Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put down!
Review: I had to read this book as fast as I could--I did not want to stop!! This book and the Da Vinci Code are both totally gripping to the end. Good story, likable hero, interesting ideas raised about the Catholic Church and religion, and engrossing! Make sure you have time set aside to devote to it before you start to read!
Rating: 
Summary: Good precursor to the DaVinci Code
Review: I first read the Da Vinci code which I absolutely loved. I had also read the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Baigent et al and in the mid 80s and was already a believer in the "blessed secret" of the Knights Templar. Dan Brown then weaved a fantastic thriller based on the thesis of that book in the Da Vinci code. Therefore I eagerly bought Angels and Devils when I saw it in the book stores over christmas thinking that this would be even better. It is NOT. The start of the book is disappointing - Dan Brown is a great writer when he is in the realm of history, architecture and religion. However I found his writing on science (the first 100 pages or so) to be woefully inadequate and far fetched ie creation of sustainable and significant quantities of anti matter, planes that fly at Mach 15 etc etc. The dialog between characters is also stilted and immature (I think this is his first book and it shows). Anyway he hits his stride when we leave CERN and enter the Vatican and the book ends up being quite a good read - the double twist at the end is exciting. The other big negative is the Arab "Hassasin" is kept in mystery throughout and also a bit typecast (dark, brooding, muttering in Arabic). The Hassasins were traditionally Shia Muslims in the middle ages who specialized in assasinations (Middle Eastern Ninjas if you may). I think he should have provided some more background of the villain. Overall I would recommend buying the book but lower your expectations if youve read the Da Vinci code.
Rating: 
Summary: More like 4.4 stars
Review: The action in this thriller takes place within 24 hours. A murder takes place at the beginning of the book, and that sets off a chain of events that takes the reader on a fun roller coaster ride. Detective Robert Langdon is called upon to help answer questions regarding a scientist's mysterious death. A secret society is found responsible, and what's worse is that a terrible new threat now looms over Vatican City. The secret society plans to demonstrate their power to the world through the destruction of the Roman church. Robert Langdon must decifer hidden clues to try and stop this sure disaster. Langdon is decrypting symbols and messages racing against time to stop a pre-warned chain of violent attacks from occurring. The characters in this story are developed beautifully. Langdon is interesting because though he's an expert on symbols, art and such, he still gets as confused as anybody would under such pressure-filled situations. The murdered scientist's daughter is an amazing woman as well. She's so smart and graceful. A reporter and his camera woman show the selfish nature of a small sect of press that wants bad things to happen for publicity and fame. The other characters in this book are also interesting and believable. The action gets a little repetitious but it's interesting nonetheless. The ending is a little unbelievable, but many things that occur are unbelievable. I really, really liked the book and recommend it. Another thing I love about the book is that one can learn so much about life and art in that part of world. There's quite a bit of humor as well.
Rating:
Summary: loved it more than Da Vinci Code
Review: Well, I did. I felt that this was more thrilling and I found plot a lot better. It just suits me better, I guess. If you've read Da Vinci Code, you HAVE to read this one. It's just like getting the same pizza, except with a heck of a lot more toppings and a better taste. Mmmmmm, pizza....
Rating:
Summary: Terror in the Vatican
Review: Dan Brown's Angels and Demons is a fast-paced detective drama that involves science, art, the Catholic Church, and murder. Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon is the protagonist who finds himself at a Swiss nuclear research facility. It seems a scientist, who specialized in explosive antimatter, has been murdered and the historically infamous society, the Illuminati, is involved. The antimatter has been taken, and Langdon joins the scientist's daughter, Vittoria, on a mad dash through some of Rome's most famous landmarks, in an effort to find it before the Vatican is leveled.
If you read "The Da Vinci Code," this plot will be very familiar to you: Robert receives yet another call in the middle of the night, is taken to see a dead man killed by a secret anti-Catholic society, and helps the victim's lovely daughter/granddaughter unravel a series of clues to solve the crime - all at breakneck speed!
