The Lost Symbol

"The Lost Symbol" is the most recent of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books, and it suffers similar problems to his previous two, "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code": somewhat bizarre pacing, two-dimensional characters, and the big one, Brown's apparent constant need to pontificate and to show how bloody smart he is, which gets annoying fast. There also the very good possibility that the veracity of what he says is doubtful (there's a reason why the TV Tropes page for making an error that anyone who knows anything about the field you made the error in is called "Dan Browning"), but that's excusable because I found myself taken up on the thrill ride enough that I didn't really care how accurate what he says about the Masons, the Bible, and Noetic Science is.
The plot of "The Lost Symbol" has Robert Langdon being called to Washington by a man claiming to be the assistant of Peter Solomon, a friend and mentor of Langdon's who manages to Smithsonian museums and also happens to be a high-level Mason. It's only when he arrives in DC that Langdon discovers that the man he talked to was not who he said he was: he's a mysterious psychopath who has kidnapped Solomon and wants Langdon to find for him an ancient treasure hidden by the Masons that could revolutionize everything.
The rest of the novel is Langdon trying to figure out clues to the Ancient Mysteries that the mysteriously evil Mal'akh desires. Joining him is Peter's sister Katherine, a physicist exploring something called Noetic Science, which basically postulates that the human mind can shape the world around it. There's also the CIA, who also want to find Mal'akh for reasons they refuse to explain, and who may have an agenda all of their own.
The book is a fast paced and fun read, and most of the puzzles are fun to figure out. I also like that at least once Brown is self-deprecating enough to have Langdon figure one out based on a "mediocre novel" he once read. Believability wise, it's not that out there--everything seems to be things that could theoretically happen. The ubiquity of Mal'akh is a little weird, that he would be able to have set up what he does in comparatively little time, but that's my only gripe vis a vis the plot.
However, this book also suffers what the two previous Langdon books did, to a certain extent at least. The plot is often disregarded in order for a character to pontificate about the Masons, Noetic science (which is particularly aggravating, because it pretty much boils down to "the human mind can change the world around it," and it gets old pretty quickly), and how the ancient works of various religions supposedly reference modern-day science. At least Langdon isn't the only one doing it, but that just makes whoever does do it appear to be an annoying and smug character, which in turn made me not really like a lot of the characters. There isn't that much different between them, at least for the good guys, and that made it pretty hard to care about any of them. Similarly to the constant reiteration about Noetic Science, langdon's constant whining about how the Ancient Mysteries are not real and just a legend gets annoying fast. Mal'akh is so evil it's hard to take him seriously, especially because he's covered in tattoos and more often than not wears only loincloths and robes. it's just silly. I liked that katherine wasn;t the romantic lead, but really she's just a more impulsive and female version of Langdon.
All in all, an entertaining read but I have no real desire to read it ever again. Check it out of the library and read it if you want to just enjoy a fun romp, but I wouldn't suggest buying it unless you find it cheap in a used book store or the like.