Story

Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, is invited to give a lecture at the US Capitol by

a friend and a freemason Peter Solomon and is asked to bring a package which Peter had
entrusted Robert years ago. But reaching the Capitol he finds that he has been tricked by
Peters kidnapper who left Peters tattooed hand in the Capitol Rotunda. He then later
contacts Robert and charges him with finding an ancient pyramid or else he will kill
Peter. Langdon then meets Sato, the director of CIAs Office of Security. Together they
find a pyramid with a missing top and some words inscribed on it. Sato, suspicious of the
Langdons bag asks the security for its x-ray. Surprised to find a small pyramid that
seemed to exactly fit the top of the other pyramid, Sato decides to take Langdon in her
custody. But soon the architect of Capitol and a freemason, Warren Bellamy, fights off
and escapes with Langdon.
Malakh, the kidnapper of Peter, is also a freemason who cunningly enters the
organization to know about the ancient mysteries which he believes only Langdon can
reveal in exchange for Peters life. The story continues as Langdon unlocks the code on
pyramid. In between Malakh destroys Katherine Solomons (Peter Solomons sister)
laboratory who was working on Noetic Science experiments. Malakh is also chased by
CIA as it believes that he is an issue of national security.
Malakh smartly fools Langdon and Katherine and gets them to reveal the code on the
pyramid with the promise of setting them free but later takes off his words. He then flees
to Temple Room in the House of Temples along with Peter. Fortunately Langdon and
Katherine both are rescued by CIA from where they go to the Temple House. Malakh
threatens Peter to give him The Lost Word or else he will release a video showing famous
government officials doing ancient masonic rituals. Peter lies to Malakh about the
symbol and Malakh believing him to be true draws that symbol on his shaved head. He
then orders Peter to sacrifice him with the heavenly knife as he believes it will transform
him into demonic spirit and he will lead the evil forces but instead Peter breaks the knife.
The CIA helicopter arrives above the Temple House and beams an EMP into the building
which makes the shattered glass fall on Malakhs body and preventing the laptop from
releasing the controversial video on the web which eventually leads to failure of
Malakhs plan.
Peter tells Langdon that the symbol that Malakh drew on his scalp was not the true one.
He decides to show Langdon the true Lost Symbol and takes him to a room on top of
Washington Monument where he tells Langdon that The Lost Word is actually a
Christian Bible. Langdon then notices that the words on the small aluminum capstone on
top of the building spelled Laus Deo and the same words were inscribed on top of the
stone pyramid which meant that the aluminum capstone was the true ancient masonic
pyramid. Peter then tells Langdon that the Bible, like most other religious texts, holds the
key of transformation of human onto God and its true meaning has been misunderstood
for centuries. The masons have buried it as it will lead to the ultimate enlightenment of
human race and the world as we know it when people will start realizing the real secret
behind the Bible.

Review

The Lost Symbol is a good read for anyone interested in mystery but as compared to
Dan Browns previous novels, this book is actually a letdown. Dan Brown follows the
same plot as he has in his previous novels i.e. Robert Langdon is summoned to solve a
mystery where he meets the victims relative, usually a super-intelligent girl and then
they together decipher code after codes and at the end the result always turns out to be
unexpected. The story is actually unputdownable and a page turner. But Dan Brown uses
too much details about his stories as if he has just copied and pasted the text from
Wikipedia. He would even cite the smallest of details like which turn they took, which
street they walked across that fills many pages of the novel or else the novel could have
been shorter. But one thing I like most about Dan Brown is that what he writes, he writes
real. All the organisations, paintings, artworks in the novel exist. Dan Brown has
rehabilitated America as one of the worlds most mysterious capitals. The book in overall
has a speedy start but after 2/3
rd
of the story it becomes a little slow and the reader would
want to get to the point what happened next. Like the other two, this one is also filled
with many mysteries and twists & turns and gives us insight of the Americas great lost
history. It also contains the message that God lies within man and by using his minds
potential man can transform into God.