Unlocking Mysteries with Solomon’s Key

Subtitled A Companion Guide To “The Lost Symbol” (Dan Brown’s New Novel), this mag-book claims to help readers ‘understand the secrets of ancient symbols and their meaning’.
I had always believed that the purpose of a companion guide was to explain concepts, language, ideas and so forth that the book in question either doesn’t adequately define or doesn’t delve into deep enough for the more committed reader. If this particular example is typical of the genre then I have been labouring under a major misunderstanding, for this does none of that.
Solomon’s Key was actually published before The Lost Symbol and doesn’t so much explain or examine the concepts of that book as it does speculate as to what might be included within its best selling pages.
While a few of the articles were interesting, all were superficial and none provided particularly new insight into the topics they addressed-many of which have been the subject of books (both fiction and non-fiction) themselves.
I can see how fans of Dan Brown might be interested in a short biography of the author. Indeed, I can see how they might appreciate the biography of the main character (which is much the same thing-Mary-Sue anyone?). But did they really need to include a précis of the other works and detailed lists of how the movies made from those books differed from them. And exactly how does the history of the director of those movies enlighten readers in any way about the, at that time, unpublished book.
The full colour plate photographs are not enough to offset poor editing (singularly annoying are unfinished sentences). And the speculation as to what might have been included in the book was quite a bit off the mark.
Not being the greatest fan of the author I was reading this guide for a laugh and I got it but had I truly wanted a guide to The Lost Symbol I would have been extremely disappointed.-Lynn