Back with a vengeance....

It's about darned time that A Reader's Respite got back to the business of reviewing books around here. Enough of this slacking off.

We thought we come back with a bang and give you the low-down on Dan Brown's big sequel to The DaVinci Code (love it or hate it, it was a popular book and we mused a bit about it here), this one titled The Lost Symbol.



Did it live up to all the hype? Well, yes and no. The DaVinci Code was a best seller because, fact or fiction, readers liked all the secrets and revelations contained in the plot. Naturally, if Dan Brown wanted to replicate his original success, it was necessary for The Lost Symbol to use the same formula.

This time, instead of focusing on the Catholic Church and Mary Magdalene, Brown chose to direct his energies towards the Freemasons, a veritable treasure trove of symbolism, myth and conspiracy theories.

This is the Freemason's symbol, for all the uneducated masses out there. You'll also find this symbol on all of our currency, hidden inside your passport, and even imprinted on the front door of the White House. Sheesh, you didn't know that?

And because so many Freemason symbols are to be found lurking around our nation's capitol, Washington D.C. is the setting this time.

If running around Washington D.C. looking for an ancient treasure rings a vague bell in the back of your mind, you're not alone. We couldn't help but envision Nicholas Cage in National Treasure throughout the book.

Perhaps Ben Gates and Robert Langdon could join forces in the next installment to rid D.C. of all evil (politicians, that is).

Any-hoo, if you liked The DaVinci Code, you may enjoy this read as well. But beware that much of the novelty of protagonist Robert Langdon's revelations have worn off. Instead of riveting you to the page, this time around you may feel a bit tired of the lecturing Harvard professor.

But despite pages of formulaic plot and dialogue, we found a few choice spots of brilliance. We'll leave you with one of them:

From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to American politics - the name Jesus had been hijacked as an ally in all kinds of power struggles. Since the beginning of time, the ignorant had always screamed the loudest, herding the unsuspecting masses and forcing them to do their bidding. They defended their worldly desires by citing Scripture they did not understand. They celebrated their intolerance as proof of their convictions. Now, after all these years, mankind had finally managed to utterly erode everything that had once been so beautiful about Jesus.

The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

You're looking for the giveaway for this one, aren't you? A Reader's Respite would glady give away our copy of this one were it not ensconsed on our Amazonian Devil Device (ie, Kindle). But alas, we haven't figured out a way to seperate the novel from the device yet.