Angels and Demons

Rating:
Summary: a ripping yarn
Review: This is a great page turner but do not expect great literature. The plot involves an ancient cult, a futuristic science research center and the rituals of the Vatican. There is even a little romance thrown in, but it is very restrained (no bodice ripping here). Suspend your disbelief and you will enjoy this tale in short order. Perfect summer reading. I will probably read the Da Vinci Code based on this showing.

Rating:
Summary: A Delicious Book
Review: What I like about Dan Brown is the way shows you around. In Da Vinci Code it was Paris, and D&A it's Paris. Brown also educates the reader about art and even inspires to love art as the reader follows clue after clue.

D&A is formulaic in that Da Vinci follows, but it is a successful formula. Brown, like Michael Crichton, doesn't fall short of educating the reader while telling a story.

D&A gives you a peek of places almost to the point that you get the feeling you're reading something you're not supposed to, such as being inside the secret laboratories of the CERN, or the secret corridors of the St. Peter's Basilica.

D&A is a fun book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Fast moving from cover to cover
Review: A great story with fast paced action and twists and turns to keep you guessing. I truly enjoyed this book.

Rating:
Summary: That's great fiction, baby
Review: Dan Brown proves that Fomenko is dead on target with his "History: Fiction or Science?".

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Summary: Religion & Science Collide in a Kaleidoscopic Novel
Review: Dan Brown may very well have invented a new category of fiction ... 'the occult society murder mystery'. If it already existed, then he blasted himself to the #1 spot on the New York Times best seller list in this genre, not once but twice, first with "The Da Vinci Code" and now, with "Angels and Demons". This is one non-stop, page turning book I could not put down. In fact, it took me exactly 3 1/2 - 4 hours to finish. What a whirlwind of a novel! It has one of the most unusual, unexpected endings I have ever read. It is replete with so many curves, twists, turns, and events in the last chapter that it is mind-blowing ... yet believable. The author manages to interweave two seemingly disparate topics, religion and science, into a meaningful whole -- hitting some raw nerves for readers unfamiliar with current research in subatomic physics. Physicists have arrived at a point where many of the descriptions of subatomic particles sound exactly like religious or zen-like statements. Dan Brown proves to be a genius at combining ideas and concepts from modern scientific research, current political events, and religion to create a novel jam-packed with intrigue, puzzles, and mystery. He unravels the unique tapestry of his novel, one colorful thread after another, teasing the brain and emotions of the reader. The unsuspecting reader reaches speeds approaching mach 1 ... with sudden drops ... narrow, steep climbs and hair-pin curves ... on this thunderous roller coaster ride of a book.

The main characters are, Robert Langdon, a world-reknown religous symbologist and Harvard professor, Maximillian Kohler, a research scientist and Director of CERN, one of the world's largest scientific research facilities located in Switzerland, Vittoria Vetra, a research biologist and daughter of the recently murdered, Dr. Leonardo Vetra, research physicist and Catholic priest. There is an unknown Assassin, whom we eventually learn is of Arabic extraction, the Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca, who was the chamberlain to the recently deceased Pope, several Swiss security guards for the Vatican, and two BBC reporters.

It begins at 5:18AM, when Robert Langdon receives a phone call from an unknown party who needs to speak to him uregntly on a matter of great importance. He dismisses it as a prank call, attributing it to the notoriety he received in the press due to his research on occult symbology. It attracts a lot of kooks. While he is drinking his morning Nestle Quik cocoa ... his fax machine rings and he receives a photo of a body with the word "Illuminati" is emblazoned on the chest. As he rotates the fax in his hand, he discovers an ambigram, it is readable, frontwards or upside-down and backwards ... simultaneously, the phone rings and he is drawn into the web of intrigue at the CERN.

The Director summons him to a research facility in Swizterland, where the victim, had done the unthinkable ... he created one of the most powerful sources of energy in the world: antimatter. Someone in the Illuminati has learned of this discovery and had stolen the specimen. The specimen was moved to an undisclosed, mysterious location in Rome, during the time when the election of the next Pope was taking place. Four cardinals, the top candidates for the election, are missing. A phone call reveals that each cardinal will be murdered, the clues are a riddle filled with Illuminati symbolology. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra chase down the clues in an attempt to prevent the murders, but are too late each time. They eventually decipher the clues within the secret vaults of the the Vatican library. They chase the Assassin through a section of Rome where the Pantheon and several churches are located that contain Illuminati symbols. They go across the Bridge of Angels to the Castel Sant Angelo. Just when a hand-to-hand combat, fight to the finish between Robert Langdon and the Assassin is occurring ... more intrigue and mysteries are being concealed and revealed within the religous realm. The whole world is glued to the TV set as a miracle is witnessed ... the faith of many Catholics is restored ... to discover why ... you must read the book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put the book down!
Review: I read this book after the Da Vinci Code thinking it wouldn't compare. I read the book in two days and could not put it down! Page after page kept you interested and on the edge of your seat. Set in Rome and Vatican City, you learn about the secrets of the past in the fight between science and religion and how both have tried to eliminate one another from existence. Just when you think you've got it figured out Brown throws you through an exciting loop! It really gets your brain ticking. A must-read for sure.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!!! My favorite mystery!!
Review: What more can I say? WOW! Once I began reading this book, I could not, no matter how hard I tried, stop reading! Angels and Demons is full of mystery, excitement, suspense, and even romance! I won't write anything concerning the contents because the book is much better if you are oblivious to the plot. This book comes highly recommended! I've even begun distributing copies to my friends!

Rating:
Summary: Loved it, a little crazy, but great....
Review: Great story, makes you think, the ending got a little crazy, but this was fun, fast, exciting and full of twists and turns.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: After I saw some reviews, I thought this might be an interesting book, but I was heavily disappointed. The comparisons by some reviewers to e.g. Umberto Eco's works are fully misplaced. This is just run-of-the-mill pulp fiction, interleaved with highly improbable would-be science and theology. Not worth while spending your money on, I am sorry to say.
The same goes for its companion The Da Vinci Code, which is not more than a clone of Angels and Demons, with creative use of "find-and-replace" word processing by the author.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great, read
Review: The author does a really good job of blending many aspects of the story line together, but in the end, I was a bit unfulfiilled. Still an excellent read, however. [e-mail]