Customer Reviews

Angels & Demons [In Japanese Language]

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Next to Britt Gillette's "Conquest of Paradise", this is the best book I've read in a long time. I'm a first time Dan Brown reader but I'm hooked! I stayed up all night and didn't quit until I finished, blurry eyed and sleepy. I found myself believing every word and had to stop and remember that it's just fiction! I was amazed at the inside information about the Vatican (especially the library), and I finally got out a map and books from my trip to Rome to see if I could find all the churches. Anti-matter, illuminati, choosing a pope - all of it was fascinating. When I finished, I had to laugh thinking about the fact they never ate, slept or made comfort stops and neither could I. The ending was a total surprise! Anyone who enjoys non-stop action and information shouldn't miss this one.

Harvard professor Robert Langdon and CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra have just one night to prevent the Vatican from being destroyed by an antimatter bomb. Can they do it? Of course. But the fun lies in how and why.

A sample of antimatter has been stolen from physics center CERN by the Illuminati -- the all-powerful group made so famous by Robert A. Wilson's books. Here, they are represented as being an ancient order of scientists upset with the way the Church has treated science and scientists. (Me, I always liked the bankers-as-secret-force or blood-relatives-of-Jesus explanation of the Illuminati, but this will do.) This provides for plenty of science vs. religion conversations, and Brown does a good job with them.

ANGELS AND DEMONS is a fast, but satisfying read. It rolls along unstoppably, not the least of which because the action takes place over a 24-hour span. Even if -- as I did -- you guess what's really happening half-way through the book, you'll never guess what happens in the last 40 pages.

The book is laced with fun facts about electing a pope and the Vatican, like that St. Peter's bones are not in the golden casket in St. Peter's Basilica, but two stories under it. Brown knows the layout. And that the artist Raphael's last name was Santi. He also knows how marble statues were carved. Brown's no Irving Stone (THE AGONY AND THE ECSTACY), but he does manage to inform without being pedantic.

As Vittoria and Langdon race around Rome, we get quite a tour, with great descriptions. (Pick up a paperback copy next summer and bring it to Rome. Take the Brown tour.) What's interesting is that all the places and pieces of art in this book really exist. So Brown has played a version of the Sherlockians' Great Game by linking them all with his "history" of the Illuminati and their doings. No small feat.

Several of the plot elements have to be taken with a grain of salt. First, there is the fact that everyone in this book is absolutely amazed by amibgrams (these are words which can be ready the same upside-down as right-side up -- the book's dust jacket has the title in ambigram). They play an important role in the story, and everyone who encounters them is practically struck dumb the fact that even exist. They "seem utterly impossible." I guess no one else in the story (including symbol expert Langdon) remembers that OMNI magazine ran an ambigram contest in the 1980s and published dozens of the thousands of entries they received, I imagine that by now there must be a software program or web site that can make them for you (and make an acrostic that spells out your girlfriend's name). In short: they aren't that amazing. Then there are things like the fact that Vittoria (a physicist) isn't familiar with the classical four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Come on.

Great literature? No, but you sure keep turning the pages to see what happens next.

My first introduction to Dan Brown was through his incredible thriller, 'The Da Vinci Code' and figured that I had missed out on his previous works, so I picked up 'Angels & Demons' the day after I finished TDVC. This is in every way it's equal. Every bit as compelling. Every bit as entertaining. Every bit as FUN. If you enjoy solving puzzles -- especially REAL ones, than Dan Brown is an author you NEED to get to know and F-A-S-T.

One of the things which made this book so instantly enjoyable was one of the main characters I already knew, Robert Langdon, world famous Symbologist from 'The Da Vinci Code'. Set aside some time to completely absorb this amazing tale, because once you start it, you will instantly be captured up in this highly addictive story. Robert is suddenly awakened early in the morning by the Director of the worlds leading science center, CERN located in Switzerland asking for advice. Robert is less than interested and hangs up when his fax machine spits out a picture which makes his blood run cold. Within a few hours, he is on a quick trip to Europe (heavy emphasis on the word 'Quick'). A murder has been committed. The victim, one of the most gifted scientist in the world has been brutally killed and the mysterious brand of the secret brotherhood of the Illuminati is left on his chest. NOT just ANY brand either, an Ambigram, a word which can be read the same right-side-up as well as upside-down. But Robert is convinced that the Illuminati have been disbanded for the better part of a century. Even so, his curiosity leads him on a quest which will take up the rest of the day and open up secrets long forgotten and better left buried.

