Rating: 
Summary: Absurd and Long-winded
Review: Angels & Demons is the absurd plot-driven prequel to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. The Vatican and the Illuminati are the two main characters of the tale. Everyone else is peripheral. This is one of several sins that make the novel so bad-- there is no character development at all. Michael Langdon is a one-dimensional Indiana Jones type (it's obvious author Dan Brown has celluloid ambitions) who's awakened at the crack of dawn and whisked off to Europe to become a major player in a centuries-old grudge match between the Illuminati and the Vatican. But what the story is really about is what happens when one man tries to make himself God and rectify what he sees as unforgivable sin, with a disastrous outcome of course. But you won't discover that until the last 50 pages of the book. In the meantime, you'll get a primer on the Illuminati and be dragged all over and under Vatican City with Langdon and the ever-slender Vittoria as they try to prevent the murders of 4 cardinals and find the antimatter canister before it blows the Vatican and half of Rome to bits. Brown has packed this pulp with tidbits about long-dead religions and cultures, medieval scientists, and Renaissance artists. If you're interested in these topics, you could have a blast chasing down Brown's facts. Or you could accept it all at face value and go along for the ride. And what a ridiculous ride it is. If you think the first 500 pages of the novel are completely absurd, wait until the last 50 pages. It would appear that Brown has a gift for intricate plotting, and Behold! It all neatly wraps up in the end! Or did he write an outline first and fill in the blanks to flesh out the (ahem) story? That's my guess, and it's unfortunate because the story may have taken an intriguing turn if there were any character development beyond Langdon's 9 lives and ever-present Harris Tweed jacket, and Vittoria Vetra, the intelligent, mysterious, slender damsel in distress. Of course Langdon gets the girl (after they've saved the world) with all the cute corniness of a James Bond movie. The book is replete with Brown's pontifications on religion, Christianity, and the church's long history of suppressing scientists and scientific truth to protect the church's power. Brown's bias is clear throughout the book, and this didactic pummeling reveals a weakness in his storytelling abilities. The success of Da Vinci Code proves that one needn't be a decent writer to capture market share. You may enjoy Angels & Demons, but I thought the book was silly and long-winded. He could have cut the book by 200 pages for my taste. It wouldn't have improved the writing, but at least it would have ended sooner.
Rating: 
Summary: Take a rest, Dale
Review: Dale Brown was once an author. He/it is now a writing factory churning out novel after novel with LOTS of money thrown at HUGE marketing campaigns, guest appearances on television, nationwide tours...but precious little to show for it. The DAVINCI CODE took an incredible idea, started like gangbusters then the story veered from interesting to improbable to hokey. It fell under the weight of its incoherent mass. To make matters worse, Brown, in real life, is now going around claiming that the book was based on "real" research and hinted that the absurdities in the story could be true. It's Angels & Demons (since it seems that novels referring to religion sell well) with worse plotting and even worse characters. The plot is complicated though not complex - it is only Brown's inclusions of illogical and unprobable events that make the thing seem more a jumble than a race. Then there's the awful portrayal of the people who are about as real as the wooden Indian at the barbershop. They are as predictable as they are flat - they do things that don't really make sense and say things that happen to fit into the plot somewhat but where is the growth or change or transformation? Other readers have noted the poor editing that is on display throughout the book. (I just had a horrible thought - what if it HAD actually been edited and this was the result?) Just because you appear on talk shows and sell millions of books does not mean a fact checker, linguist, and grammar expert are not required. This is just pitiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Science Vs. Religion...Fascinating Tale
Review: After reading the "DaVinci Code", I was curious to read another work by Dan Brown. "Angels & Demons" was even faster paced with more action and more suspense. Robert Langdon, Harvard Iconologist, will experience the most harrowing 24 hours of his entire life. He will discover HSCTs-High Speed Civil Transports (Boston to Geneva in just 64 minutes), visit the famous CERN in Switzerland, find proof of the secret society the Illuminati, discover antimatter, and unearth a plot to destroy the Vatican. Maximilian Kohler, director general of the CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) contacts Robert Langdon immediately following the murder of CERN physicist Leonardo Vetra. What makes this murder so mysterious is the ambigram burned into the chest of Vetra. It is a symbol for the ancient Galilean brotherhood known as the Illuminati. Kohler needs Langdon's input on the situation. It seems that Vetra along with his physicist daughter Vittoria made a scientific discovery-antimatter- the most dangerous energy source known in the world. Now Vetra was dead and the antimatter canister was missing. The Illuminati which has promoted the interest of science versus blind religious faith has carried it to Rome and to the center of its ancient rival the Vatican. On the eve of a papal conclave four cardinals are suddenly missing. They have been kidnapped to become sacrifices to the Church of the Illumination (the Illuminati lair). One cardinal will be killed each hour starting at 8 pm until Midnight when the antimatter will explode somewhere beneath Vatican City. Each cardinal will be branded with an ambigram at one of the four markers in Rome leading to the Illuminati lair. Langdon and Vittoria Vetra begin a frantic search against the clock for clues leading to the markers among the vast amount of Roman churches to find the four cardinals before its too late and locate the antimatter before it incinerates Vatican City. Brown incorporates many historical facts along with fiction to make a very interesting and entertaining story. I found myself interested in the workings of the Vatican, art history especially Bernini, Galileo's work and the concept of the ambigram.
