Book Review: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

 

 

I realise I’m late to the Dan Brown party, and despite some people telling me that he’s one of the worst writers ever – yet not as bad as E.L. James, she of Fifty Shades fame – I decided I’d read Angels and Demons because…well, I was looking for something a little different to what I normally read.

 

The premise of the prequel to The Da Vinci Code is simple: a ancient and secretive anti-religious group called the Illuminati have surfaced after centuries of extinction to steal a specimen of antimatter, a science experiment that, when detonated, would result in widespread destruction. It’s a double disaster for the Catholic Church, who’re dealing with the return of their sworn enemies, and must also deal with the fact that the Illuminati have planted the antimatter somewhere in or under the Vatican. There’s a ticking clock, and at midnight, an explosion will destroy much of the ancient city.

 

Enter American symbolist Robert Langdon, who joins forces with a scientist from CERN, Vittoria Vetra, and is dispatched by CERN’s crippled director, Maximillian Kohler, ton Rome to uncover the location of the antimatter before it’s too late. All of this in the midst of an uncertain time for Catholicism: the pope has recently died, and a new one is being elected on this very day.

 

The Illuminati have a Middle Eastern assassin working for them, and thanks to the treachery of someone on the Vatican inside, the four cardinals considered most likely to ascend to the role of pope have been kidnapped. They are each to die on the hour, each hour leading up to midnight, in a manner symbolic to the Illuminati thinking. It’s up to Langdon to uncover the clues and save the cardinals – and, for that matter, the rest of the Vatican, and, really, the entire Catholic church.

 

Of course, there is lots of intrigue, plot twists, confusing allegiances and even some action as the book races from one hour to the next, Langdon and Vetra follow the clues left for them by the Illuminati assassin and save the Catholic Church as we know it. Other than Langdon and Vetra, I found it best not to trust anyone.

 

The story was well set up and executed. It really wasn't until the last few chapters that everything started to make proper sense. There are a few false dawns where you think you’ve figured it all out – only for Brown to pull another twist, and, if nothing else, the unravelling mystery certainly keeps you guessing.

 

It’s fair to say that Brown’s writing is less technical and detailed than, say, Tom Clancy. The ebook version I read was a little over five hundred pages, but I raced through it in three days. 500 pages of Dan Brown is a hell of a lot different to 500 pages of Tom Clancy. That’s not to say Angels and Demons wasn't an enjoyable enough read.