Somehow Dan Brown has introduced the element of Antimatter into the story in such a way as to be totally believable. The substance in actuality has been manufactured in microscopic quantities. It's a power source if harnessed could benefit mankind in untold ways -- however with most things the opposite is also true. In this case Antimatter can also be a weapon of catastrophic proportions. Just a tiny half-a-gram of Antimatter if it came in contact with literally ANYTHING, even air, would create an annhialation equal to a 5 kiloton nuclear explosion. When some of this material is stolen from a lab in Geneva and turns up hidden somewhere inside the walls of the Vatican, the chase is on to find it before it decimates the headquaters of the worlds largest Christian Religion. Oh, and to throw a little curve ball to the plot, the Pope has recently died and the worlds senior Cardinals have gathered for Conclave, to decide who will be elected Pontiff. Along the way, we find out the Illuminati's ultimate goal of destroying the Catholic Church, and suddenly it all seems possible -- frighteningly possible. When 4 of the Senior Cardinals are kidnapped and threatened to be murdered one-by-one until the Antimatter goes critical, the stakes suddenly are as serious as the Church has ever faced.

Let me tell you this: NOTHING is as it seems, and NOBDY is safe from suspicion. I was absolutely convinced that one character was involved in the conspiracy and BOY was I WRONG. The surprises are fast and many, and the trip was one well worth taking. Catholics take note: You MAY be a little unsettled at how the Church is portrayed in 'Angels & Demons' but ultimately I believe the basic idea the author conveys is one of hope, and the Church provides that in many ways. I will be recommending this book (as well as 'The Da Vinci Code') to ALL my friends. HIGHLY recommended, and absolutely INCREDIBLY fun.

Well, let's not mince words. This book features planes that go Mach 15, cliched stereotypical characters such as a brainless, evil mideastern assassin (known annoyingly as the Hassassin), a scavenger hunt plot of the type commonly found in children's fantasy such as Redwall, and... believe it or not... an attempt to blow up the Vatican City using antimatter.

Amazon has this to say: "It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous." I agree completely. Mr. Brown hasn't the talent.

Aside from the horribly hyperdramatic nature of the story, which is so wildly implausible as to defy conventional criticism, the writing is terrible and seems mostly to have been a first draft. To put it bluntly, Brown has a tin ear. Any casual reader can find, for instance, numerous passages in which Brown unwittingly repeats himself rhythmically by rolling out a basic concept followed by two sentence fragments which rephrase it uselessly, like this:

"Langdon was overwhelmed. At a loss. Completely unsure of himself."

"Vittoria struggled to contain her passion. Burned with fire. Seethed."

"The plot was ludicrous. Manifestly juvenile. The brainstorm of a poorly-educated, slightly retarded child."

Seriously, folks, how do you forgive such shortcomings? About the most that can be said for this novel is that if you assume it had to be soap-operatic, badly-phrased crap, it does at least succeed in compelling your attention most of the way through in the same way Grisham's novels do... but I don't make that assumption and I can't recommend the book.

I read "Angels & Demons" after reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," and I have to say that I do not think it matters what order you read the two books although there are clear indications this book was written first (Brown does several examples of blatant foreshadowing, including early on the idea that one square yard of drag will slow a falling body's rate of descent by twenty percent). The two books are similar in that Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon deciphers clues to try and solve one murder while trying to prevent others in a mystery that involves the secrets of the Catholic Church. In this book a physicist is murdered at CERN, the Swiss research facility, and branded will a symbol representing the Illuminati, the centuries old underground organization of scientists who have a vendetta against the Catholic Church. The ancient secret brotherhood has acquired a devastating new weapon of mass destruction and intends to bring down the Vatican (literally).

Which book is better? My initial reaction would be that I liked "The Da Vinci Code" a bit more because so many of the clues were written out. When Langdon has to look over paintings, statues and other visual clues I find myself wishing Brown had supplied photographs in his book so that I could play along looking for clues (he does provide most of the requisite images at his website, but I did not know this until after the fact and I suspect most readers will not want to stop and go online to call up the photographs). Not that I had much success in my endeavors, but I did know that Leonardo Da Vinci wrote in his journals backwards so that I was ahead of Langdon for a half a page at one point. "Angles & Demons" is played out on a larger and more public stage than "The Da Vinci Code," and when you get to the conclusion of this novel you might find it a bit much, but that is one of the reasons they call it fiction.

The biggest question in the debate over these books seems to be whether Brown is attacking the Catholic Church in his novels, which strikes me a bit odd after reading "Angels & Demons" since the Vatican is the target this time around. This novel is more about the long struggle between science and religion than anything else, and the position Brown takes seems to be that the two are ultimately compatible. I did my dissertation on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial of 1925 and in the spectacle of Clarence Darrow cross-examining William Jennings Bryan that is codified by the fictional "Inherit the Wind," history has forgotten that the original position of the Scopes defense was that there Genesis and evolution were compatible. Consequently, I have a lot of sympathy for Brown's position and I think a careful reading of the text offers as strong a critique of science as it does of religion. Certainly that ideal is represented by the man who is murdered to start off the story and whatever faults in the history and theology of the Catholic Church might be discussed, there are just too many men of devout faith in the narrative to support the idea Brown is out to get the Church.

