The Secret of Secrets: A Novel (Robert Langdon)

The ending part is so touching and relevant to today’s conflicted world.

Pragueを舞台に、人間の「意識」は脳内にあるのか（local）体外にあるのか（non-local）を中心に、意識を外部機器と繋ぐことは可能か、「死」とは何か等を巡るお話。Langdonの専門である記号学とは最早無関係で、医学関連の英単語がやたら難しく骨が折れます。 kindleのカウンターで90%前後にサプライズが仕込まれており驚かされ、その後これまた作者には珍しい情感たっぷりな場面に涙腺が緩みます。仕込みが本作のテーマと密接に絡んでいるという伏線回収もお見事。ありがちな前半は端折って、もっとサプライズ以降に紙面を割いた方が良かったのでは。 ただ、サプライズは読み物だからいいものの、映画では成立しないタイプのものです。

As a big fan of Dan Brown, I have been anxiously waiting for his new novel which is this one, “The Secret of Secrets”. It is very nice to read about Robert Langdon’s latest adventure. He is my hero being extremely intelligent, super brave and manly elegant. Not to betray my expectations this time, he travels a lot, goes through a lot, and reveals a lot. The theme of this book is enigmatic. It grabbed my attention in the very beginning and kept it in hold until the very last page. I feel though that this novel gives us an air of some academic book in places, where the narrative or Langdon’s explanation dwells on. Be that as it may, this novel is another great work. I give Langdon and Brown my sincere applause.

The novel is as exciting as the other ones from the same author. Of course, it does not give you the answer to "where does our consciousness reside", but it gives you some push to think about yourself. The thrilling part of the intelligence world wanting to control our consciousness seems realistic when we think about the possibility of human consciousness controlling drones or other machinery, especially in warfare. Hope that technology will be used for the better.

前作のOrigin（2017）から8年ぶりの作品に大いに期待したのだが、全く楽しめなかった。ロバート・ラングドン シリーズなのだが、テーマも新しいのか8年間の書いているうちに時代のほうが先に行ってしまったのか新鮮味に欠ける。ダン・ブラウン作品といえば、記号や暗号を追いかけながら物語が一気に転がっていくスピード感が魅力で、これまでの作品はテンポの良さもあって純粋に「読むのが楽しい」エンタメ小説だった。実際、謎解きをしているうちに気づけばページがかなり進んでいる、という読書体験が多かったと思う。 ところが最新作『Secrets of Secrets』については、正直そのノリについていけない部分があった。科学的な専門用語や概念がこれでもかというほど出てきて、その都度かなり丁寧（というより念入り）な説明が入るため、物語の勢いが何度も止まってしまう。謎解きよりも講義を聞いているような感覚になる場面もあり、「もう少しさらっと流してくれてもいいのに」と感じることが多かった。ダン・ブラウンらしい謎解きエンタメを求める人には好みが分かれそうな一冊、というのが率直な感想。

ブックカバーではなく、ハードカバーなので、簡便性にかけること。 デスクで読むには、紙も上質で良い。

Set aside a long, long weekend. A BIG read. Cliff hangers typical of DBrown's style, wonderful, the theme will really make you think though. Time for serious thinking.

Noetic Science（純粋知性化学）が大きなテーマとして扱われており、 臨死体験、死後の世界、潜在能力、テレキネシスやサイコメトリー、集合的無意識といった現象を科学的に説明しようとする考え方が描かれている。 一見難しそうだが、シンプルな英語で説明されており、構文が易しいので、英語が読める人には願書をお勧めしたい。 本作の舞台としてプラハが選ばれた理由も興味深い。 16世紀、神聖ローマ皇帝ルドルフ2世の時代、 プラハは占星術師、カバラ学者を迎え入れ、神秘思想探求の中心地となっていた歴史を持つという。 一方で、プラハはホロコーストによって多くのユダヤ人住民が命を落とした場所でもある。 旅行中、シナゴーグの壁に刻まれた無数の犠牲者の名前を目にしたとき、胸が締めつけられた。 本作に登場する「ゴーレム」の伝説もまた、 迫害の歴史の中で生まれたユダヤの伝説の一つのようだ。 21世紀は、従来の科学と神秘的な科学、両方の知の遺産を生かしながら、 新たな世界を切り開く時代になるのだろう。 本作は、そんな未来への期待を読者に抱かせる一冊だった。

