The main character, The Wanderer, is an “alien” in human terms, but a “soul” in her species` terms. The alien’s job is to plant themselves into a captured human body, and eliminate all other humans. The alien species main goal is to make life on Earth simple.  In the aliens mind one should not have to feud, pay for gas, clothes, or groceries, and should be able to be happy.

While inside a human, the aliens purpose is to gather the whereabouts of other “wild humans,” and to steal secrets from the host. The Wanderers host is named Melanie and even in her past life without an alien inside her head, Melanie is stubborn and refuses to give anything away.

Melanie fills Wanda’s head with visions of her past life, her family, and detailed memories of the man she once loved who is now in hiding.  Born to be enemies, Melanie and Wanda come to discover one of the most odd friendships ever put onto paper.  The hunter and the hunted.

Although most have heard of Stephanie Meyer as the author of the “Twilight” series,  Meyer steps away from the mushy love story – packed with blood sucking vampires and corny lines that are used much too frequently by students – for a little while.  While “The Host” is unlike “Twilight”, Meyer continues with her powerful words that seem to suck you into the story, and keeps the reader reading all night.

But for those who have never experienced a Meyer story, “The Host” should be the first. The story is unlike any other of its kind, and differs from any other on the book market.  With the strange connection the reader should attain with the characters, it will make the experience of reading “The Host” worthwhile.  Meyer is claimed to be a phenomenal writer and her words keep one longing for more.

Set over a twelve hour period in present day Washington, D.C., the novel’s plot bases around Langdon’s search for his captured colleague, Peter Solomon.  The resulting journey takes the reader on an epic thrill-ride through some of the most famous locations in Washington.

The Lost Symbol is one of those books that one cannot put down once one has begun to read. There is interesting plot twist after interesting plot twist that will leave you losing sleep but gaining adventure and thrills.

Brown does an excellent job of developing characters in the book, but they do not feel overdeveloped.  The background of the main villain, Mal’akh, is explained well, with the end result of a brilliantly described character jumping off the page.

He does not devote too much time to the main character, Robert Langdon, who has already been developed in the two previous books in this series,

The weak points of the book outweigh the strong points.  After you catch your breathe from the incredible story you have just been told, it starts to sink in that The Lost Symbol is a carbon copy of the other two books in the series.

From the unexpected call to action in the early morning to the mysterious and creepy bad guy, almost every main plot point can be found in a different form in the previous two books.

Another weak point of the book is that some of the plot points are simply too unbelievable to accept.  It seems as though everything just happens to fall into place for RobertLangdon along his journey.

The Lost Symbol is definitely a worthwhile and interesting read.  However, if you are a hardcore Dan Brown fan, don’t expect it to live up to The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons.