To begin with, the first book I read of Dan Brown was ‘Angels and Demons’. I had a feeling this is exactly what I was looking for. A huge tint of the exciting side of religion ie ancient secrets and mysteries of the greatest scholars and personalities of the time, linked with the most modern technology, a concept that is hard to digest but forced to be accepted due to the convincing evidence given, and a plunge into a time set race to save the world. Phew! It was exhilarating. The only phrase that ran through my mind was “Whats next? Whats next?” which ultimately made me stick my nose to the book at least till my mom came and grabbed the book out of my hand (which dint happen too soon I assure). Anyway it was as if I had run with Robert Langdon throughout the day. I perused every other book of his and I hit on the latest specimen “The Lost Symbol” (A birthday gift for which I am thankful).
“The Lost Symbol”, the name itself gave me high anticipation. Again it was to do with the revelation of mankind’s greatest ancient secret. A deadly enemy who convinces himself that what he is doing is right, plans activities that is going to claim lives in the run, at the end of which he hopes to achieve the secret. The secret is supposed to revel how to attain at-one-ment with god. The scientific connection here is with neotic science ( a real practice) which experiments with the state of mind of a human. Here, Katherine Solomon, the researcher of neotic science tries to rediscover the science of the ancient scholars and she is succesfull. But this experiment is considered as a hindrance by malakh (the enemy) as he feels that the research might reveal the ancient secret and hence will be available to everyone at large. So he makes it a priority to destroy the research work at the Smithsonian Museum Support Centre (again a real institution). Robert Langdon is dragged into the plot to decipher the ancient mystery for malakh and it is done so by threatening the life of Peter Solomon, a close friend of Langdon. Dan Brown takes us through the usual routine of revealing symbols and concealed messages in paintings of famous artists and in precision gives explicit details about the freemasons. Throughout the book I tried to guess who the final culprit might be as it is the speciality of Dan Brown to make the fact unthinkable. But it was somewhat disappointing that the culprit when revealed did not induce much shock. The ancient secret is finally revealed and it is understood that the secret is open in existence but concealed in essence ie its true meaning has never been understood by mankind. It is indeed a lost symbol.
My particular joy in reading Dan Brown’s books is for the technology that it speaks about and the mystic effect that it produces during the discovery of whatsoever is needed. The amount of research that goes into the book and the list of facts related to the story creates a solid doubt as to whether this is fiction or a real life account. The language is simple and enriching enough to keep us on tenterhooks till the end.
The other works of Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, The Deception Point, The Digital Fortress are all similar. Though all of them don’t involve science or religion, it gives a steady feeling of breathlessness and a situation of stress. “Something has to be revealed or something will be destroyed.” I guess this in short describes what the essence of the books is. Whatever it is Dan Brown’s books are a must read. So don’t miss it.