WOW! If you love thrillers, read this book! It has been more than two decades since I first picked up “The Da Vinci Code,” a novel that consumed me so thoroughly I finished it in just two days. Now, with Dan Brown’s latest work, “The Secret of Secrets,” I felt that familiar pull again; though this time it took me five days to reach the end, which i just did this morning. That pace says far more about me than about the book: I’m in my fifties now, working 50-hour weeks, need 8 hours of sleep a night,and simply can’t devour novels at the same clip I once did. Yet, despite the slower progress, Brown’s new novel gripped me with the same intensity as his modern classic. From the very first chapters, The Secret of Secrets announces itself as a return to form. Brown once again marries history, science, and religion with razor-edged suspense, challenging readers to question what they thought they knew about the world. Like The Da Vinci Code, this is not a passive read; it’s an active experience. I frequently found myself pausing mid-chapter to Google frontier scientific research, a legend, or a location, just to see how much of it was grounded in fact. Brown has always excelled at blurring the lines between scholarship and speculation, and here he does it with a renewed sharpness. The book unfolds across an astonishing 140 chapters, each one a tightly wound spring of tension. True to form, Brown structures his narrative around cliffhangers that almost dare you to set the book down, only to ensure you’ll pick it right back up. Every chapter ends with a twist or revelation that spins the story in a fresh direction. The effect is relentless forward momentum driven by the kinetic circumstances thrown at Robert Langdon, a hallmark of Brown’s thrillers, and here it feels particularly refined. As ever, the stakes are sky-high. The central mystery of The Secret of Secrets is nothing less than civilization-shaking, touching on ideas that strike at the core of belief, truth, and the hidden forces that shape human history. Brown’s great gift is to make you feel those stakes personally, as if the very fabric of your own worldview is unraveling alongside his protagonist’s. The suspense never lets up, and just when you think you’ve grasped the answers, another layer of deception is revealed. Equally compelling are the exotic settings through which the story unfolds. From hushed libraries and candlelit subterranean halls to sprawling plazas and shadowed alleys in faraway cities, the novel doubles as a globe-trotting travelogue. Brown’s eye for architectural detail and cultural nuance once again makes his settings feel like characters in their own right. More than once, I found myself jotting down names of locations, inspired to imagine journeys beyond the page. But perhaps what distinguishes The Secret of Secrets most is not just its entertainment value, but its ability to linger. Long after closing the book, I found myself revisiting its questions, its revelations, and its provocations. Brown doesn’t tie everything up neatly with a bow. Instead, he leaves you wrestling with the very ideas he’s unearthed, precisely what made The Da Vinci Code so impactful in the first place. Is this Brown’s best work since The Da Vinci Code? Unquestionably. While he has written successful novels in the years between, this one captures that same lightning-in-a-bottle alchemy of intellect, suspense, and sheer readability, all delivered at breakneck speed. It is as though Brown has circled back to his greatest strength: not merely telling a story, but unsettling the reader’s sense of reality. For fans who have been waiting for Brown to reach those heights again, The Secret of Secrets is the book we’ve been hoping for. I personally am so glad that he found that magic again. It’s a novel that thrills as much as it enlightens, entertains as much as it disturbs. And if, like me, you find yourself poring over Google searches late into the night, don’t be surprised. That is precisely the kind of spell only Dan Brown can cast.

The book was delivered impeccably. And the story is wonderful! Dan Brown never disappoints. Anyone who knows him already knows what to expect from this new book! I highly recommend it.

Great value and arrived promptly

Secret of Secrets me pareció un libro fantástico. Desde la primera página se reconoce el estilo inconfundible de Dan Brown: una trama llena de misterio, símbolos y giros inesperados que te mantienen en vilo. Los personajes están muy bien construidos y el ritmo es tan intenso que resulta difícil dejar de leer. Brown logra, una vez más, combinar historia, arte y suspense de una manera magistral. Sin duda, una lectura apasionante que recomiendo totalmente.

Every time you read a Robert Langdon book you think “this is the best one I’ve read”, and every time you get a new one you get a new best… and this one is no exception. Another cannot-put-down-page-turner gem, with an amazing story, beautifully described city and the typical “NO WAY” surprise at the end (yes, another ending you won’t be able to guess), that you need to have in your bookshelf, fan of Dan Brown or not. I don’t know how, but Dan Brown describes the cities in his books in a way that makes you fall in love with them. “Inferno” made me put Florence on top of my list of cities to visit (went last summer and 0 regrets!) and now this one puts Prague there.