The Lost Symbol
The Lost Symbol is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of The Da Vinci Code, and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters. Released on September 15, 2009, it is the third Brown novel to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon, following 2000's Angels & Demons and 2003's The Da Vinci Code.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
14mentions
14people
2009–2023years
7% recommend79% neutral14% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds - Quirky sci-fi novel with a xenoarchaeology angle
Hunters of Dune, by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson - I'm not recommending this one on the basis of the writing. I'd recommend it only to those who read all of Frank Herbert's original Dune series and have been hanging in suspense ever since because the cliffhanger ending of Chapterhouse Dune was never resolved due to Frank's untimely death. They based the book on Frank's outline, but it clearly would have been a better book if it had been written by Frank. Nonetheless, it is satisfying to resolve the unanswered questions: Who the heck are these Honored Matres and what were they running away from?
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings, by Jorges Luis Borges - This is kind of a quirky collection of short stories that are all mindbenders of one variety or another. The best description I can give of Borges is that reading him is kind of like solving puzzles.
Across the Nightingale Floor: Tales of the Otori, by Lain Hearn - Historical fiction set in feudal Japan with lords and their retainers, assassins, etc.
The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown - If you liked The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons, you'll probably like this one as well. While Dan Brown will probably never write anything that matches the utter genius of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, he is entertaining in his own way and worth a read.
- Tl;dr gpt4 seems to have detailed knowledge of the following copyrighted books (The first half of the list)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K. Rowling 76%
1984 George Orwell 57%
The Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien 51%
Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James 49%
The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 48%
Lord of the Flies William Golding 43%
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 43%
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 30%
The Silmarillion J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien 28%
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 27%
A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin 27%
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 26%
Dune Frank Herbert 26%
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 25%
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 25%
Casino Royale Ian Fleming 24%
Neuromancer William Gibson 22%
Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 20%
Brave New World Aldous Huxley 19%
Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 18%
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 17%
The Lost Symbol Dan Brown 16%
Inferno Dan Brown 15%
Divergent Veronica Roth 15%
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 15%
- "Soon the structure underlying The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol was laying bare before my eyes. I could see why the stories worked.
I had reverse-engineered Dan Brown."
Could you talk a little more in depth about what Dan Brown's pattern/structure is?
- I get that request a lot, so I'll have to write something about it :)
All I can offer right now is my raw notes, which are in Spanish. This is a structural analysis of Angels and Demons, The da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol: https://imgur.com/bX6ByJA
This is an one-page treatment of the three books, with the "blanks" filled appropriately for each: https://imgur.com/LlDVUKn
I doubt any of this is groundbreaking. Story structure is a widely studied topic (and one that I find fascinating). But it seems like Dan Brown uses a very well defined, customised version of this, that makes for engaging, fast-paced books.
I sort of proved (for myself, at least) that this works, by writing a novel whose structure was originally based on this pattern (although it later diverged a bit), and which causes the expected effect - a couple of readers have read it in a single sitting :)
- ... then OP, could you share this structure? "Soon the structure underlying The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol was laying bare before my eyes. I could see why the stories worked. I had reverse-engineered Dan Brown."
- Took me a few popular authors to find one that was in the database, and when I finally tried the book I'm reading, the only recommendation it said it was like was way off - The Devil in White City has no relation that I can see to The Lost Symbol.
