Product Description

Book with masonic content

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2 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

Interesting but very Staid
The Lost Symbol takes a long time to get going and although there are some interesting observations around The Masons and Washington's history, the plot really does creek quite badly. It's been a while since I read Dan Brown's other books but I do not remember if the constant use of highlighting people's thoughts throughout the narrative was something he used before but it was very noticeable and irritating here. The 'twist' (without giving it away) was odd as the early part of the book misleads in this regard. The Lost Symbol did keep my interest until the end but left me feeling mainly deflated in terms of expectation.

What in the World!?!
What in the World!! Repetitive, clunking dialogue undermine what could have been an interesting plot. The symbolic device of the pyramid harks unfortunately to the Stonehenge of Spinal Tap in its scale and lack of drama.

I know that lots have written about the literary skills of Dan Brown; better than mine, of course, but for a major best selling author it appall's and annoy's in equal measure. The way that Robert Langdon and other charachters think through the solutions to various puzzles is toe curling in the slightly dense way they arrive at these earth shattering revelations....you feel that these so say knowledgeable charachters have incredibly slow brains, how Dan Brown manages to do this is the true mystery!

I think that the finale of the story whereby the 'big' threat is that a few Senators would be exposed doing odd Masonic rituals and that this would be cataclysmic is absurd,,,,,who would be even vaguely interested. The villain Mal'akh is also an oddd one, do we really buy that this nutcase could really hide his extensive tattoo's beneath some makeup and a wig-surely the makeup would come off when undergoing the initiation into the Freemasons.

The height of absurdity comes in the final scenes where Solomon who has recently had his hand cut off and various other traumas and Langdon who had recently 'drowned' in breatheable water, calmly travel all over Washington discussing the hidden big secret of the Masons......a bible hidden in the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. Absolutely bonkers tosh!

One of the worse books I have read
I'm kicking myself for buying this book. It contains nothing but loads of mini history lessons about how certain words came to use and also a cetain make of phone is constantly plugged near the start. In between all this is a luke warm plot that makes you want to fall alseep.

I thought the da vinci code was bad but this has beat it by miles