Product Description

WHAT WAS LOST WILL BE FOUND…

Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned at the last minute to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object – gruesomely encoded with five symbols – is discovered at the epicentre of the Rotunda. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon’s revered mentor, Peter Solomon – philanthropist and prominent mason – is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend’s life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him.

Langdon finds himself quickly swept behind the facade of America’s most historic city into the unseen chambers, temples and tunnels which exist there. All that was familiar is transformed into a shadowy, clandestine world of an artfully concealed past in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth.

A brilliantly composed tapestry of veiled histories, arcane icons and enigmatic codes, The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced thriller that offers surprises at every turn. For, as Robert Langdon will discover, there is nothing more extraordinary or shocking than the secret which hides in plain sight…

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1 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

Entertaining - though not as good as Da Vinci Code
The Lost Symbol opens with Robert Langdon being called to Washington DC at short notice to deliver a speech. The request has come from his old friend, Peter Solomon, head of the Smithsonian Institution and also a high-ranking Mason. When Langdon gets to the Capitol Building, he quickly discovers that there is no event planned and that Solomon has not invited him. Instead he has been lured there because an unknown individual believes that Langdon can help him to unlock an "ancient portal" hidden in Washington DC. The first clue is delivered via a severed hand (Solomon's). In next to no time Langdon finds himself teaming up with Solomon's sister (a former romantic interest) frantically deceiphering clues in a bid to save his friend Peter, all the while on the run from the authorities - and also from a mysterious eunuch with a distinctive tatooed appearance who is desperate to discover the most closely guarded secrets of the Freemasons.

Whilst there are obvious similarities to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol focuses on new territory, specifically the world of Freemasons. Unfortunately, while interesting, the revelations lack the "wow" factor of The Da Vinci revelations. The Lost Symbol is still an enjoyable book, but it's definitely not as good as The Da Vinci Code. I'd put it more on a par with his earlier novels.

The book takes a while to find its momentum. The early chapters are cluttered with back story after back story. Also lots of "encyclopedia speak". Dan Brown has clearly done lots of research while writing this book, but do we need to be told ALL of it? Sometimes it felt more like I was reading excerpts from Wikipedia than a novel! The pace does pick up though, and Dan Brown is still the master of the hanging chapters that get you staying up late reading "just one more" - it's a long book, but you tear through it. You do need to be willing to ride with the (many) improbabilities, like the idea that Langdon could immediately identify the owner of a severed hand or that the CIA would let him help himself to criminal evidence or that he would totally forget that he was carrying a secret and vital box with him (until of course it was convenient for him to remember). The final chapters are also a let down: they drag out and the main twist is unlikely to come as a surprise.

Despite these flaws, most of The Lost Symbol moves at a good pace and kept me entertained throughout. Ultimately it delivers much what you would expect it to and if you've enjoyed previous novels by Dan Brown, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll enjoy this one too.

Desperate Dan
You would think that after all the millions of dollars that Dan Brown has earned in recent years, the one thing he could have afforded was to go on a writing course. But the simple fact is, he is no better a writer than he was when he produced Angels and Demons followed by The Da Vinci Code. The Lost Symbol is the third to feature Robert Langdon and it is in my opinion the weakest of the three, partly because it's just so familiar, so similar, so much like the other two. I am annoyed that I read it, because I could have read something a whole lot better from my 'to-be-read' pile. It's poorly written, the characters are uninteresting and engender no emotional attachment for the reader, and even the story isn't particularly interesting either - normally the one thing that Dan Brown can at least provide.

Reading the book was a bit like watching a film that was paused every few minutes while a lecturer pointed out historical details and intellectual significances to make sure the students understand what's going on. The irony of it all, though, is that despite the constant references to all this intellectual elitism, it insults the intelligence of even the average reader and calls into question the cognitive strengths of the author himself. I think he should stick to non-fiction, because the only areas in which he piqued my interest were - as usual - his mixing up of myth, legend and fact that gets the reader wondering if there could be some truth in his assertions. That was particularly true in The Da Vinci Code, and although he tried the same kind of approach in his new novel, it's a lot less controversial and won't get anywhere near as many tongues wagging as to any basis on fact or truth. The bottom line is that Dan Brown is not a very good writer of suspense mysteries or really any kind of fiction at all, and the only reason that this book will surely sell in huge volumes is a result of people buying it because everyone else is buying it. My advice, for those who haven't coughed up the readies yet, is don't bother, don't follow the herd, and read something better. It won't be hard to find.

Sadder news still, but no surprise at all, is the fact that The Lost Symbol is already at the development stage for another 'blockbuster' Hollywood film, although Hanks is unlikely to get his routine $25 million pay packet and there are rumours that Ron Howard might say 'Happy Days' for the first time in quite a while. The reasons for Hanks' paycut are two-fold: there's a recession out there somewhere, and even Columbia Pictures know this third instalment is nowhere near as good as the first (The Da Vinci Code) which has so far grossed over $750 million.

