I’ve done something I’ve never done before, I pre-ordered a book!

Book: The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown
Link: The Lost Symbol

I hurried home from work, my package arrived on the release date from Amazon, and began reading Dan Brown’s third book in his Robert Langdon’s series.
I enjoyed it. It was a fun read, and like expected it was action packed. I didn’t like the last 50 pages. The story for all intent and purposes ends with 50 pages to spare. He then proceeds to wrap up a few loose ends but it takes about 40 pages too long.

The story was good, it took a few twists and turns, and if you’re like me, you may be able to guess a few ahead of time.

It probably ranks third compared to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

I did enjoy that the book had me googling several references in the book to buildings in Washington, DC and art work. I kept checking google’s rank to see if others were doing it on release day, didn’t see anyone else.

In a final note, I love the research Dan Brown completes in his books, all the computer related sections were fairly on mark (a short section with a hacker). I like when authors do not embellish computer interaction in their novels.

Kyle XY

Have you ever wished for a Kyle XY book to hold you off during the season intermissions? Great News! One was written almost fifty years ago.

I’ve been attempting to read all 100 of the top sci-fi books, and #6 checks in as Stranger in a Strange Land By Robert Heinlein. While I’m not quite done the book, the protagonist, Michael Valentine Smith, is very similar to Kyle XY, infact I’d be willing to bet the the writers of Kyle XY have read this book at some point in their life time.

In an attempt to avoid possible spoilers, I’ll just say both characters exhibit abilities

Stranger In A Strange Land

beyond normal humans, but it’s clear in both cases we (normal humans) are not living up to our potential. Some of the those abilities both Kyle and Michael even share. They both struggle with adjusting to human society and offer a critique of it. They are even the same approximate age!

Right now I’m a huge fan of both so if you’ve never heard of the book, give it a try. If you enjoyed the book, I recommend you give the first season of Kyle XY a shot.

UPDATE: About an hour after reading this I found out Kyle XY was cancelled. Boo. That blows, and just a note to ABC Family, it was the only show I watched on your network, and one of the few that I watched live instead of on the DVR. I think you made a mistake.

Well now, I think this post holds a little more value, Kyle XY fans, go pick up this book, at least you’ll be able to enjoy that.

UPDATE #2: After finishing this book, I’m not sure Kyle XY fans will like it. It was written in the 1960’s and gets pretty “hippy” on you towards the end. The dialogue tends to drag on. It is like Kyle XY in the sense where Kyle and Michael Smith were the interesting parts of the story but it gets so far off track with the other characters that you can lose interest.