Dan Brown’s books are not very good. He has written some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever read, and he can’t write an ending to save his life. But the man has an unmattachable talent for manipulating history into edge-of-your seat entertainment.
With the Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels and Demons being released in a few weeks, Brown has taken advantage of the spike in media attention to finally announce his long-awaited new novel.
After a six year hiatus, Brown will unveil The Lost Symbol in September, featuing Indiana Jones clone Robert Langdon solving some sort of historical mystery – likely involving the Freemasons and…a lost symbol.
Much has been rumored about this project, and some have spent the last few years preemptively explaining the unreleased novel’s historical truths and fallacies. Needless to say after The Da Vinci Code’s success, this is one of the most anticipated novels ever released. Random House is publishing 5 million first-run copies – one of the largest orders in history.
Will it be any good? Who knows. But as much dumber as I am for having read Brown’s other novels, I’ll still be in line for this one.
I never got the allure of Dan Brown. I remember when Da Vinci Code was at the height of the craze, everyone was reading it. Perhaps people just like reading things that challenge their religious beliefs?
I think the allure of the Da Vinci Code was that it made such a shocking claim about Jesus seem so plausible. Too many people read it as history rather than fiction, which is a testament to Dan Brown’s research. The result was not necessarily that people wanted to have their religious beliefs challenged, but that they felt the need to participate in what they perceived to be Dan Brown’s challenge.