As we were on our way to Europe a few weeks ago, Kim was speaking to her friend Candice and she recommended the latest Dan Brown novel to us. I enjoyed the other Dan Brown books I’ve read, starting with The DaVinci Code. I seem to have a hard time finding male novelists these days. The novelist ranks seem to be heading in the way of most professions, with women increasingly dominating the scene. Overall, women represent a substantial and growing share of published novelists. Many publishers now publish roughly equal numbers of male and female authors (after years of male domination), or slightly favor women in some categories. The female-dominated genres are romance (80-90%+ women authors), young adult (YA – majority women…60-70%+), contemporary fiction (slight female majority), and domestic fiction/family sagas (heavily female). The more male-dominated genres remain science fiction (maybe 60-70% male), thriller/action (still majority male), and hard sci-fi/military fiction. The areas of literary fiction, mystery/crime and historical fiction are male/female balanced. I find that what makes male novelists most interesting to me is that they seem to use significant detail to draw me in. I think of Michael Crichton with The Andromeda Strain, Tom Clancy with The Hunt for Red October and John Grisham with The Firm. I loved them all for their obsession with detail. But no one does fascinating detail better these days than Dan Brown. And what really appeals to me is that Dan Brown’s details are not about science and biomedical research, nuclear submarines or even the intricacies of the law, they are about the universal issues of spirituality and history and how they relate to human existence. Maybe its because of my age, but I find those topics far more interesting and thought-provoking these days. It’s very easy for me to see the fascination with Dan Brown’s themes. His biggest novels center on his Robert Langdon series, featuring a Harvard symbologist who gets caught up in globe-trotting mysteries. The Da Vinci Code (2003) is his most famous – a thriller involving a murder at the Louvre, secret societies, and controversial claims about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It became a massive cultural phenomenon despite (or because of) significant religious controversy. Angels & Demons (2000) actually came first, featuring Langdon investigating the Illuminati and a plot involving the Vatican and antimatter. It gained more attention after Da Vinci Code’s success. The Lost Symbol (2009) takes place in Washington D.C., exploring Masonic secrets and hidden symbols in American landmarks. Inferno (2013) involves Dante’s work and a billionaire’s plan related to overpopulation, set across Florence, Venice, and Istanbul. And Origin (2017) deals with questions about human origins and the future of religion, set primarily in Spain. All of his biggest works follow his signature formula of art history, puzzles, secret societies, and breakneck pacing with cliffhanger chapters.
His latest book is called The Secret of Secrets (published in September, 2025). This is his first Langdon book in eight years since Origin. I had missed Robert Langdon (can’t get Tom Hanks out of my head) and his goofy Mickey Mouse watch. In the book, Langdon travels to Prague for a lecture by Katherine Solomon, a noetic scientist (and his new girlfriend), who’s about to publish explosive research on human consciousness. Noetic science comes from the Greek word “nous” meaning “mind” or “intellect.” It’s a field that studies consciousness, the mind, and human potential, exploring questions like the nature of consciousness itself, mind-body connections and healing, meditation and altered states, intuition and extended human capacities, and especially the relationship between consciousness and the physical world. The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) is a very real organization founded in 1973 by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who had a profound experience viewing Earth from space. They conduct research on consciousness, meditation, healing, and human potential.
Dan Brown featured noetic science prominently in The Lost Symbol where Katherine Solomon first appeared. In that book, she was conducting experiments on the measurable effects of human thought and intention. In The Secret of Secrets, her research has apparently advanced to exploring consciousness as something that exists outside the body rather than being generated by the brain. The whole noetic arena is considered somewhat on the fringe of mainstream science, bridging the gap between hard science and more spiritual or philosophical inquiries about the nature of the mind and reality…but I find it quite fascinating.
What is making the novel so much more interesting to me, and presumably why Kim’s friend Candice suggested it to us when she did, is that in the course of her and Langdon’s visit to Prague, Katherine Solomon and her manuscript disappear, and Langdon finds himself hunted by an organization and a menacing figure (the Golem of ancient Jewish and Prague mythology) all set in the ancient city center of Prague, right where we stayed and visited. The story’s central concept involves the nature of consciousness and near-death experiences, with a secret underground facility experimenting on people with epilepsy to induce near-death states and access the collective unconscious for espionage purposes. Brown highlights Prague’s Gothic beauty, medieval history, and secret passageways, all of which are very much in evidence as you walk through the streets of the Old Town area and all of which factor heavily into the story, making it almost a guidebook to the city. The plot expands to London and New York as well, both of which were on our tour, London before Prague and New York, after. If Brown had included a stop in Edinburgh or a train ride up and down the length of the British Isles, it would have been the perfect vacation memoir.
I’m hardly the only person reading the book at this moment. It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and received the typical mix of Dan Brown reactions. Those of us who are Robert Langdon fans love the intricate plotting and page-turning pace, while some critics find it over-researched and lecture-heavy. Funny thing is that what the critics dislike about Dan Brown’s writing is exactly what I love about it. I want to thank Candice for pointing it out to me when she did. I would have probably landed on it sooner or later, but to listen to this book (I don’t actually read books anymore, I listen to them) right after walking the streets of Prague as we did has been a very moving experience. I will also add that the whole noetic science awareness comes at me at a moment when I am experiencing my own new version of heightened consciousness, human potential and connectivity between the spiritual and physical worlds. Yep, I am getting into the endorphin stage of exercising for several hours each day in my new altered state of reduced weight and completely revamped eating patterns. I expect that I will soon be self-levitating onto a higher plane as I fully adopt the notion that there are no more secrets in the universe…