Dan Brown tries to hit a home run with this book, but instead ends up hitting into a double play. There are several things that are wrong with this book. One, Dan Brown has written the exact book three times. Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol all follow the same basic plot line and share many details. Consistency is nice, but what ends up happening is predictability. I knew everything that was going to happen before it happens not because I am smart enough to figure it out, but because Dan Brown is so transparent it is unbelievably easy to see where he is going. There is not one thing original about this book. Dan Brown has ripped himself off, as well as other works (Holy Blood, Holy Grail; National Treasure; The Red Dragon).
Two, the 'bad guy' in this book is an absolute joke. Nothing weakens a character more than not being able to kill one character who he should be able to kill and not killing someone else when he says he is going to do so. It is hard to take him seriously when he cannot or will not follow through on his threats. I did not believe he would kill Katherine, Langdon, Peter, etc. because he had not killed anyone of any significance. Also, Mal'ahk's motivations really slow down the novel. All he really wants is to be a god, or demon. So he has orchestrated this whole thing to make that happen. Not really edge of your seat kind of pay off. Yes, he tried to upload the video, but in the end that was just icing on his cake of being a supreme being. Silas and Company wanted to shake the foundations of the world; the Hassassin and Company wanted to blow up the world; Mal'ahk wants to be special. The plot is dead. Also, does anyone else think it is interest that Zachary, when he is younger, vehemently rejects everything his father stands for (Mason stuff) and then grows up to immerse himself in that and achieve what the Masons ultimately want? Hmmm.
Three, Dan Brown wastes too much of his time spreading information. His little one liners of tidbits of information coupled with his multi-paragraph explanations on how to blow something a) take up time, space, etc. and b) make Dan Brown come off as arrogant. It's almost as if he's saying, 'Look what I know that you are to stupid to know. Let me share this with you.' As a side note, Dan Brown's material is so sloppily researched that it is clearly evident none of what is in the book is actually true, though he claims it is.
Related to that, Dan Brown, it is increasingly clear, has a pretty bleak view of humanity. In the Da Vinci code the problem is the world is not ready to receive this ground-shattering information. The same is true here. The Masons keep their secret because the rest of the world is not ready. In other words us 'regular' little humans with our small minds and weak hearts cannot possibly maturely digest this supposed wisdom without the world coming to an end. Also, related to the video, we bickering humans will not be able to survive once this scandal. The world will just fall apart. Has anyone counted how many sexual scandals there have been in the USA in the last decade. A lot, and look, we're all still here. It would take more than an video-tape to bring down this country and the rest of the world. But, according to Dan Brown, humanity is far too weak and immature to handle such information.
Robert Langdon continues to astound. First he continues to be brought into these situations. You'd think he would learn. Second, for someone who is as smart as he is he sure is astounded a lot. Third, for someone as open as he is he sure is skeptical about anything he thinks is silly. Langdon is quickly becoming one of those characters you hate.
Overall, this book is bad, and not as in good. The plot is perfectly predictable; the characters are not developed, believable, or real in any way. It drags in some places, because of its predictability and Dan Brown's incessant need to flood our minds with useless (and often times untrue) information. The same is true of all his books, but some of the others have at least the thrill factor to make it exciting. This one does not have that, which is where Dan Brown really missed. The plot, in a lot of ways is absolute crap.
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