#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • An intelligent, lightning-paced thriller set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., with surprises at every turn. “Impossible to put down.... Another mind-blowing Robert Langdon story.” —The New York Times Famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon answers an unexpected summons to appear at the U.S. Capitol Building. His plans are interrupted when a disturbing object—artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes in the find an ancient invitation into a lost world of esoteric, potentially dangerous wisdom. When his mentor Peter Solomon—a long-standing Mason and beloved philanthropist—is kidnapped, Langdon realizes that the only way to save Solomon is to accept the mystical invitation and plunge headlong into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and one inconceivable truth ... all under the watchful eye of Dan Brown's most terrifying villain to date.
Following on from the phenomenally successful The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, Dan Brown's next thriller, The Lost Symbol, is set to feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon once again, whose exploits will take him inside the secret societies of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians - replacing Opus Dei and the Illuminati of previous adventures. Decoding the Lost Symbol by bestselling author Simon Cox is an A to Z guide featuring illustrations and colour photographs to illuminate the text. It will provide all the answers to the cryptic mysteries in Dan Brown's highly anticipated new novel. Simon Cox is the author of two other guides to Dan Brown's novels, Cracking the Da Vinci Code and Illuminating Angels and Demons, and Decoding the Lost Symbol is hotly tipped to repeat their huge success. Cracking the Da Vinci Code has now been translated into over 15 languages and has sold over two million copies worldwide, while a spin-off DVD of the same name has sold one and a half million copies. No wonder, then, that Decoding the Lost Symbol is almost as eagerly awaited as Dan Brown's next novel itself. Simon Cox's guide will be the essential and most authoritative companion to The Lost Symbol, giving vital background information and shedding new light on the many mysteries at the heart of Dan Brown's new story.
#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • "Dr. Langdon is once again wrapped up in a global-scale event that could have massive ramifications on the world’s religions. As he does in all his novels, Brown[‘s] extensive research on art, architecture, and history informs every page." —Entertainment Weekly Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening’s host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist, and one of Langdon’s first students. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch’s precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced to flee. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch. They travel to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch’s secret. Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade an enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain’s Royal Palace. They uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch’s shocking discovery…and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us.
#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. “One hell of a good read.... As close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster.” —USA Today “A diverting thriller.” —Entertainment Weekly With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno. Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again, combining classical Italian art, history, and literature with cutting-edge science in this captivating thriller.
With his blockbuster bestselling novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, author Dan Brown introduced readers to a world of symbols and secret societies, men of God warring with men of Science, and the adventures of brilliant Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. With The Lost Symbol, Brown has woven a complex web of intrigue, religion, technology, and great historical figures guiding the destiny of mankind. Inside, you will find the truth behind The Lost Symbol’s history and myths, such as: • The strength and influence of the enigmatic Freemasons throughout history • The founding fathers of the United States—and their possible connections with secret organizations such as the Illuminati and the Templars • The meaning within the symbols of the Great Seal of the United States • The identity of the Masonic "Great Architect of the Universe" • And so much more! For armchair historians and devoted fans—or those who want to know where the line is drawn between fact and fiction—this is the ultimate guide to the mysteries, symbolism, and historical contexts of Dan Brown’s thrilling novel. Includes 8 pages of photos and illustrations!
The murder of a world-famous physicist raises fears that the Illuminati are operating again after centuries of silence, and religion professor Robert Langdon is called in to assist with the case.
Rich in world history and political power, veiled in secrecy, and rife with rituals and arcane symbols -- from art and architecture to the images that adorn our currency -- the Freemasons arose from ambiguous origins centuries ago to play a major role in drafting the initial documents of the United States, and even in constructing the intricate landscape of Washington, D.C., itself a virtual mystery by design. These puzzles lay the foundation for Dan Brown's serpentine thriller, The Lost Symbol, and also raise provocative questions. Why do some Masonic symbols remain obscured, while others are hidden in plain sight? Which presidents were the embodiments of Masonic ideals? What is the significance of the construction of the Library of Congress, Washington National Cathedral, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and the physical layout of Washington, D.C.'s roadways and cul-de-sacs? And to what secretive end do they all lead? Now millions of curious fans can follow Robert Langdon step-by-step, and discover for themselves the answers to the absorbing conundrums posed by The Lost Symbol in this comprehensive, fully illustrated, and intricately detailed tour of the arcana of Washington, D.C. It takes readers through the enigmatic codes, captivating trivia, unfathomable riddles, intriguing records, historic maps, ciphers, and conspiracies of the phenomenal bestseller. What's more, it reveals the fascinating details of a world of unknown locales, mysticism, intrigue, and secret societies -- all of which lie in the shadow of The Lost Symbol.
“An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.
A novel account of the evolution of language and the cognitive capacities on which language depends. In From Signal to Symbol, Ronald Planer and Kim Sterelny propose a novel theory of language: that modern language is the product of a long series of increasingly rich protolanguages evolving over the last two million years. Arguing that language and cognition coevolved, they give a central role to archaeological evidence and attempt to infer cognitive capacities on the basis of that evidence, which they link in turn to communicative capacities. Countering other accounts, which move directly from archaeological traces to language, Planer and Sterelny show that rudimentary forms of many of the elements on which language depends can be found in the great apes and were part of the equipment of the earliest species in our lineage. After outlining the constraints a theory of the evolution of language should satisfy and filling in the details of their model, they take up the evolution of words, composite utterances, and hierarchical structure. They consider the transition from a predominantly gestural to a predominantly vocal form of language and discuss the economic and social factors that led to language. Finally, they evaluate their theory in terms of the constraints previously laid out.
For the first time, all four Robert Langdon thrillers are now available as one ebook bundle. If you haven't read a Dan Brown yet, now's the time. ANGELS AND DEMONS The countdown to oblivion has started - who will stop the clock? A famous scientist is found dead, a mysterious symbol burned into his skin. Many miles away in Rome, the world’s cardinals gather to elect a new pope. Little do they know that beneath their feet, a vast bomb has started to tick. Professor Robert Langdon must work out the link between these two seemingly unconnected events if he is stop the Vatican being blown sky high. THE DA VINCI CODE The race to uncover the oldest secret has begun . . . An eminent man is brutally murdered in the world’s most famous museum. Around his body are a ring of codes, hastily drawn in blood. He died to protect a long-kept secret which Professor Robert Langdon must now uncover. It will be a race against time to decipher this final message. Can he get there before the killers do? THE LOST SYMBOL To save a life, you must first crack the code . . . A mysterious invitation brings Professor Robert Langdon to Washington DC. But all is not as it seems in this powerful city. An ancient organization plans to reassert itself. And he is the only man standing in its way. If he is to prevent a terrible plan being executed, Langdon must decipher a series of increasingly bloody clues. But first he has to make sure he stays alive . . . INFERNO The world is in danger - who will save it? Robert Langdon wakes up in a Florence hospital with no clue how he got there. But another attack on his life makes it very clear – someone wants him dead. And fast. To survive, Langdon must work out who it is. And then he must answer the next question – why?
