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- ISBN13: 9780743493468
- Condition: New
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It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of antimatter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist, and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. Angels & Demons is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller--think Katherine Neville's The Eight (but cleverer) or Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (but more accessible). Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism--is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out, and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, antimatter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared--only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra's daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches, and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilization. Brown seems as much juggler as author--there are lots and lots of balls in the air in this novel, yet Brown manages to hurl the reader headlong into an almost surreal suspension of disbelief. While the reader might wish for a little more sardonic humor from Langdon, and a little less bombastic philosophizing on the eternal conflict between religion and science, these are less fatal flaws than niggling annoyances--readers should have no trouble skimming past them and immersing themselves in a heck of a good read. "Brain candy" it may be, but my! It's tasty. --Kelly Flynn
Look Inside the Motion Picture Angels & Demons (Sony Pictures, 2009)
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code comes the explosive thriller that started it all.
An ancient secret brotherhood. A devastating new weapon of destruction. An unthinkable target. When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to his first assignment to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.
Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.
Critics have praised the exhilarating blend of relentless adventure, scholarly intrigue, and cutting wit found in Brown's remarkable thrillers featuring Robert Langdon. An explosive international suspense, Angels & Demons marks this hero's first adventure as it careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.
You might also like:
- The Da Vinci Code
- The Da Vinci Code
- Deception Point
- Digital Fortress: A Thriller
- The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, No. 3)
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| I almost called this review: "Harvard Professor Wins Heart of Girl Scientist." For ninety percent of the book this summed it up for me. But, near the end, the story line became somewhat unpredictable, my interest rose and my vision of the book broadened some.
Set in Switzerland and Italy, the story begins when a scientist at Geneva's CERN laboratory is found murdered and a Harvard professor is called in to help interpret evidence. The scientist's winsome step daughter and scientific partner is called back from a field trip and joins with the Harvard professor in a fast-paced search for an anti-matter bomb hidden somewhere in the Vatican. The bomb is not a weaponized application of some new scientific discovery. It is simply an anti-matter trap that holds a visible amount of anti-matter, a huge amount compared to typical anti-matter traps encountered in high energy physics laboratories. When the anti-matter containment of the trap fails, as is inevitable under certain conditions, the anti-matter will annihilate and blow up the Vatican. The terrorist group is quickly identified as the Illuminati whose members oppose the Church's anti-scientific positions and its historical persecution of scientists. The Illuminati go back as far as the sixteenth century and an understanding of Renaissance symbology proves essential for unraveling the plot and saving the Vatican. That is the field of expertise of the Harvard professor. Anti-matter is the field of expertise of the winsome girl and she is the one ultimately responsible for having created the anti-matter trap at the center of the story. But her role mostly is to be an action-woman and occasional sex object. The objective of the protagonists is first to find the anti-matter and remove it to a safe place before it blows up and second to unmask the perpetrators of the conspiracy if possible. Accomplishing this in the few hours available is a Herculean feat that draws on the Harvard professor's broad and deep knowledge of his field of expertise. It involves the Vatican Swiss Guard, access to the Vatican Archives, rapid trips between churches and monuments in Rome, a search of the publicly accessible areas of the Vatican, etc. Along the way murder occurs. The timing of the terrorist threat is concurrent with a meeting of the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new Pope. The former Pope died fifteen days earlier and is later found to have been a victim of the terrorists. To heighten the intrigue and underscore the audacity of the terrorist group, the four Cardinals most likely to be elected Pope have been kidnapped from Vatican City and are under threat of death. Regrettably, each one is sacrificed. In the end the anti-matter is found, the Vatican is saved, the Harvard professor gets the winsome girl, and Catholicism gets two new Popes, one of whom commits suicide almost immediately after election by acclamation, the other of whom is a character of some but not great importance to the plot. Two historical figures, the scientist Galileo and the architect Bernini play major roles in the story. Despite the author's claim that his facts are all accurate, many of what masquerade as facts about Galileo and Bernini whither under historical scrutiny. Also, what masquerades as scientific fact in this book is largely science fiction. The undeniable technological truths are that anti-matter traps really do exist and that the explosive potential of an annihilation between macroscopic amounts of matter and anti-matter greatly outweighs the explosive potential of nuclear weaponry. For most of the book, once the situation is fully presented to the reader, the story line is painfully predictable. The writing style is what one might expect of a moderately talented college sophomore or junior, i.e., there is a large number of people who do not represent themselves as professional authors who could easily write as well as Dan Brown does. What raises the book above the purely amateurish level is the surprising and clever ending. Along with this cleverness, the author's prose style improves and becomes almost engaging. Regrettably, the reader has to plow through about 90% of the book before the better part of the book is reached. Leave the best 'til last as they say. If you are looking for literature, you won't find it here. If you are looking for action you will find it here but there are other books that have done it much better. Dan Brown's own "The Da Vinci Code" is one of these. I can't recommend that anyone else read this book. So, why did I? I have the wasteful habit of giving an author every chance and so commit myself to finishing any book I start. The last 10% of the book was my reward. But the reward wasn't great enough to outweigh the burden of all the poor writing I had to read to reach it. |
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| Art historian and symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to Europe to investigate the mysterious death of a scientist with ties to the Vatican. Something very valuable and dangerous is stolen, and several very important people go missing. The killer/thief/abductor threatens a disaster of Biblical proportions in revenge for a legendary atrocity committed by the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago against a shadowy organization of scientists and like-minded free-thinkers. Time is ticking away, and it's up to our steely-eyed Harvard prof to solve the mystery and save the day.