Nor do I have any real concerns with the extent to which Brown is playing with historical "facts." The whole idea here is to create a sense that the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I do not think for a second that these novels are true; all I need is to believe that they are plausible, so telling me that some statue's finger is pointed in the wrong direction if you go to Rome and see it for yourself is not going to matter to me because I understand how far the rules of the game apply to the real world. Even so, I think that Brown's factual foundation is more substantial than we will usually find under such circumstances, which would end up being a plus rather than a minus. Besides, I like all of the flashbacks to Langdon's discussions with his students (more classroom scenes in the future, please).

Solving the puzzles is the key enjoyment of these novels and that part of the creative process makes up for Brown's tendency to overplay his red herrings and to hide his true villains in plain sight. Ultimately the game matters more than the characters or the plot. As soon as you know that there will be four more murders you realize that at least three of them have to happen because the game has to be played out to the end, so it is not until the frantic end game that your attention really perks up and it is at that point that Brown starts unloading a whole lot of really big surprises on his characters and his readers. In the final analysis the point here is neither history nor theology, but to tell an exciting adventure yarn where the hero gets by mainly on his intelligence rather than good looks and/or weaponry. This is a hero I can actually identify with for once and that is fine with me too.

Why does Dan Brown keep doing this? For such a talented storyteller to so thoroughly drop the ball when it comes to character, dialogue, and simple realism is only slightly forgivable. Why is it forgivable? Because aside from all the irritation you feel (if you speak Italian or understand Latin) at the language absurdity and the historical and timing inaccuracies, it is still a fun read.

Angels and Demons deals with an ancient group known as the Illuminati and some rather farfetched plots involving religious symbols and anti-matter. While the notion is very intriguing, the details are irritating.

The characters have terrible dialogue. Nobody speaks like this.

The amount of distance these people cover in the short span of time went far beyond suspension of disbelief. Usually I can quell my disbelieving tendencies in the interest of finishing a good, well-paced story, but I found myself thinking, "How could they possibly make it over two miles in such a short amount of time?"

The science is iffy.

The way Langdon makes these intuitive leaps to solve ages-old mysteries is far beyond possible.

However, the story is fun and the action is nicely paced. There are some nicely done twists.

I just wish Dan Brown would learn to stop trying to fabricate textbooks while writing his stories. He needs to just stick to storytelling.

The premise of this book is intriguing, and I have to admit Dan Brown tells a good story that keeps you reading. At first I was more than willing to go with the flow of the book. I don't know much about physics, so I could accept the initial premise for the sake of a good story. The trail of clues was fun. But page after page of descriptions of fighting between Langdon and assorted bad guys became tedious. Was he writing a novel or a screenplay for a B action movie? I was also willing to suspend logic to believe that Langdon could escape multiple near-death experiences within the space of a few hours, all for the sake of a fun read. But the helicopter survival? PLEASE - GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!! Talk about ignoring the laws of physics - even I know his escape made NO SENSE whatsoever. There are so many twists with the characters that I felt manipulated, not entertained. All in all, the ending of this book totally ruins what could have been an exciting, if not very literary, read.

A friend gave me Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and advised me to read it before his more famous The DaVinci Code. I was surprised to read some really negative reviews. Yes, the book is not without some flaws. The characters could be fleshed out a little more, there are numerous errors, and the ending was a bit hokey. But Brown takes his readers on a thrilling, fast-paced ride with lots of twists, turns and bumps. I was so anxious as I neared the end that I read the last 200 pages of this 569 page book in one night.

Angels and Demons starts out with an elite scientist/priest being murdered at a top secret nuclear research facility, C.E.R.N. The body has been branded with the word "Illuminati. The Illuminati was a powerful, clandestine group founded during the days of Galileo when the Roman Catholic Church was persecuting scientists and suppressing scientific discoveries. The victim, Leonardo Vetra, has been trying to prove through science the existence of God. Vetra, and his daughter Vittoria, have developed a revolutionary new discovery-antimatter. It has the potential to be the greatest source of energy, but it also has the power of mass annihilation. Vetra's killer has stolen a considerable amount of this antimatter from Vetra's lab.

The C.E.R.N. director calls in Harvard professor and expert on religious symbology, Robert Langdon. Langdon has extensive knowledge about The Illuminati. Langdon teams up with Vittoria to try and solve this mystery. Not only must they find the stolen antimatter (which has been stashed somewhere inside The Vatican and will explode within hours), but they also must help to find four kidnapped cardinals (on the eve of the election of a new pope).

