Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon #1) by Dan Brown

Publication Date : 2009 (first published May 2000)

Publisher : Corgi 

Genre : Mystery / Thriller

Pages : 620

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

*** Note : I borrowed this book from library. ***

CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest.

The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion.

In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible – the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.

Angels & Demons was gripping first book in Robert Langdon series that revolved around ancient Illuminati brotherhood and their vendetta against catholic church. It was about science vs religion, terrorism, hope and faith, good vs evil, catholic rituals and ceremony, history and art.

Writing was amazing. It was gripping, fast paced, and descriptive with loads of information from the very first page. I always love fictions that provides factual information that I wouldn’t have read or known before. It was multiple third person narrative mainly from Robert, Vittoria and killer’s perspective. Setting of Vatican City was beautifully narrated.

It started with Robert Langdon receiving a horrible fax from CERN where a scientist was brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol that gave him proof of existence of secret ancient brotherhood that all scholars and researchers proved to be extinct for more than four hundred years. To figure out whether the symbol was real or not Robert accepted to help CERN. But when saw symbol with his own eyes, found out the probable reason behind scientist’s murder, and CERN received call from Vatican City of finding the live video of bomb deadlier than nuclear bomb ticking somewhere in Vatican City during the time of conclave, his doubt turned to conviction.

I watched movie ages ago. I vaguely remembered who was the real mastermind behind whole scheme of murders and destroying Vatican City and still I enjoyed reading the book. It made me curious to solve the mystery of finding Illuminati lair and catch the killer. (which I didn’t remember much)

Characters were interesting, realistic, and well developed. Both Robert and Vittoria were my favourite character. I also liked Maximilian Kohler even though he seemed cold, emotionless, and not morally high person, he was admirable, formidable, and caring. When it was revealed near climax how he was handicapped, loved science, and hated religion, I felt for him. It made me sad and I could understand his feeling.

Robert’s introduction was amazing. He was 45 years old Harvard professor of religious symbology. He was friendly, kind, empathetic, and caring person, an amazing swimmer and expert in symbology and historical hearsay. I liked how his knowledge helped him come out of tricky situation and helped in tracking the killer. I loved his mickey mouse watch. His flashback of lectures and banters with his students were amazing.

Vittoria was fiery, fierce and smart marine biologist. Even though history and art weren’t her forte she was voice of logical. Her bravery, determination and taking the accountability and responsibility for what was happening was admirable. She was stronger than Robert in many ways, sometimes reckless but a force to be reckon with and even gave hard time to The Swiss Guards. She was amazing throughout the book.

Duo of Vittoria and Robert was perfect. Chemistry between them was interesting. Even though they were total strangers in the beginning, in short and trying time of finding the killer and the bomb, they knew each other more, respected and started to care for each other by the end of the book.

Best part of the book was theme, description of setting and art and history. Story of Brotherhood of Illuminati was mind-blowing. I’m science person and like many characters in this book I’m not exactly believer. I believe, the religion is created by man and like it’s said in the book- ‘Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed’. It has divided people. People keep using God and religion as weapon and turn against each other and have created terror so honestly not believer of religion or stone or person worshipper. At the same time, I believe God is in everything and everyone. So, I understood this book lot more than I have imagined and I loved reading the arguments between science and religion. The Galileo, Illuminati signs and symbol, Bernini and his work, antimatter and other technology in book and many other art and history related information was interesting to read.

The climax was tense, shocking and surprising. I knew that guy was delusional but my god that act before he found antimatter was bit over the top and what he planned after that and his justification for all he did was crazy. The end was brilliant but I don’t agree with what they decided.

Overall, Angels & Demons was brilliant, thought provoking, action packed and thrilling mystery filled with religious history, science and art.

Book Links : Goodreads | Amazon.com | Amazon.in
Affiliate Link : Book Depository | Amazon.UK

Thank you for reading my review and I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know in comments what you think about this book and my review, if you have read this already or any books by the same author. Do you like to read informative fictions?

Happy Reading!

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