Rating:
Summary: It's DaVincilicious!
Review: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened in the middle of the night and confronted with evidence of something he hadn't thought possible: the Illuminati, the world's oldest satanic cult, though long thought a defunct organization, is apparently thriving and responsible for the horrific mutilation and murder of a brilliant physicist. Arrived at the victim's workplace, a secretive nuclear research facility in Switzerland, Langdon discovers that the Illuminati have more in store for the world than the assassination of a single scientist. The group has its hands on the world's most destructive material, stolen from the dead man's lab, and is intent on destroying the Catholic Church by violent means. Angels & Demons is the precursor to Dan Brown's much ballyhooed The DaVinci Code, which also features Langdon in the Indiana Jones-ish role of studly-smart professor-hero. The book is similar to The DaVinci Code, too, in its style and content--a romantic flirtation in the midst of crisis; secret religious history unveiled; complicated information rendered highly digestible by Mr. Brown's skillful hand; short, explosive chapters that make the book very hard to put down. A great story, well-written.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast paced cheap thrills
Review: If you're looking to learn Italian or Latin, or hoping to learn history or science, look somewhere else (Mr. Christian, stick to West and Wallace, leave the cheap thrills to us mere mortals ... mercy). However, if you don't take yourself so seriously and you like your cheap thrills topped with fast-paced action, silly special effects, 007-type fantasy, this is an excellent read. It goes down easy, like a hamburger and fries, without the indigestion. OK, it ain't James Joyce, but if you liked the DaVinci Code, you'll like this one. It reads like a two-hour action-adventure spy flick. Very little snob appeal here, lots of pleasure though.
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Read
Review: Not the best book ever written, but a good time passer. I was very disappointed in The DaVinci Code (hate when I figure everything out before the characters do), but, knowing little about Rome, that wasn't a problem here. A strange, but interesting ending. It's not great theology, but entertaining all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping & Entertaining
Review: I listened to this CD and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very similar structure to Da Vinci Code, but a better story. This is one for the relaxed individual, not for the uptight, who will surely find real-world inaccuracies.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best recreational reads I've had of late...
Review: I finished Angels And Demons by Dan Brown the other night. This book rocks as a recreational read! This is by the same author as The DaVinci Code, and it looks like it was a previous work that was re-released after the success of Code. Symbologist Robert Langdon gets an early morning call from a person in Switzerland claiming to have a dead body with an Illuminati brand on his chest. The caller turns out to be the head of CERN, and he's concerned about the Illuminati cult that everyone thought was dead. Langdon ends up in Switzerland to lend his expertise in the symbol, and from there is rushed to the Vatican when a massive explosive anti-matter device is stolen from CERN and is set to blow up the ancient seat of the Catholic church. A dead pope, kidnapped cardinals turning up branded and dead, an ancient secret society that everyone thought was extinct, and a countdown to finding and stopping the explosion. On top of that, the plot starts twisting at breakneck speed in the last 100 pages. This is a book I could have easily plowed straight through and been perfectly happy in doing so. The pace of the story never slowed down, and the turns at the end weren't quite what I expected them to be. I wasn't highly thrilled with The DaVinci Code, as it went off in some theological directions I didn't care much for. And I also felt it was the author espousing his beliefs in novel form and pounding the reader over the head about them repeatedly. This book is more a crime/conspiracy novel set in the Vatican, but not so heavy on alternative theology. Definitely one of the better recreational reads of late...
Rating: 
Summary: Fast read
Review: It is easy to read. However, with all the publicity I expected more. This book did not really touch me. Interesting to learn facts, but dry. Good summer read thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down! "Angels & Demons" ROCKS!
Review: What a book! I stayed glued to it every chance I got for a little over a weekend. I'm truly glad that I read "The DaVinci Code" before "Angels & Demons". If it would have been the opposite I think "The DaVinci Code" may have let me down. This one had almost everything I look for in a book. Suspense, Little facts you've never known, Mystery, Thrills, Religion vs. Occult, and moments when you realized that your mouth was hanging open in awe over the shock of what just transpired. (Just a hint... FIRE! Trust me. You'll see.) I really feel that I can't say enough. Just give it a shot. Odds are you won't be disappointed.
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