BOOK: The Atlantis Stone (2013)

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The Atlantis Stone Year: 2013 Author: Nick Thacker Length: 480 pages Albert Einstein is often attributed to the quote, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” In that case, The Atlantis Stone, is not creative, as all its sources are plainly on display, jumping from imitations of Dan Brown to imitations of National Treasure, and everything in-between. I wouldn’t mind the obvious homage to better stories if the plot was any good. The Atlantis Stone is not a good story, though. The main reason for this seems to be the characters themselves, but there’s plenty of plot holes to blame as well. Let’s start with the characters: there are too many of them, and many are entirely unnecessary. The token female in the entire group seems tagged on for the mere ability to provide a few moments of exposition, as well as give the lecherous males something to long for. Her uncle is completely unnecessary, as his research doesn’t require him to actually be at these...
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BOOK: The Lost Symbol (2009)

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The Lost Symbol Year: 2009 Author: Dan Brown Length: 1,067 minutes / 17.78 hours After Dan Brown’s previous entries in the Robert Langdon series had covered the Illuminati and the Catholic Church, respectively, his next target in The Lost Symbol was the Masons. Unfortunately, as both National Treasure (2004) and its sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), were released before this book came out, the setting and concept seemed derivative in The Lost Symbol. Especially with the focus on the Masons’ “treasure” for the better part of the book, I was half expecting the chase to be on a larger scale than just hopping from one Washington D.C. monument to the next as the puzzle unfolds. In a bit of a combination of Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol combines the exciting twists of uncovering the secrets of a Masonic pyramid with the pseudoscience of Noetics. Of course, the plot could have omitted everything about Noetics, and it would have stood just fine on its own, so I question why it...
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