As I read the story, I developed a wholloping case of deja-vu. If you've read Brown's blockbuster, The DaVinci Code (which takes place some time after this story), it turns out you've pretty much read Angels and Demons, except Angels and Demons is set in Rome and focuses on an artist of much less renown than Leonardo DaVinci. Grisly murders with bizarre messages left at the scene? Check. Mentally-unbalanced mercenary killer? Check. Super-cool legendary secret society in conflict with stodgy, conventional Christianity? Check. Trail of obscure signs embedded in famous works of art, leading to a "truth" repressed for centuries? Check. A hidden scandal that would rock the world's foundations if anybody found out? Check. Good guys who turn out to be bad guys, and vice-versa? Check. Robert Langdon: art historian, nerdy polymath, and reluctant action hero? Check. Sultry girl-genius sidekick/romantic interest? Check. Ah, the joys of formula. Sigh. It's still a good yarn, though, and I ripped through the 700-plus-page paperback in a couple of evenings. Brown knows how to hold a reader's attention. The art-based puzzles are fun, the travelogue is interesting, and Langdon is an appealing, accessible hero--an emotionally-vulnerable everyman, despite his braininess. The portrayal of organized religion seems more balanced here than in The DaVinci Code. Rather than telling us that everything we thought about Christianity is wrong, Brown's characters argue more for the idea that religion and science both have a place in the world and ultimately work in harmony to point us toward God, if we'll only listen. Though I doubt Brown is a big fan of the Catholic Church, and he certainly isn't shy about portraying its failings and missteps over the centuries, he also presents characters in the Vatican hierarchy who display true courage, humility, and devotion to God. Even for a work of fiction, there are some real groaners. Among a shotgun blast of logically-fallacious assumptions that similarity equals causality, Professor Langdon blithely makes a ridiculous connection between Christian symbology and Aztec religious rites. At the story's climax, he survives an action so implausible it breaks my willing suspension of disbelief, and I'm a fantasy writer. Finally, not one, not two, but three characters' hobbies become deus-ex-machinas that rescue Langdon and everyone else from disaster. Lesson learned: Don't give up on that yoga class-it could save your life someday. If you liked The DaVinci Code or enjoy suspenseful mysteries with lots of dashing about in exotic locales, you'll probably like this story of Robert Langdon's earlier days, too. Thrills, chills, a few non-explicit adult situations and the aforementioned grisly murders. Older teens and up. |
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| I enjoy well-crafted conspiracy stories with lots of plot twists and action. Angels and Demons holds up quite nicely as a gripping novel, rich on plot and strong on characterizations. Author Dan Brown hits the ground running with the action and takes the reader on an exciting adventure.
The setting for the book starts in Rome and the main protagonists, Harvard professor and art historian Robert Langdon and scientist Vittoria Vetra make for a great team in their attempt to save the Vatican from being blown up by an anti-matter bomb. The ancient brotherhood of the Illuminati, were an intriguing study in religious fervor, dogmatic ideology, and betrayal, making for a magnificent nemesis. Angels and Demons is indeed a page turner from beginning to end. I finished the book in one setting and consider the reading experience to be a fascinating and highly entertaining thrill ride. |
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| I started to read this book with a vigor and then it took me a few weeks to get through the rest. I did enjoy this one but I can not compare it to "Da Vinci Code" as I have yet to read it. I did like the details of the Vatican and the history but I do wish it focused more on the history facts. I really only read it because Ewan McGregor is in the movie and I was more interested in his character than Robert Langdon's. I deffinitly felt more concern for McGregor's character. |
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| Mr. Brown will take you across Europe with one of the most amazing adventures that you'll ever go on. How he thinks up these incredible stories is beyond me. But again he has done his research well and again takes you with him so that you feel you are there cheering his characters on. A real page turner. |
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