The Lost Symbol

By: Dan Brown

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Lost Symbol, the stunning follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, is a masterstroke of storytelling - a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes and unseen truths...all under the watchful eye of a terrifying villain. Set within the unseen tunnels and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol. Within minutes of his arrival, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object - artfully encoded with five ancient symbols - is discovered in the Capitol Building. The object is an ancient invitation, meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. And when Langdon's mentor Peter Solomon - prominent Mason and philanthropist - is kidnapped, Langdon's only hope of saving Peter is to accept this invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon finds himself plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations...all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

The Lost Symbol is exactly what Dan Brown's fans have been waiting for...his most thrilling novel yet.

©2009 Dan Brown (P)2009 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

"[I]mpossible to put down....Mr. Brown was writing sensational visual scenarios long before his books became movie material. This time he again enlivens his story with amazing imagery....Thanks to him, picture postcards of the capital's most famous monuments will never be the same....In the end it is Mr. Brown's sweet optimism, even more than Langdon's sleuthing and explicating, that may amaze his readers most." ( The New York Times)
"Thrilling, entertaining....Robert Langdon goes for another roller-coaster ride - this time in a hunt for a Masonic treasure in Washington, D.C." ( Los Angeles Times)

In love with books again

I havent enjoyed a good book in quite a long time. I grabbed this just because it was on the Best Seller list. I had never read or watched the Davinci Code. I LOVED this book and I love Robert Langdon. I love the symbolism mixed with religion and Masonry. Since reading this book I went back and grabbed Angels n Demons which I enjoyed equally. Davinci Code and me have a date next weekend while on family vacation. I find the books very easy to read, without too much filler. I personally can live without the few times where Dan Brown crosses reality over to futuristic transportaion, fuels and weapons. I much prefer stories that teeter right on the edge of reality making me question the fine line of what is believeable. Overall though... a great book. PC

25 of 28 people found this review helpful

Excellent!

This was a great book. Very fast paced and full of interesting information. I thought that the first book would be a really hard book to top, but it really did a good job in following up the Di Vinci Code.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Preachy

Loved his other books, but this one...not so much...Long on detail...repeated over and over and over again just in case you missed it the first 10 times. Cookie cutter action...same old formula with different names and places. Very preachy...is he trying to start a new religion?

15 of 17 people found this review helpful

Just what should be expected from Dan Brown

This is just as entertaining as Dan Brown's other books. The scenario is typical of his writing.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

All over the place

I am finding this novel rather difficult to get into. It seems like a hodge podge of ideas with no coherant storyline. I'm just not caring about the characters, and I am bored by yet anotehr masochistic villain. The albino monk was enough from the first book.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

First Draft

As much as I wanted to like this one, it was not to be. As the story stumbled through I couldn't stop myself from thinking that somehow an unedited first draft of a Dan Brown novel had been bootlegged and released as a final product. I can only assume that the author has reached some sort of "untouchable" status with the publisher and was allowed to bypass any semblance of editorial assistance. Some of the material was so repetitive that on more than one occasion I was sure my ipod had skipped back to previous chapters. The story had potential but this book belies the greatest qualities of all other Dan Brown novels. If the reader cannot even begin to accept the plausibility of the book's premises and reconcile the revelation of interesting real world facts to creative fictional situations then we are left with nothing more than a screenplay barely worthy of a lost episode of MacGyver. I assume Ron Howard is sweating bullets wondering what he is supposed to do with this one. This will teach movie execs to read before they buy.
Great narration though!!

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Very disapointing ...

Facts are probably all correct, but so are those of an encyclopedia.
Rather boring/similar to Da Vinci story line with a very unsatisfying ending, to which I had to wrestle myself up to.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Contrived

I could not think of the proper way to express my reservations about this book. When talking to a friend of mine she said that she found the book to be contrived. I think that is an excellent way of expressing my critique. Typical of Dan Brown, there is a load of information, perhaps too much arcane information. However, that is the most interesting aspect of the book. I found myself being lectured way too often or as another friend said "speechifying". I was also troubled about the repetitive nature of some of the lecturing which talks place in the form of an explanation. I swear it is almost cut and past from one section of the book to another.

By the end of the book I was happy that it had finally finished and felt that the work to get through it was really not worth the effort.

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

Not his best

Although a big fan, I was not impressed with this read. Too much story for such a let down in the end.

13 of 16 people found this review helpful

Tries too much to be profound with each turn.

"A" reveals "B". "B" leads to "C". "C" then winds through "D" to end up at "E". Then, finally, FINALLY we arrive at "F". But...wait...wait...yup, sure enough, just as we thought, it turns out "F" reveals "G", which is now leading to "H"... (tiring, sooo tiring.)

It was fine with Davicnci, but I think it's time to move on to another Genre.

13 of 16 people found this review helpful