Dan Brown "Imitates himself"

The success of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", (sales-wise, at least) created the predictable swarm of novels that attempted to capitalise on it's mass popularity. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Stephen King, himself one of the most phenomenally successful living writers, once spoke of this trend- he counselled that if a novel is publicised as being "in the tradition of" someone, be it Grisham, Koontz, himself even, then the best course of action is to run a mile from thoughts of reading it.

Brown, of course, is now on the list of world famous, popular novelists with sales well into the multimillions, and Entertainment Weekly suggest that with latest effort "The Lost Symbol", he has produced a book that belongs with the other pale imitations of "The Da Vinci Code". CNN covered reaction to the novel this morning, which sees longtime Brown protagonist, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon return, this time to DC as he attempts to save his mentor and uncover a secret hidden by the Freemason's.

So far, so Brown, and many of the early reviews have been critiqueing the novel with "kids gloves", retelling the plot with no attempt at insight, according to influential commentator John Fox. The book has, he said "become more like a weather vane for the publishing industry as a whole -- a sacred totem that no reviewer dare out-and-out criticize because so many in the publishing industry want (need!) this book to succeed."

"Could it be that massive popularity on this scale trumps any kind of literary merit?", asks Fox, at a time when publishers desperately need guaranteed sales, and newspapers carrying bad reviews might anger Brown's millions of fans.

Entertainment Weekly gave "The Lost Symbol" an overall grade of C+.