"I don't mind suspending disbelief if a story is well written and ANGELS AND DEMONS fit nicely in that category. What makes Dan Brown's books spectacular (in my humble opinion) is the attention to detail and the research that he incorporates into his stories. I was fascinated by Brown's telling of the secrets of the Vatican and the Illuminati and the parts played by Galileo and Bernini." -Fascinated Reader on AmazonI don't really understand the comment above, however I don't really understand why this book, and Brown's books in general, have people so upset. It isn't like someone who actually knows something about history is writing a shocking story revealing the truth about the church.
So, the book is not accurate, not well written, uses far to many adjectives, and tries to make up for its lack by throwing in lots of twists. It was fun to read though, sort of like watching Mystery Science Theater. I'm pretty sure the bad guy was bad enough without adding his perverted sex life to the story. The major weaknesses of the book are plot implausibilities, and a multitude of factual mistakes, which make claims of the substantial knowledge that can be gleaned from this "well-researched" book both astonishing and sad.
Spoilers: (This book has so many twists it makes your head spin)
Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon finds himself at CERN, a Swiss nuclear research facility, where a scientist has been murdered by someone in the Illuminati. Some antimatter was taken, and is reported to be in the Vatican. Langdon joins the dead scientist's daughter, Vittoria, on a mad dash through some of Rome's most famous landmarks in an effort to find it before the Vatican is leveled.
As one Amazon Customer put it, "Let me tell you this: NOTHING is as it seems, and NOBDY is safe from suspicion. I was absolutely convinced that one character was involved in the conspiracy and BOY was I WRONG."
Overall, I think Brown may want to invest some of that money he is making now into a good editor.
5 comments:
Hmmm...
Whatever be the flaws and faults of the book, one can not say that it doesn't make an intellectual read.
And if one thinks beyond Christian beliefs and judge it not by them, I guess Dan Brown write fairly well on the subjects he chose..
The stories that Dan Brown chooses to tell are interesting, but his writing is surpassed by most young adult fiction.
The basic storyline of The Da Vinci Code was intriguing, but the writing was laughably bad.
I prefer my museum curators non-renowned.
I wouldn't call Dan Brown's books intellectual. They're Tom Clancy with the Catholic church instead of the Commies. There's plenty to criticize Brown on besides subject matter, although I think he's going to have to work harder to match the terrible prose of James Patterson.
So many people write up reviews about how good Dan Brown's writing is, so I'm glad to hear one that doesn't say that. I read Angels and Demons in 2001 and laughed the whole time. It was so, so bad. The story was interesting enough in a catch-your-attention kind of way, but I was so distracted by the flimsy characterization and awful writing that I walked away from the experience with only one strong opinion: Never read Dan Brown again.
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