I liked the plot of Angels and Demons and found much of middle section wonderfully absorbing and tense, as Robert and Vittoria decipher ancient clues and race from place to place in Rome, fast on the heels of a murderer. The beginning of the book, which discusses antimatter, was slow-going for me and the conclusion is way over the top in terms of realism. The timeline was a major stumbling block: Being able to travel great distances across Rome in minutes (even seconds) took away some credibility for me.
In spite of the weaknesses, the basic story of Angels and Demons is very exciting and, at times, even spine-tingling. If you have been to Rome, you will enjoy revisiting the city in this book. You'll also learn about the inner workings of the Vatican, how a new Pope is selected, and about the Illuminati, which I found fascinating.
Rating: 
Summary: The Devil is in the Details
Review: Dan Brown is a bit like a trainee-pilot. Takeoffs, competent enough; level flight, just OK; but landings - a disaster. There toward the end I thought I was reading a rough draft of an Eddie Izzard sketch, with each event becoming more fantastical (and unbelievable) than the next. There's willing suspension of disbelief and then there's Angels & Demons. Yikes! The plot is preposterous on its face and it's downhill from there. There's this ancient secret brotherhood, you see. And a devastating new weapon of destruction aimed at an unthinkable target. Time's a wastin', so it's Robert Langdon (of all people) to the rescue! Langdon is a curious chap, obviously not a liberal arts major. With all his degrees Langdon can out-Sherlock Sherlock one second and then turn up as a mud dumb bumpkin the next. Brown should have spoken with a few good Jesuits before he launched this epistle. Taking down the Vatican/Vatican City (minus some 161 Cardinals!) will not destroy Christianity in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular. Where in the devil did Brown get that idea? And the prose! "Their eyes met, and then she dropped away like a sinking stone." Ouch. (Wait 'til he rereads that one years from now.) How about, "The silence that followed might as well have been thunder." Huh? Just one more. "The cardinals' accusing miens evaporated into aghast stares, as if every soul in the room were praying the camerlengo was wrong." Hmmm . . . Haven't seen this type of hyperventilating obfuscation since Cold Mountain. In the future, Langdon would be well advised to subscribe to caller ID and screen the heck out of his early a.m. phone calls. The world will be a better place.
Rating:
Summary: What a Thriller
Review: Wow. I ordered this book last week, got it yesterday, finished my college homework at 2:30 last night, wasn't really tired yet, and decided to read "just a little" before i went to bed. About 5 hours later when the sun came up i was still reading, and i knew that there was no way i'd stop until i finished the book. Luckily for me i polished it off by 10:30. This thriller grabbed me so quickly that i honestly did not put it down a single time after opening it. Once again, i am amazed by the factual information that Brown writes around, it is just so shocking, and so well explained in the novel. I thought that Angels and Demons was possibly even better than DaVinci Code, although obviously both are extrordinary works. Kudos to Dan Brown for another great one, and keep them coming!
Rating:
Summary: Worth every minute
Review: I found this book to be one of the best "under-rated" books I've come across. Probably better in most respects than "Da Vinci", and more deserving of the great press than its sequel. Brown does a great job at keeping the reader both interested and motivated to turn the page...it's also a notch better than "Deception Point", based on the depth and quality of research that Brown clearly submerged himself. I've passed it onto several people and they couldn't have been more appreciative of the recommendation. Run...don't walk...to pick this one up!
Rating:
Summary: Robert Langdon's first adventure as a symbologist-detective
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: He tops DaVinci
Review: I first read the DaVinci Code and could not put that book down until I finished it in 3 days. I decided then to read Angels and Demons and while hard to believe found this book to be similar to DaVinci but much more captivating. I read this in 3 days also. I thought I knew about the Vatican but I sometimes got the feeling that D.Brown was a Cardinal in a previous life due to the historical facts, symbols and characters that he created in this well written suspenseful book.
I highly recommend it to all DaVinci fans..
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