This book reads like a TV-hit “24” script. Robert Langdon is the hero of the movie, instead of the Jack Bower. Of course, Langdon is a Symbologist Professor specialized in deciphering ancient mysteries and symbols, and etc. The novel is a real page-turner and having the a 7-day expiration period imposed by the ebook library help speed up my reading. I finished it just within a day of expiration, thanks to the recent plane trips.

The heavily tattooed villain, named Ma’lakh left a severed hand (Langdon’s friend’s – Peter Solomon’s) in the Capitol Hill building and tricked Langdon on a goose chase to find and save his friend. Peter’s sister, Katherine Solomon, a Noetic scientist also got involved and almost got herself killed.

The story involved CIA’s directors and many prominent characters who tried to cover up their Masonic society’s rituals – doesn’t seem all that important to deem a national security issue to me. But I got to understand a bit of history and customs surrounding the Masonic society.

Also, I learned a different angle of interpreting the Bible, like considering human minds as “gods” and the human minds of are capable of affecting matters – this is no different than Chinese Qigong. It’s a little anti-climatic to see that at the end the villain fails to find the Lost Word. And the Word is nothing but the ancient wisdom from the Bible, Koran, and etc. Is it really worth killing people over it? And the surprise twist that the villain turns out to be the son of Peter Solomon doesn’t seem very believable to me.

The book was fairly easy to read especially on my Sony Ebook reader, which is more conducive to sequential reading of novels like this. Also the detailed description of the many monuments and buildings in Washington DC makes me want to go visit there really soon. I hope they alter the plot for the movie edition to make the buildings stand out more and the motivations behind the characters more interesting and believable, if they ever make it into a movie.