Angels & Demons

So let’s begin with the book I most recently finished Angels & Demons!

Title: Angels & Demons
Author: Dan Brown
Series: The Robert Langdon Series
Genre: Mystery and Thriller
Pages: 616

Synopsis:

Robert Langdon, expert Symbologist is called by CERN Director Maximilian Kohler after one of his top physicists Leonardo Vetra is murdered with his chest branded “Illuminati”. Robert Langdon after determines that the “Illuminati” brand is authentic, and realizes that the Illuminati that was previously thought to be extinct, exists. The Illuminati stole a canister containing antimatter, a dangerous material intended to be used as a weapon to destroy Vatican City. Robert Langdon teams up with Leonardo Vetra’s adopted daughter Vittoria Vetra, a Physicist to try and recover the canister, as the canister is set to explode in less than 24 hours at Vatican City.

They make their way to Vatican City where the Pope recently died. Robert and Vittoria learn that the four Preferti, the cardinals who are most likely to be elected Pope, are missing. Langdon and Vittoria search for the Preferti in hopes of possibly finding the canister. They are in a race against time to save the Preferti and to find the canister before it’s too late.

My Thoughts:

If you are looking for a good mystery and thriller, you will find it here. This book brings strong characters in Vittoria and Robert, and a lot of the other characters are strong in their own right. One of the things I liked about the characterization of the main characters is the backstories given to them. The backstories help give us insight into who these characters are and how their experiences shape their character. The backstories do help the reader understand these characters and their motivations.

As for the plot, it’s pretty good and the pacing of the novel is just right. The book does keep you in suspense and it helps make the book more readable.

However, I do have an issue with some of the historical accuracies in this book. While Dan Brown rightfully states the Illuminati is factual, as the Illuminati did exist between 1776 to around 1785. His version of the Illuminati, however, is completely fictional as the Illuminati as far as we know did not exist in the 1500s. As a person who is very big into History, this does bother me a little bit. There are also several inaccuracies about the works of art and architectural locations of places in Rome.

Warning: The next paragraph is a spoiler: Skip this paragraph if you do not want to get spoiled!

One thing that bothered me was the part where Robert Langdon jumped over 10,000 feet from a Helicopter with nothing but a helicopter windscreen tarpaulin as a parachute into Tiber River. Somehow he survives with no major injuries and is totally fine. Now I’m no expert on this kind of stuff, but I found that extremely hard for me to believe. That is definitely some plot armor if I ever did see it.

**Spoilers have now ended**

It is the first book in the series however and I do hope it gets better from here. If you are into action, suspense, and mystery this book definitely delivers on that, and for that reason, I do recommend this book.

Rating: