Angels and Demons Book Review

[leia131]

So, Andrew and I FINALLY finished Angels and Demons the other day, and I have some things to say.

Comments

[wizardelfgirl]

I must admit I'm usually a staunch Dan Brown fan. I loved Angels & Demons despite its faults, and to be honest I didn't find that many faults in the first place (for instance, I, unlike you, was pretty impressed by the ambigrams, not because I thought they were really impossible to recreate -indeed, he credits the designer who made them- but because I thought they were a great work of design). It does make a mess out of a lot of stuff, manipulating it to his convenience, but I'm mostly interested in the thrill, not in historical/art/scientific/religious accuracy, so I could look past that pretty easily.

HOWEVER.

I definitely do not recommend Inferno. If you thought this book was terrible, you'll die reading Inferno. I don't think you'll even enjoy it like you did this one. The first half is not so bad, though a little slower than usual, then the next quarter is VERY fast-paced, as though trying to catch up after going so slow, and then the last quarter... ugh. The ending made me want to punch something. I'll probably still read Brown's next book whenever it comes out, but not with the same enthusiasm. If it's a sequel to Inferno I'll skip it entirely.

[leia131]

I think I would have found the ambigrams more impressive if Brown had let them speak for themselves more, rather than making Langdon tell us every time they were mentioned how impressive they were. It's telling that this is an early book of his, because his writing did improve.

I think we have The Lost Symbol on our list, but I hadn't even considered Inferno. Thanks for the heads up!