Rating: 
Summary: Pure Entertainment
Review: After reading DaVinci Code I rushed to Amazon.com to find other books by Dan Brown. This time I bought the e-book with Adobe Reader so I could have the book both at my laptop and as well in my Palmtop. Great reading, fast paced, instructive, deserves the title "braincandy". It is also interesting to search the Internet and find the real existence of the mentioned organizations. My best experience since "The Name of the Rose".
Rating: 
Summary: Good start bad finish
Review: I was having fun reading this book as it is well-written with plenty of little known facts concerning the Catholic church and plenty of action. the closing of the book did not work for me though. The ending was not consistent with the plot that Mr. Brown developed. It went from a great book - to one where I had to suspend belief to finish.
Rating:
Summary: A page-turner's page-turner
Review: For all the criticism that gets thrown Dan Brown's way, he sure knows how to write a page-turner! Brown has struck on a basic formula that he executes to near-perfection -- it has worked in the three Brown books I've read - Deception Point, Angels and Demons, and The Da Vinci Code. Start with a prologue that shows or implies a horrifying death. Introduce the hero/heroine as a smart, single, attractive committed professional, and drop him or her into a fish-out-of-water scenario for which he or she is perfectly trained. Introduce sinister characters, including one anonymous character who appears to be pulling all strings from behind the scenes as well as his henchman, a lethal killing machine. Toss in some technological marvels with compelling explanations and a plot to perform nefarious deeds on a grand scale, and you've got a hugely successful novel as you keep tossing your hero/heroine (and an attracive, conveniently single member of the opposite sex) from frying pan to fire. Brown's two Robert Langdon novels benefit from the unusual expertise of the hero - religious symbolism. Brown has an amazing ability to write clearly and convincingly about what must be daunting subject matter, and in Angels and Demons he gives a wonderfully compelling travelogue of Vatican City and its famed collection of art and architecture. Brown also introduces a powerful element of the spiritual in this book, as we are thrown into the medeival feud between church and science. For those who critique Brown's works as factually inaccurate, I advise a step or two back for some perspective. The man is writing novels to entertain and, to a much lesser extent, inform. I have friends who are really, really into sharks, and they claim to hate the movie, "Jaws" because a shark would never a million years do what Spielberg has that shark do. But they miss the point of the flick! Brown is essentially doing the same thing -- setting a thrilling tale amid an exotic setting. A few inaccuracies (or even more than a few) should not interfere with the exercise. Readers of thrillers will probably guess at the ending a few pages in advance . . . but that's because Brown compels you to guess. That's the heart of any good mystery or thriller -- the author essentially dares you to try and figure out what's going on, and then tries to jerk the rug out from under your expectations. In this, Brown does yeoman's work. Perhaps Brown is a victim of his own success; he has been savaged by many, many readers. Unfair, I say. This is one of the most entertaining books I've read in some time.
Rating: 
Summary: Who killed the Pope(s)?
Review: This book is like a man who gets on his horse and rides off in all directions. I kept looking for the central problem and found it--or rather them--everywhere. Dead popes, about-to-explode antimatter, secret societies, beautiful female scientists, assassins, and more escapes from death than I've seen since I went to the Saturday kids' serials.
The writing is atrocious; Brown uses the protagonist's name about seven times in each paragraph, even when he's the only person in the scene, and his many, may errors glare: for instance, he calls the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr "the prayer of St. Francis" (and quotes the serenity prayer incorrectly). He describes Bernini's *Ecstasy of St. Teresa* as St. Teresa's being "on her back"; but in the sculpture she is kneeling upright as the angel stabs her heart with his spear. But I kept readiing to the end, maybe because it's hard to jump off a galloping horse. I loved the science at the beginning, enjoyed some of the improbable action, and wondered if Brown wrote the last twenty-or-so pages, since they didn't sound like his style. What astounded me most wasn't the twist ending, the resurrection of the Illuminati, the ambigrams or the revelations about previous popes' deaths: it was his acknowledgment page in which he thanks editors at his publishing company. Editors? Surely anyone who edited this book would have caught the errors.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended
Review: Although I found this novel to be an exciting and fast-paced adventure mystery, I didn't think it was as good as Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." Maybe Dan Brown just got better the second time around or maybe I should have read "Angels & Demons" first. I didn't find "Angels & Demons" to be quite as believable as "The Da Vinci Code." Robert Langdon is definitely a well thought out character and very likeable. The ins and outs of his adventure held my interest. I didn't want to not finish this book. However, I could not put The Da Vinci Code down, whereas this one took me a little longer to finish. Dan Brown definitely puts a lot of time and reserach into his books and I look forward to his next mystery!
Rating:
Summary: Just a bit of fun
Review: First of all, I would like to say that I enjoyed this book immensely - because it is a real page turner, and Dan Brown really knows how to write a good story. For all the people who may be turned off by the reviews that point out the factual inaccuracies and impossibility of the actions of characters, don't be. Who cares if a few facts are incorrect? Most people aren't going to know, and why bother pointing them out to the world, and spoil the book? I don't think Dan Brown intended Angels and Demons to be a reference point for scholars, just a novel a person can sit down with, and have a darn good time. If you want to know more about the things he talks about (e.g. the symbolism, the Illuminati, the Masonics, etc), go to a library.
Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced & full of twists, but sophomoric & derivative
Review: I imagine that Dan Brown learned to write by reading mystery thrillers by Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, and the like. His writing is extremely derivative of these authors, and he shamelessly borrows the worst cliches from these books. Like books by the above-mentioned authors, Angels & Demons is fast-paced and full of plot twists. (In fact, just when you think it's over, Dan Browns throws you another curve ball. Then another. Kind of fun, but kind of contrived, as if he wanted to prove to everyone that he can write plot twists.) If the cliches don't make you cringe too much, you'll find
A&D to be a quick, easy, fun and sometimes thought-provoking read. But make no mistake, this is a formulaic page-turner, nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: justenjoysagoodread
Review: How do I rate this book? Quite simply - I could not put it down. Everything was postponed until I finished. I found this book quite rivoting and enjoyable. I do understand that it is a book of fiction and treat it as such. It was fascinatingly entertaining. I loved the detail in which he described the Vatican. I know nothing of the Vatican, but the way in which Dan Brown described it, it sounds mysteriously mystical and full of history. As in most books, I figured out where we were heading just before we got there, but it was a fun ride - a little grusome, but exciting none-the-less. I have no religious partiality - I have an open mind. Read and enjoy a good suspenseful piece of fiction with a few historic, scientific, and geographic facts thrown in. Dan Brown's books are like travel fiction. They take you places.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor
Review: Implausible and contrived with an unbelievably singular plot line. It's difficult to NOT figure out who-done-it half way through the book. Skip this one!
Rating:
Summary: Angels & Demons
Review: Dan Brown's thrilling prequel to The DaVinci code is a must-read for his fans. Yet another blend of art, science and mystery, this action-packed adventure delivers excitement and intrigue. Robert Langdon becomes tangled up in a race to save the Vatican from a powerful and dangerous new scientific discovery. He and his new-found partner Vittoria Vetra, who is looking for answers for her father's murder, must decipher an ancient path that will lead them to secrets beyond their imaginations. As with The DaVinci Code, this is a work of fiction. If you are looking for a book to critique details, then you will miss the fun of the book.
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