A Very Familiar Lost Symbol

So I'm finally done with the latest and by-far, the longest, Dan Brown offering, The Lost Symbol. Having "chanced" upon it, I began reading it about a month ago and though other engagements didn't allow me to read it cover to cover, it was a good read.

This time round, Brown gives us a vivid tour of the capital of the Free World and as I flipped those pages, running through the chapters (over 130 of those), the city sounded so much more livelier than that which I visited as an eleven-year-old. You can rest assured of the same breakneck thrill that Dan Brown novels have now come to promise, the insights into secret societies, revelations and a history lesson you wished your teachers at school gave you. But as I went over the initial chapters, I came to realize something (If you're looking forward to reading The Lost Symbol, don't worry; nothing here that will spoil the fun of reading it yourself):

The story seemed to be following a very familiar pattern. Every character was new, besides Langdon of course. The setting was new. There were new goals and objectives. But as I flipped those pages, the story almost became predictable. And I don't mean that I knew what was going to happen at every point in the story. It's just that the book reminded me a lot about certain aspects of Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. That phone call from someone, that flight to somewhere and that police chase. But unlike it's two famous predecessors, that big twist at the end does nothing for the story. The initial surge of excitement you feel in the beginning begins to die towards the end and before you know it, you've flipped that last page.

I did, however, really like the message in the book. Dan Brown seems to have written the book keeping current political trends in mind as well as the religious shades to them. The book is not a total waste of time and I would recommend it to anyone. I won't go ahead and give it stars out of  five or points out of ten, but I will ask you to go ahead and pick it up. While you're at it, tell me if you have begun to find that nagging line of "author of The Da Vinci Code" irritating yet.