to take a break from the series to read something else. I obviously will not be reading this again. If you want to keep riding on the Robert Langdon series to see it through, you can find The Lost Symbol here.