Author: Dan Brown
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Series: Robert Langdon #3
Genre: Mystery, Fact fiction, Crime, Thriller
Pages: 509                   
ISBN NO.: 9780593054277
Publisher: Bantam Press
Preceded By: The Da Vinci Code
Followed By: Inferno

Summary

Famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon answers an unexpected summons to appear at the U.S. Capitol Building. His planned lecture is interrupted when a disturbing object—artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes in the find an ancient invitation into a lost world of esoteric, potentially dangerous wisdom. When his mentor Peter Solomon—a longstanding Mason and beloved philanthropist—is kidnapped, Langdon realizes that the only way to save Solomon is to accept the mystical invitation and plunge headlong into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and one inconceivable truth . . . all under the watchful eye of Dan Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. 

Review

I would like to begin with a warning that this book is indeed a lengthy read! I love Dan Brown’s books but sadly this one was way too predictable. First of all as soon as Langdon got a call from his friend’s guy it was pretty obvious that someone’s playing around (something like Inferno) and also when Mal’akh repeatedly refers to Peter Solomon’s son, blaming him for his death and all, clearly gives the idea that Mal’akh was indeed Zachary Solomon. The last hundred pages were a real pain! I wish I wouldn’t have read them cause it was just a waste of time! Who cares wtf was the lost symbol after reading 400 pages and then realising that it’s just a word or whatever!

I wanted to rate this book 2-stars but the knowledge of Noetic Science and also bits about Masons earned this book an extra star from me! Read it if you want to complete the Robert Langdon Series but if you don’t care about the series then my advice would be to leave it unread.

Read this review on Goodreads here.

Other Stuff

Opening Line: “The secret is how to die.”

Highlights: Noetic Science

Low-lights: The Lost Symbol (pun intended)

Memorable Quote:

“Don’t show it and don’t panic. Do like the ducks; on the surface stay calm, and below it paddle like hell”

Memorable Paragraph:

“He thought about science, about faith, about man. he thought about how every culture, in every country, in every time, had always shared one thing. We all had the Creator. We used different names, different faces, and different prayers, but God was the universal constant for man. God was the symbol we all shared…the symbol of all the mysteries of life that we could not understand. The ancients had praised God as a symbol of our limitless human potential, but that ancient symbol had been lost over time. Until now.” 

Final Thoughts: Could have been a lot better!