Robert Langdon's arcane knowledge saves society again! Not as good as The Da Vinci Code, but still a thrilling read. A few twists and turns I didn't expect and some that I knew were going to happen.

I think this book was very good, but was not as good as i expected. The best part was when Robert Langdon dies. I really liked the way Dan Brown threw his death in, especially at that point in the story. It was also clever how he was actually alive. I also liked how Peters son was actually the villian. I have read all four of Dan Brown's books, and this was the first one that I didnt figure out until the end. That is, i didnt figure out the who the villian was. I figured the Washington monument out really early though; well i had a hunch, and it turned out to be right. I hope they dont try to destroy this book like they did with his last two: making a movie that doesnt match up with the book. Angels and Demons was as much of an abomination of the book as the that crappy dune movie from the eighties.

The Lost Symbol might as well have been called The Albrecht Durer Code (though that doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well). It follows the same tired and true formula that made Dan Brown filthy rich with his previous thriller---including many of the same flaws, but often even worse.

There are too many such flaws to go into specifics, so I'll just discuss a few in general terms. For starters, the plot is surprisingly predictable, despite some glaring holes calculated to accommodate what are supposed to be shocking twists. Also, despite having obviously done loads of research, Brown sometimes gets his facts wrong---whether he deliberately distorts them to suit his purposes and hopes the reader won't notice, or whether he just flubbed it, it's difficult to tell.

Then there is the ridiculous pseudo-scientific premise, which is far more wildly implausible than that of The Da Vinci Code. Brown basically buys into, and propagandizes for, a New Age interpretation of every brand of mysticism in history he comes across---faith healing, astral projection, the Deepak Chopra interpretation of quantum mechanics, and on and on. But he claims (quite falsely, I assure you) that these are not New Age ideas, but real cutting-edge science.

If you can somehow manage to suspend your disbelief about all this nonsense, there are a few exciting scenes buried in the middle of the novel, and some interesting characters (too many of whom meet untimely ends). But the ending returns to bad Platonic and other varieties of mystical philosophy, and is pretty much just disappointing. The denouement goes on way too long, and the sorts of "scientific" experiments Brown describes as supposedly proving all this are laughably bad (rather than "conclusive and irrefutable" as he claims they would be), as are the arguments put forth to show that the Bible (as well as the scriptures of other religions) contain scientific wisdom beyond modern understanding (but that "our science may one day catch up with the wisdom of the ancients").

Then there is the theme, namely that the truth (or at least Dan Brown's incredibly misguided version of it) must be kept hidden from the masses by a self-appointed elite. This is perhaps the most offensive element of the book. But most of Brown's readers are probably not the sort who think too much about the novel's philosophical underpinnings, so Brown can spill his guts about it and not worry too much about those masses (who comprise his readership) catching on.

Bottom line: if you liked The Da Vinci Code, you will probably enjoy this; if not, don't bother. ( )

This is "The Da Vinci Code" except it's set in Washington, D.C. ( )

I thought this book wasn't as good as the previous Robert Langdon books. I agree with other reviews that the book could've been edited shorter. The parts after the end of the action just weren't as interesting. Also, Langdon's skepticism got a bit annoying towards the end because it was repeated too often. I did enjoy the majority of the book even though it followed the same kind of basic outline as the previous books. ( )