Angels & Demons

Wow.

Before I begin my review, I want to preface it by saying a few things.

I know a lot of people think Dan Brown is a crappy writer who writes crappy books about crappy stories with crappy characters and crappy, unbelievable plots.

I know a lot of people think Dan Brown is one of the best at the "cheese factor" and roll their eyes at his stories.

I know a lot of people out there know more about European history, etc. etc. than I do, and therefore, I might not be the appropriate judge of this story.

And I'm also aware that this is not the next literary classic.

HOWEVER.

I loved this book.

Every time the action picked up in this book, I had a serious adrenaline rush. My heart raced, my eyes frantically read line after line, and my hands show more automatically went to my mouth. I was totally engrossed in the story Dan Brown told, even though I had already seen the movie. Watching the movie before the book is very uncharacteristic of me, but I'm glad that it happened that way in this case. Reading the book cleared up a lot of unanswered questions for me, and the book was different enough from the movie to keep me gasping out loud at plot twists. For me, I was hooked along for the ride, and even though some might find his twists unbelievable or even predictable, I was just in it for the story and found myself completely absorbed. I appreciated the facts (or "facts") throughout the story that were presented to the reader about the Illuminati, Vatican City, etc. and I loved the feeling of being on the inside of solving a puzzle while racing against time. I appreciated Robert Langdon's character, and I'm so glad they cast Tom Hanks to play his character because even when I read The DaVinci Code years ago, Tom Hanks is always how I pictured Robert Langdon. Pretty damn intelligent, resourceful, and witty. Dan Brown can be pretty witty, too, and I found myself chuckling from time to time. I even enjoyed the general mechanics of this book--I liked the short chapters that kept me coming back for more. They made it easy to fly through the pages. I would look down maybe after a half hour or so into reading and be 150 pages further in the book. The "dun-dun-dunnn" moments at the end of pretty much each chapter had me flipping, too, even though I could understand how some might find that worthy of an eye-roll or two. My favorite part of the book, besides the adrenaline rushes, was how he bounced from one point of view to another without leaving the reader feeling disoriented. Rather, it had the opposite effect for me, clarifying everything by being able to watch the story unfold from all angles.

After reading The DaVinci Code a few years ago, I was a little hesitant to pick this one up...would I love Dan Brown as much (or more)? Or was The DaVinci Code a one-time deal? Well, I'm here to say that I can officially consider myself a fan of Dan Brown, however crappy others might want to declare him. show less

Robert Langdon is a Harvard professor of symbology and a world-renowned expert on the subject. His quiet life is turned upside down when he receives a fax with the symbol of the Illuminati branded on a murdered man's chest and an insistent summons to help with the investigation.

I enjoyed this book tremendously for the adventure, the history, the quick pace and the light romance. I literally couldn't put it down and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning reading because I had to find out who Janus was, what it is he was after and where the secret Illuminati lair was.
It was interesting to see the conflict between good and evil in this story and Mr. Brown's interpretation of it. You can't get away from it - it's in the title itself. show more It was fascinating to see how the same things could be perceived to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum depending on the viewpoint of the examiner: are science, knowledge, education and progress good or are they to be shunned in favor of almost blind faith? Is murder justified if it's a means to a righteous end? Can goodness become evil if it goes untempered?
I couldn't help but grow fond of Robert, Vittoria and even the frosty Maximillian Kohler. They each have a story that makes them who they are and this humanity makes them all but walk off the page. For the same reason the villain is that much more chilling - I know there are people in this world who are at the same level of delusional conviction and will do anything to achieve their goals.
The academic explanations tended to slow down the pace but not enough to pull me out of the story. It was more like listening to a highly educated person carry on a conversation in which their field is involved - they just can't resist telling you all the different things they find fascinating and venture off into the realm of lecture before they catch themselves but when it's all said and done you still find that you're glad they told you all those things.
I would recommend this highly satisfying read to fans of edge-of-your-seat mystery with elements of history. Just be prepared to not sleep much until you turn that last page. show less

