Product Description

Book with masonic content

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-15
• Released on: 2009-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Vehicles move through the murky night, carrying highly secret material. And that clandestine material will only be available--after midnight--to those who have signed non-disclosure notices. The plot of the new Dan Brown novel? No, it’s actually how reviewers such as myself obtained our copies of the much-anticipated The Lost Symbol, the follow-up to the Da Vinci Code. And as we read it in (literally) the cold light of dawn, we wonder: is it likely to match the earlier book’s all-conquering, phenomenal success?

Firstly, it should be noted that The Lost Symbol has incorporated all the elements that so transfixed readers in The Da Vinci Code: a complex, mystifying plot (with the reader set quite as many challenges as the protagonist); breathless, helter-skelter pace (James Patterson's patented technique of keeping readers hooked by ending chapters with a tantalisingly unresolved situation is very much part of Dan Brown’s armoury). And, of course, the winning central character, resourceful symbologist Robert Langdon, is back, risking his life to crack a dangerous mystery involving the Freemasons (replacing the controversial trappings of the Catholic Church and homicidal monks of the last book). And while Dan Brown will never win any prizes for literary elegance, his prose is always succinctly at the service of delivering a thoroughly involving thriller narrative in vividly evoked locales (here, Washington DC, colourfully conjured).

Robert Langdon flies to Washington after an urgent invitation to speak in the Capitol building. The invitation appears to have come from a friend with copper-bottomed Masonic connections, Peter Solomon. But Langdon has been tricked: Solomon has, in fact, been kidnapped, and (echoing the grisly opening of the last book) a macabre mutilation plunges Langdon into a tortuous quest. His friend’s severed hand lies in the Capitol building, positioned to point to a George Washington portrait that shows the father of his country as a pagan deity. The ruthless criminal nemesis here is another terrifying figure in Brown’s gallery of grotesques: Mal’akh, a powerfully built eunuch with a body festooned with tattoos. Mal’akh is seeking a Masonic pyramid that possesses a formidable supernatural power, and a pulse-pounding hunt is afoot, with Langdon stalled rather than aided by the CIA.

Caveats are pointless here; Dan Brown, comfortably the world’s most successful author, is utterly review-proof. And there's no arguing with the fact that he has his finger on the pulse of the modern thriller reader, furnishing the mechanics of the blockbuster adventure with energy and invention. Like its predecessor, The Lost Symbol will unquestionably be--in fact, already is--a publishing phenomenon. --Barry Forshaw

Review
As engaging a hero as you could wish for...A narrative that can grip you like a vice --Mail on Sunday

Unputdownable...Gripping...Jaw-dropping...The blockbuster read of the year. --News of the World

You'll devour this latest offering - it's been well worth the wait. --The Sun

So compelling that several times I came close to a cardiac arrest...The Lost Symbol is as perfectly constructed as the Washington architecture it escorts us around. --Sunday Express

With best-seller status never in doubt, Brown has written another page-turner...A gripping read --BBC News

From the Publisher
The Lost Symbol is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's No. 1 international phenomenon with 81 million copies in print worldwide and the UK's biggest selling paperback novel of all time, and it will once again feature Dan Brown's unforgettable protagonist, Robert Langdon. This book's narrative takes place in a 12-hour period, and from the first page, Dan's readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape.The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown's prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book.

'This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey', says Dan Brown himself. 'Weaving five years of research into the story's 12-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine'.

Customer Reviews

Good but a bit the same as Da Vinci
I could not wait to get into this book, but... This is no Da Vinci Code. The structure is very similar to the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Like other reviewers I felt at times I was getting a lecture in history that seemed not to fit in the place it was put in the book.

Nevertheless it was enjoyable, the information in relation to the Masons and D.C. was fascinating and the plot was good with a good twist. I am still a big fan and would get the next book without hesitation. That said I was a little disappointed after the Da Vinci code, although that was a very hard act to follow.

Rather Predictible
I can understand why this book has received varied reviews - anything from "it's an unputdownable classic" to "what a load of tosh."

I fall somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed it but towards the end it dragged and the unravelling of the lost symbol was hugely disappointing as all Dan Brown books seem to be. It's almost is if the author is pulling back from producing something ground shattering because 1/he runs out of ideas and 2/ is afraid to take the book out of its believable past. Brown wants us to believe in his symbolism, but he stretches the point.

Firstly let's take the positive points:

1/ It is a good read. The early chapters rattle past
2/ Much of what occurs is intriguing. On more than one occasion I stopped reading to look up information and claims on the internet
3/ There is plenty of action

Now to the negatives which sadly outweigh the positives.

1/ The characters have become wooden. I no longer care what happens to Robert Langdon and when it looked as if he had been drowned I was quietly pleased.
2/ Much of the action is contrived and ridiculous
3/ The "baddie" is a typical Brown character that we have seen so many times in his previous books
4/ Brown seems to have run out of ideas - just forcing into us numeorus codes
5/ He has an annoying ability to end every chapter as a cliffhanger with pompous phrases leading us to believe that a stunning revelation is about to be uncovered.
6/ The stunning revelations never come leading to a feeling of so what.
7/ The action is, as with all of his books, very difficult to visualise.
8/ The plot twists and turns and the whole thing becomes very dull towards the end where one of the main characters acts as if nothing has happened despite the fact his son has been killed and he has had a hand chopped off (a fact he seemingly ignores as being pretty irrelevant).

Brown seems scared to geniuinely give is a catyclismic novel, preferring to lead us on, promising much but delivering relatively little. For the first half of this novel I was intrigued but it then got rather dull and predictible.

A Lecture in Tedium by Mr Brown
A brief warning from me before you undertake the mammoth task of reading the lastest saga.

The pace of the book is at such a tediously dull pace that you have to fight the urge from halfway through to skip pages or speed read in the hope that something of interest happens. I must admit towards the end of this oversized 'textbook' I could resist the urge no more.

The big reveal moments of the supposed twists in the tale are so obvious that they are already a huge let down before you even finish the chapter.

And talking of chapters is there any need for 133 of them plus a prologue and epilogue. This is certainly written more like a screenplay with every thought going into the inevitable transfer to film and the even bigger pay day for Mr Brown.

If you want to be Lectured in irrelevant subjects by very weak characters, over a extremely thin plotline then this is the book for you. Otherwise I would save your pennies and wait for a true page turner to be released instead.

A very big thumbs down from me.