Best Book: Dan Brown, ‘The Lost Symbol’

BY BOB CARSKADON
Sports Editor
Astronauts never landed on the moon. Aliens crashed in Roswell, N. M. Nessie is real. Everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, even if it is obviously false, and Dan Brown comes through with a great one about one of the oldest and most widely known “secret” societies in the world – the Freemasons.
If you liked “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons,” then you will love “The Lost Symbol.”
The fiction novel has everything you could ask for: a smart, hunky main character, futuristic technologies, government secrets, suspense, twists and turns and a healthy dose of sexual tension.
Those who found the previous two novels starring Robert Langdon to be too anti-religious can find comfort in a story which does not undermine basic Christian beliefs.
“The Lost Symbol” actually leaves readers with a vague feeling of patriotism upon completion, as the story is a maze across Washington, D.C. Brown hits the highlights of the Capitol, while also giving a behind-the-scenes feel which will make any American want to make a pilgrimage the city on the Hudson.
“The Lost Symbol” is not ground-breaking. It is just fun to read.

Worst Book: Suzanne Collins, ‘Catching Fire’

BY HANNAH ROGERS
Entertainment Editor
“Catching Fire” is the sequel to the best-selling novel “The Hunger Games.” The novels take place in a future North America -now called Panem- where children are forced to fight in gladiator-like Hunger Games for entertainment.
“Catching Fire” follows the heroine Katniss Everdeen who, after surviving the events of the first novel, attempts to avoid further angering the government.
Writer Suzanne Collins spends the first act setting up a flat love triangle and recapping the previous book. The second act gets slightly more exciting, however it mainly feels like a repeat of the first book with a few details changed.
Collins adds new characters but fails to develop the old ones.
The plot is full of cliches. The writing deviates between intelligent and sublime.
The real problem with “Catching Fire” is the ending-a frustrating (not in a good way) cliffhanger and information proving the second book an unnecessary filler between the first and the final novel in this planned trilogy.