Angels & Demons is the kind of thriller that grabs you by the collar and keeps moving. The chapters are short, the stakes are huge, and Dan Brown knows exactly where to cut a scene so “one more page” becomes five more chapters. Robert Langdon is a great guide through all the symbols, codes, and chaos, and the Rome setting gives the whole story a dramatic, cinematic charge.
What worked best for me was the momentum. The blend of science, religion, history, and conspiracy is a lot, but the book sells it with confidence and speed. Vittoria Vetra adds a strong presence, and the central chase has that breathless countdown energy that makes it very easy to lose an entire evening to this book.
Some parts are definitely over the top, but that show more is part of the appeal. This is not a quiet or subtle novel. It is a glossy, brainy puzzle box built for suspense, and it delivers. I had a genuinely good time with this one 📚 show less

This is a near-future thriller about an Illuminati plot to destroy the Vatican, or maybe something else entirely is going on, but saying anything else would be a spoiler. The plot is exciting, the characters are very good; indeed, it's a tribute to how good these things are that I kept reading despite all the times I got kicked out of the plot by the author's own startling ignorance on things that could have been easily checked--some of them in any decent desk dictionary, such as the meaning of the word "canonization". At some points, Mr. Brown appears to think that it means "ordination". At other points, that's not a possible reading of his usage of it, but neither is the correct meaning a possible reading. He has notions about how show more papal elections work which are wrong, and which are clearly wrong just from an examination of the results of the last few, and which are important to the plot. There are other instances where he's assuming a general ignorance that seems improbable to me, although, given that Mr. Brown clearly has no clue what "canonization" means, I may be overly optimistic. The instance of this that hit me over the head at the beginning of the book: Our Hero, Robert Langdon, is a Harvard professor, who has written a book that makes him a magnet for conspiracy theorists whose obsessions center around the Illuminati. He has a website on which he has no contact information, in the interest of making it a little bit harder for the kooks to find him in the real world. He gets a phone call from someone who has found him through his website and wants him to come immediately to consult on a matter relating to his specialty, religious symbology--but the caller doesn't say where he's calling from. He does say that he has already sent a plane to pick up Langdon, and he can be at the destination in about an hour. He also says that he located Dr. Langdon through his website, and when Langdon says that's not possible, he says that he's from the laboratory where the Web was invented.

At this point, of course, a little bell went "ding" and I said, "But CERN is a lot more than an hour away from Boston."

Dr. Langdon does not say this, or think it, or anything similar. He does not realize until he's disembarking from the spiffy new space plane that the mysterious caller sent that he's not in North America anymore. (The space plane is a CERN invention, too.) There follows a discussion of how Americans all think that the Worldwide Web is American technology. Unfortunately, the content of the discussion leaves me in some doubt as to whether Mr. Brown realizes that there's a difference between the internet and the web, and that the internet is American technology.

The yawning factual errors in this book left me wondering how many yawning factual errors I was missing because I don't know enough about, say, anti-matter, or Renaissance art. Don't read it if you're feeling at all sensitive to such errors. If you're in the mood for a good brain-candy thriller, though, and prepared to slide over the factual errors, it's great fun. show less

Ok, I absolutely loved this book. I tore through it. It was my first Dan Brown book and despite the mixed reviews I hear about him, I loved it. My opinion on him as a writer might change if I pick up any of his others though. I enjoyed the fact that the science and religious elements presented in this book did not get too big/serious for the casual reader to understand. I also enjoyed the mysteries that turned up around every corner. The twists that were presented towards the end had me on the edge of my seat.

A good page-turner, Brown's suspense style is definitely one of note. Although at times a bit "drug-out," the action seemed to be non-stop throughout the story, full of well-placed plot twists and turns. My beef with Brown is only that what he posits as "fact" is generally a simplistic version of what he determines as fact; meaning, his facts can easily be misconstrued from how he presents them. I know this is a work of fiction; however, this work of fiction is preceded by a listing of "facts" to help ease the readers into believing the storyline. This communication at the beginning of the work can confuse some (many) into believing that his presentation of fact is 100% accurate, which is definitely not the case. In this respect, I feel show more the author is being disingenuous, which taints the overall value of the work. show less

Throw in a few conspiracy theories, a professor, and a *gasp, how original* murder to set it off, and you've got Angels and Demons. This book might as well have been written for children, it has no emotions, no sentiments or gut reaction or humanity. It's a thriller, and like all thrillers it's fast paced and explosive and chilling but it just HAS. NO. HEART. Angels and Demons isn't great literature, but I don't always want to read great literature. Sometimes I just want a GOOD READ (lame, I know) and Angels and Demons was entertainment at it's most bookish form. :D