For those who find fault with this book, there is so much that makes it worth the read. We get some history on Roman Catholicism, the papacy and The Vatican. We learn many tidbits of Vatican trivia. The Vatican Archives and Library must be an unbelievable treasure trove. We also learn some tidbits about Rome-her history, her famous landmarks, churches, fountains and works of art. Brown takes us through the steps to electing a new pope. And of course, there is the age-old discussion of organized religion vs. religious belief vs. science. But what makes Angels and Demons especially fascinating is that there is so much truth interspersed throughout the book. C.E.R.N. is a real research facility, and antimatter has already been discovered. The Illuminati were an actual group, and we're left wondering if they really died out (as Langdon surmises). And of course, there is all that history previously mentioned.

This book has a blockbuster ending that includes a miracle or two. It was a little far fetched in spots, but still enjoyable. And I had not a clue who the real villain was until the very end.

So despite some flaws, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Angels and Demons. I look with great expectation to reading The DaVinci Code.

There's not much I can add to the negative reviews here - ie: if you've read The Da Vinci Code, don't waste your time with this half-assed knockoff of an already bad book.

Besides the factual issues and utter implausibility of the majority of the main plot points, the book is simply poorly written. I'm sorry Dan... italics don't make bad writing dramatic and intense. They just make bad writing a little slanty. Punchy one-liners fall flat, and when we're privy to the private thoughts of a character, it comes closer to resembling a single fly buzzing around a porch light than the workings of a brilliant mind. The theatrical exclamations had me laughing incredulously.

Example: When a woman happens upon the lone eyeball of her mutilated father, Mr. Brown (with all the grace of a third grader telling a flashlight ghost story), breathes, "She would have known that shade of hazel anywhere!" Stumbling onto a lone eyeball is commonplace, it seems. But... this eyeball looks familiar somehow... (Have we met before?) I'm waiting for this to dissolve into a Saturday Night Live sketch.

Aside from the bad writing, melodrama and implausibility, my main beef with the book is that it's insulting to the intelligence. We watch the main characters, supposedly brilliant in their fields, stumble around like a hapless horror movie cast. "Don't go in there, you morons!" we want to shout. Or, "For God's sake, I understood that 2 chapters ago! Are you just now having this revelation?? Get on with it!"

Disturbingly enough, it seems many people read Brown like a textbook. "I learned so much! I didn't know there's a plane that can fly Mach 15!" FICTION, people. More educated people than I have pointed out the gaping holes and flaws in Brown's "facts." Read their reviews.

If you can stand it for 600-odd pages, be my guest. About the only positive mention I can give this book is the fact that the title font creates an anagram, a type of code that relates to the story.

This book makes it very obvious that Dan Brown has one of the most intelligent minds among the writers of today! He knows how to write several bestsellers, all based on just one plot. His characters are all specialists in various subjects - science, religion, art history or just plain villainy. Their dialogue is always clever and witty, even in times of the gravest peril. So much so that not one of his characters would shirk from giving a five-and-a-half-page long lecture on their topic of specialization, approximately five minutes away from a devastating anti-matter explosion.

The main protagonist Robert Langdon is introduced to us in this book. He is an aging Harvard professor who loves his glow-in-the-dark Mickey Mouse watch and drinks Nestle Quik to cure his insomnia. How endearing! Langdon's deductive abilities combined with his unparalleled knowledge of the most arcane religious symbology and resourcefulness in the face of danger have no match in the history of fiction. Only Langdon can work out all those cryptic clues that have been lying around unsolved for centuries.

Mr. Brown's writing is never elitist. He educates the reader in the etymology of every difficult word that he has just learned and that he uses in his writing. As Mr. Brown learns (through painstaking research) all the information that he should have learned back in school, he expects the reader to benefit as well. He reveals that Hatha Yoga is a Buddhist art, thereby exploding the myth that yoga has Hindu origins. He must have discovered some secret manuscripts attesting to this fact. This book also packs so much Italian (with helpful English equivalents of most words) that you won't need that Italian phrase guide book on your next vacation in Rome. Grazie, Mr. Brown!!! Some readers have stated that the Italian in this book is inaccurate but one must keep in mind that Mr. Brown has made great progress in learning English. He now knows the etymologies of the words sarcophagus, conclave and assassin and proudly shows off his knowledge in this book!

This book is an explosion of anti-intelligence. If you want to find out what makes for a bestseller these days, you only have to get this book along with The Da Vinci code. Even if you don't want to find out, get this book so you won't be the only one among your friends not to have read it.

Could Amazon.Com introduce negative ratings so reviewers can accurately rate books like this?