As for the book - give it a miss. Within the genre of mystery thrillers, there are so many better alternatives.

A rollercoaster of a novel...with some issues.
Like many, I reserved my copy of Dan Brown's long awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code back in March. Yesterday the book fell through my letterbox and I pounced on it and proceeded, I plead guilty, to race my way through it in under 24 hours. The book is fantastic, the plot is well developed in the main and Robert Langdon continues to exude his appeal as the bookish Professor of symbols. My criticism however, lies in the plot and Langdon's interaction with other characters.

The plot is markedly similar in feeling to the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons - I felt that in the demand for a new book, Brown has merely recycled some parts of his previous book and included them in this one. Don't get me wrong, the recycled goods are sparkly and new, but readers who know The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons well will be aware that they'll have the occasional flashback to the older book whilst reading the new one. Brown knows his symbols and uses them to great effect in this novel, but there's just something that doesn't entirely fit. By the end of the book, Washington D.C feels almost like the Vatican. The basic premise, as it was in The Da Vinci Code, was that all is not as it seems. Newton and his band of brothers created symbols implanted everywhere and those with the relevant skill set can treat them and explore the knowledge within. A great plot that leaves the reader exhilarated throughout the book, the first time they read it.

The beauty of The Da Vinci Code was that it was really very plausible. Millions of us flocked to the internet to look up everything in it that caught our interest. The thrill was amplified by the fact that a lot turned out to be true, if Google is accurate. However, the fact that the same situation is true in The Lost Symbol left me feeling as though the situation should have been changed, the book written differently - a case of been there and done that. The book reads, in large sections, like a tourist map of Washington, with Langdon and his friends as the guides. Langdon, with one encouraging word from another character, launches into huge drawn out explanations of know-it-all fact, leading the reader to feel as though they are in the Lecture Theatre being taught. This feeling was minimised in The Da Vinci Code, to the extent that one can read it over and over without feeling as though they're learning. The same cannot be said of The Lost Symbol - it's a very large lecture, an enjoyable one though.

The refreshing mix of fact and fiction left me feeling refreshed and exhilarated for The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, but in The Lost Symbol, I feel that the amount of fact in the novel, and therefore the amount of Langdon's explanations, was too much, and so it blurred the lines between fact and fiction and almost became a sequence of facts, linked together by Langdon's narrative and the situations created in the plot. One wonders if Dan Brown is a fiction writer or someone who has an excellent researcher whom he has relied upon a little heavily in writing this book. Obviously, following the sheer success of the previous book, there must have been a large amount of pressure to make it bigger, better, more complex. He's done this, but sadly, the narrative is strained by all the factual explanations to the point where the reader is aware they're being lectured.

The other criticism I had of the book is Langdon's character, particularly his character's involvement in the plot. I get the feeling that our dear Professor Langdon may fall prey to what I call the Jessica Fletcher Syndrome. Where a character is serialised, it can get to the point where the reader sees the writer struggling to come up with innovative situations to place their character in and so the plots get more and more outlandish until CIA Directors are taking a Symbols expert and sending him into buildings with CIA Agents, whilst naming him "one of the team". The other worrying claim was that Langdon was the "only person in the world" with the expertise to solve the puzzle - what happens if he dies...will the age old Masonic groups crumble, will government cease to work? In Dan Brown's world, it seems they would, which is troublesome. In previous novels, what made Langdon so good was that he felt as though he was out of his depth, relying on his instincts and education. In this book, he's a lot more of a celebrity, complete with being recognised. Much like the famous J.B. Fletcher. The same happened in Murder, She Wrote...wherever Jessica went, murder followed in increasingly bizarre ways. Given Brown's recent statement that he has around 23 more ideas for books involving Langdon, it seem's we may be subjected to the diluting of a great character over the next couple of decades. The great test of a writer, I believe, is that he or she knows when to stop writing a character; knows when all they set out to do has been accomplished and that playing with the character further would result in the degradation of it. I fear that Dan Brown will fall into this trap with Langdon.

Aside from those two issues, I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced with a great plot, although sometimes overly complex, and a good twist near the end. I read it non-stop and loved each moment of it, despite my misgivings. I would read it again, but ultimately felt that it was a bit forced. When reading The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, it felt natural and that they had been written with absolute devotion. With The Lost Symbol, I felt that it was more of an "I have to write another book" situation, rather than a "I'd really enjoy writing another one". I think long time Dan Brown fans will ultimately prefer the older novels such as Digital Fortress, Deception Point, Angels & Demons, and of course, the tour de force that is The Da Vinci Code.