Angels & Demons - Book Review

This is Dan Brown's first novel centering around his fictional character and Harvard symbiologist, Robert Langdon, the central character in "The Da Vinci Code." In this book, he tries to stop the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying the Vatican City with the newly-discovered power of antimatter.

CERN researcher, Leonardo Vetra, is found murdered in his secured, private quarters at the research facility. On his chest is branded a symbol — the word "Illuminati", formed as an ambigram. After researching the Internet, Director Max Kohler contacts Professor Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati who has written a book on the subject, and requests his assistance in uncovering the murderer.

What Langdon discovers at the murder scene frightens him: the symbol appears to be authentic, and the legendary secret society, long thought to be defunct, seems to have resurfaced. The Illuminati has also stolen CERN's supply of antimatter, the ultimate weapon, and has its sights on fulfilling a centuries-old dream: to destroy Vatican City. Time runs short as Langdon races around Rome to stop not only the Vatican's destruction, but to save the lives of four cardinals who have been kidnapped by a deadly assassin.

Similar to "The Da Vinci Code", this novel contains a kernel of truth as the basis of the story. One of the first pages states, "References to all works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome are entirely factual (as are their exact locations). They can still be seen today. The brotherhood of the Illuminati is also factual." Another similarity is that there are several puzzles that must be solved by Robert Langdon throughout the book that are amazingly well thought out.

This is a relatively technical book that attempts to bridge the gap between science and religion. Talk of antimatter, particle accelerators and magnetic fields are mixed in between talk of God, the holy conclave and theinner workingss of the Vatican. As crazy as the plot sounds, Dan Brown does an unbelievable job of writing in such a way that everything flows and seems to make sense. There are a myriad of plot twists and turns that will keep you guessing the outcome. The reward for diving into this novel is a well written, thought provoking mystery that is tough to put down and will throw you for an unexpected loop at the end.


Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Would I read it again: Yes

Angels & Demons
by Dan Brown
Hardcover: 572 pages
May, 2000