Just bought mine from MPH KLIA after touchdown from Amsterdam. Was their third purchaser of the anticipated book. Bought with staff discount. Retails at RM99.90. You have the option of getting either the US Doubleday publisher edition or the UK version. Personally, I think the US version look spiffier. And three cheers for early opening MPH KLIA.

I'm not sure what the deal is with MPH, but Kinokuniya preorders for this book is entitled for 30% discount off that RM99.90 price. Gonna use that discount later to get the UK Edition. for everyone's info, only hardcover editions are available now.

Later on at 2pm today, will be logging in into my Amazon account and purchase the Kindle Edition, USD9.99. Delivery will be instantaneous of course, via Amazon Digital Locker. That way, I can keep the hardcovers pristine in the house library.

Will Robert Langdon be tossing cryptex in the air again or looking for antimatter timebombs again? From the cover, looks like it's in the States in the Capitol revolving around the Freemasons. Delicious!

Oh, did I mention that the US Doubleday Edition looks absolutely gorgeous? Sprinkled with Mason glyphs and symbol it is!

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Sep 15 2009, 08:32 AM

Discount for people working at the airport. 10% off basically. Better still, run out and get it from Kinokuniya. I just got the UK Edition from there, and they are honoring any purchase now for the hardcover at 30% discount with another purchase. Just buy the cheapest pen or something and you're entitled to that discount.

No idea on when the paperback is coming out, but if you're not anal about the cover as I am, that would probably be the edition to get, as it is cheaper and more managable. It is still relatively thick though, at 784 pages.

Standard Dan Brown fare, the antagonist is features on the prologue, and the story bullet-trains off from there. And again, for the third time, the antagonist is another archetype blind-faith persona, it was Silas, the self-flagellating Opus Dei monk in Da Vinci Code, and that Hashshashin in Angels & Demons. This time it's Mal'akh, with tattoos all over save for the top of his bald head. Mal'akh means "angel" in Hebrew, and Langdon describes it perfectly when he say one's definition of an angel or demon depends upon which side looks on it. I'm not going to spoil it further. The previous red-herring title The Solomon Key for this book, is now instead, the character upon which Langdon has to save now,called Peter Solomon, a highest-echelon ranking Masonic member and also Langdon's mentor and father figure, described as being in "Araf" or Purgatory if you read Dante Allighieri's Divine Comedy. I've not yet read far enough to ascertain the fate of Solomon.

Between those 4 only the first two are inter-related books, with recurring main character. Digital Fortress and Deception Point revolves around separate and totally different protagonists.

The story may be cookie-cutter, but the message that Dan is playing around here is a little bit more abstract thatn the more straight-forward plots of his previous books. I like the points he brought forward that all religions are merely ways to control its followers, and mankind is created in God's image, that we may one day released our untapped Noetic potential to become one ourselves. There's nothing more crippling than having to conform to set rules and traditions when it comes to showing that you have faith in something in you. Present day religions especially.