Rating: 
Summary: interesting at times, but not worth the effort
Review: I found Angels and Demons to be a frustrating experience. At times I enjoyed it, finding the action interesting. But for the most part, this book was very poorly written, and worth your time only if you have nothing better to do.Dan Brown seems like a smart man. He has clearly researched a great deal of what he discusses and, like Michael Crichton, tries to get as much of that knowledge into the book. His descriptions of Rome and the Vatican were believable, and at times captivating. When it comes to plot, Brown seems capable. It is when one gets to every other aspect of the writer's craft; character, mood, etc., that Brown comes up short. His characters are two dimensional at best, with one of his villians being so ham-fistedly taken from central casting as to be laughable. His attempts to describe the characters' reactions to various events are clumsy and repatative. While he seems smart enough to come up with an interesting plot, he does not have the tools necessary to make the characters involved in that plot people you care about. If you have time to kill, and nothing else on hand, Angels and Demons may help fill the hours. If you've got other options though, go with those. This is a book worth missing.
Rating: 
Summary: Get the Physics Right Next Time
Review: A novel about reconciling science and religion would be worthwhile, but you need to get the science right or at least plausible. I ran into a dozen "Give me a breaks" before I put this book down in disgust. Some of these are that gravity is 30% less at 60,000 feet (it's 0.3% less), using tuna to disprove the theory of relativity, and making antimatter proves God's existence (physicists have know about antimatter since the 1920s and first made antiprotons in the 1950s). Despite thanking CERN and Brookhaven in the acknowledgements, it's clear that Mr. Brown didn't have a physicist or even a high school physics student proofread this book.
Rating:
Summary: what a joke
Review: This may be the worst book I have ever read. Dan Brown set up his main character as a Harvard professor, world renowned in the field of symbology, thus making inexcusable the huge number of factual errors in the narrative. An example: the rite of the Holy Eucharist is based on Aztec ceremony. Even setting aside the issue of Europeans not knowing about the Aztecs until the 16th century, there's the little issue of Christianity predating Aztec civilization. Because the story hinges on the character's knowledge, these factual errors diminish his credibility and make the story fall apart. Also, in the beginning of the book the author states that all references to works of art and their exact locations are correct. I would submit that this is deliberately misleading; I consider history of the work of art to be a reference to that work, and I find it very hard to believe that these works were created for the reasons the story claims they were. The only reason I finished this book is that sharing the gems of badness with friends and family was so amusing.
Rating:
Summary: Fell apart near the end
Review: I can't ever recall reading a book before that I stopped reading 20 pages before the ending. After a couple of weeks, I picked it up again, just to finish it. But this book falls apart badly once the (easily guessable) final twist is revealed. I was also a little miffed at the mention of a "Jewish" connection to his fictional illuminati story, and the use of the name "Olivetti" (a Jewish Italian name) for one of the protagonists. Dan Brown doesn't need to fan the flames of antisemitism, even in a fictional story. And another thing: Since when do cell phones have "dial tones." He makes reference to this about four times in the book. I can suspend my disbelief as well as anyone, but c'mon now!
Rating: 
Summary: A really good read, but...
Review: This does not compare to The Da Vinci Code and that's the reason for my 4 star rating instead of 5. I have a brother who loves studying physics so a while ago, he explained anti-matter to me. As amazing as I found the idea, I never thought about it from a religion point of view. I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed this book was because of the way it combined science and religion together which traditionally is never done. Other than that, it was typical Dan Brown writing, fast paced with many surprises. Just like with The Da Vinci Code, I loved Brown's use of art and architecture that exists in our real world and how he incorporated them into this adventure. I liked getting more background info on Robert Langdon but have to admit that I did not enjoy Vittoria as much as I did Sopie in The Da Vinci code. But over all, this is still a great piece of fiction that inspired me to then research into and learn about many of the topics included in the book. Again, this is probably not a book for those who are offended easily by anything that delineates for their religious norm. But it is definitely a book for those who question everything in their everyday lives and it's definitely a book for those who have enjoyed other Dan Brown books.
Rating: 
Summary: The plot is angelic and the writing demonic
Review: I wanted to like this book, I really did, but the writing is just awful. The characters are all cookie-cutter as are most of the situations. I was about to list a few examples but I don't want to be a spoiler. This said, the plot is fun (not quite angelic but I couldn't resist) and the pages do fly but all-in-all I could only recommend this to someone who's in the mood for brain-candy. As I have a taste for this at the moment I'm giving it a 3. On another day I probably would have awarded a 2.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent page turner
Review: I am not sure what all of the fuss is about. I personally thought this book was excellent. Yet there are many who think Brown's books are literary hacks. I am not sure where that comes from because I personally like his straight forward de-verbalized style. The books that do not interest me are the ones whose authors continually try to prove how smart they are with a bunch of big words that I must constantly look up in a dictionary to understand their meaning. I am a college graduate, I consider myself of normal intelligence and this book did not insult me at all. Back to the review of the book, I could barely put it down. I usually take weeks to read books and I finished this one in a few days. The book was very faced paced and somewhat far fetched at times, but hey folks, thats why they call it fiction. I did find that many of Brown's references were based in facts, but that is often as far as it went. From there he developed his own story line and I was tremendously entertained by it. Five stars for me.
Rating:
Summary: A Rough Draft of the Da Vinci Code
Review: Dan Brown is a good writer in many respects. He knows how to milk a scene for all it's worth, he knows how to create conflict, and he's very well researched. He also knows that Americans love a good conspiracy and that knowledge has kept him at the top of the best-seller's list for a year with The Da Vinci Code. Angels and Demons is "Robert Langdon's First Adventure," according to the advertising on the book's front. In Langdon, Brown has created the new Indiana Jones - an adventure-seeking academic - only Langdon is smarter than Indy ever dreamed of being. (...) In Angels and Demons, where Brown was obviously still honing his chops as a writer, Langdon is an emasculated pansy for the vast majority of the novel. He's afraid of guns, tags along as the female protagonist leads us through the plot, and always realizes everything just a little too late. Typical of a Dan Brown novel, to talk much about the plot would be to give away his much-used secrets(...) - it's unbelievably similar to The Da Vinci Code. Secret Sect, huge cover-ups, holy church doctrines - all the same stuff. Aside from a limp hero and its unabashed similarity to his more recent work, Angels and Demons also suffers from the staggering leaps of faith it demands on the audience. There is, quite literally, a "Deus ex machina" ending, 20,000 foot freefalls from helicopters without parachutes, and a total pilfering of the Vatican secret libraries. This is meant to be an epic tale told on an epic scale, and I suppose it loosely succeeds, but whereas Da Vinci Code was impossible to put down, you may not even make it through the exceptionally long Angels and Demons. I respect Dan Brown greatly and I'm excited to read what he comes out with next. But despite Angels and Demons' similarity to the Da Vinci Code I can see why it never enjoyed even a fraction of its success (for the above reasons). This feels like a first novel - the one you don't publish, but keep on the shelf and rewrite after you've made it big. I guess Brown's doing it the other way around.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent and and curiously uplifting novel!
Review: Having read "The Da Vinci Code" I wondered if Dan Brown would measure up for me in his other works. I bought a copy of Angels and Demons and I was not disappointed. Robert Langdon, professor and symbologist is introduced to us in this novel. Robert is awakened in the middle of the night, and practically ordered to come to Europe, lured by the a grisly fax which reels him with one word "Illuminati". The Illuminati were a group of scientists vilifed by the Catholic Church hundreds of years ago, and believed to be an extinct group. Robert is mesmerized and boards a super-sonic plane to a high-tech scientific research corporation. From this point forward, the novel progresses at breakneck speed as Robert, along with the help of an interesting female character named Vittoria, [who has a huge stake in the outcome of the novel] literally race against time to save Vatican City. Together they must travel to Vatican City and attempt to follow an ancient "map" to the person responsible for a threat to destroy Vatican City with a weapon of science - anti-matter. Although there is plenty of suspense, treachery, and violence in this novel, I felt strong undercurrent of faith, not in any specific religious dogma, but just simple, human faith. This is a very well written novel with so many twists and turns, the reader has to turn really immerse him or herself into the book. The character, Robert Langdon has such terrific appeal in this novel as well as "The DaVinci Code" because he is written to be so very human. He makes mistakes, he doubts himself, he continues forward when there seems to be no hope. He make us WANT him to succeed! The surprise ending is a good one, that I did not guess. Bear with the background information at the beginning. It does read a bit slow, but once events begin to unfold, this novel is unstoppable! I look forward to more Dan Brown novels with Robert Langdon as the central character. This is the kind of character you will fall in love with and want to read about more and more.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! I'm now a huge Dan Brown fan...great reading!
Review: I read DaVinci Code first which was simply amazing. Took a chance on Angels & Demons - I don't normally read an authors books just because one of their others was good. I had a hard time putting it down. I'm looking forward to 'Deception Point'. If you buy Angels & Demons be warned...you'll get addicted too. Enjoy.
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