Angels & Demons
Ratings1,448
Average rating3.6
Hmm...
So, I have a lot of mixed feelings about the book that I'm not really sure how to write out. I knew before reading this that Dan Brown and The Davinci Code was pretty controversial. It dealt with some pretty heavy subjects, like religion. I, myself, am not religious so I consider myself pretty ignorant in matters like this. Because of that, I kind of avoided the book and Dan Brown for the longest time because I wasn't sure if I would really get it. But, after a while, I decided to just go ahead and read it. Maybe a lot of things would fly over my head or wouldn't affect me, but it would be an interesting read to say the least.
My final thoughts on it were eventually this: It's an entertaining read at the least, but you have to sort of “turn off your brain” if you want to enjoy it. I'm sorry if that doesn't make much sense, I'll try to explain it down below.
I knew that Dan Brown tended to be very “liberal” about interpretations on historical events religious matters, so I read with that in mind. There are different things that Dan Brown changes around about history and other similar subjects. Some of these are pretty hard to suspend disbelief for...so it's something that's very hard to work around (I personally just pretended this all was happening in some parallel universe, haha). I don't know if this means that this novel is very poorly written or if Brown just took a lot of artistic licenses, but that's a hurdle I had to overcome in reading this book.
Another thing that Brown does in his writing is that he jumps around a lot from different characters and events. I know that this is supposed to be showing the entire story through different perspectives, but I sometimes feel that it really contributed nothing or was just a waste of space. It also felt jarring at times. Sometimes it would feel there was no focus, and other times it felt like it was cutting off a good action sequence.
Also, there were some things that just seemed...implausible to me. I mean, this entire books kind of relies on you having to suspend your disbelief and having to accept some unorthodox interpretations and whatnot, but it got too unbelievable to me at some times. Like, there are countless researchers and scientists studying these topics, and Robert Langdon was the only guy who could figure these puzzles out? There are quite a few other examples, but they're spoilery so I won't get into them. I'll just say this: some scenes were making me scratch my head.
I don't know if this was just me or not, but did anyone else feel like Vetra could have been completely taken out and the novel wouldn't have really lost anything of substance? I feel like she just fulfills the “Sexy Foreign Love Interest Trope”. I don't know, it might just be me. The romance itself was poorly written, and I cared very little for it.
There is a whole theme about science vs. religion, which I know is a pretty powerful debate, but the theme didn't really resonate with me, so I can't comment on it. I'm sure people that are more knowledgeable with the subject can comment on this.
One of the biggest issues I had with the book was Brown's writing itself. I can usually overlook bad prose if the story / characters are good, but this wasn't the case here. The writing was pretty choppy to me and not paced really well. There are some weird descriptions here and there and it sometimes felt like a juvenile trying to write more advanced.
But, with everything said and done? I still found it entertaining. It wasn't a boring book at all. I got some enjoyment out of reading it, if just for the fact that it was a mediocre thriller that was able to hold my attention until the end. I've read a lot of books that are so bad or so boring that I wasn't able to finish it. Angels & Demons didn't fall in either of those categories. It's just a fun book with some action that's decent to read. Yes, you have to overcome many hurdles to get some pleasure out of reading this book, but it wasn't absolutely terrible. This might be because I don't know a whole lot about the controversy surrounding Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. But if you can suspend your disbelief far enough (and I mean REALLY far) and have a tolerance for mediocre writing...it's not terrible.
And like I said, if you just pretend this book takes place in some alternate universe, it makes it a lot easier.
Slechtste boek ooit gelezen! De schrijver onderschat zijn lezers door alle ontdekkingen die Langdon doet ‘briljant' te noemen. Langdon zelf is een onsympathiek persoon en zijn hele obsessie met Vittoria verveelde me. Het enige ‘ohooo' momentje was het feit dat de paus een zoon heeft dmv kunstmatige inseminatie, leuk gevonden. Het is dat ik dit boek als studiemateriaal moest lezen, anders had ik hem niet kunnen uitlezen.
4.5 STARS
THE ONLY REASON THIS DOESN'T HAVE FIVE STARS IS BECAUSE IT TOOK ME ONE THIRD OF THE BOOK TO GET INTO IT, WHICH IS SOMEWHERE AROUND 200 FUCKING PAGES.
This book was awesome. That is the best way I can say it, truly.
It really helped that there was a small (and I mean VERY small, like TINY tiny) love-line going through, because I have a lot of trouble reading books without them, I just want that relationship, you know?
Also, getting to see from the killer's POV was FANTASTIC, and in the beginning I had an inkling about who the killer was because I thought I remembered something from the movie (which I saw like at least four years ago), but throughout the book, found my theory to be completely wrong (so then I had the theory that they changed the killer for the movie) and then I got to the end and then found out that I was actually RIGHT (Unless, they actually DID change the killer in the movie, in which all of this doesn't make sense at all).
I would like to thank my dad for owning this book. In English. (Or I wouldn't have read it.)
La acción tiene un excelente ritmo y no decae en ningún momento. La historia es buena y muy entretenida. Además, los pequeños datos históricos introducidos en él, lo hacen bastante creíble.
Although the book was amazing, a few points should be clarified :
1) The name of the Arabic cult - which is actually not arabic - is Hashashin and not hassassin, (meaning people who do drugs) but it is an innocent mistake. What is more disturbing is the fact that it was PERSIAN and not Arabic. The Hashashins spoke PERSIAN and not Arabic even if the translation of the arabic words in the book was accurate.
The Hashashins group was led by Hassan el Sabbah, in the 11th century (that part was correct in the book), who was an ATHEIST who claimed PROPHECY (So the info in the book was incorrect concerning two points). In the end, Hassan el Sabbah was stopped by another atheist scientist. In fact, Hassan el Sabbah was himself a scientist before claiming prophecy.
It is actually a wonderful story about how he pretended prophecy but I am too lazy to type it down.
2) And this is a personal opinion. The existence of Antimatter cannot prove the existence of God. As a matter of fact it proves his non existence. Matter coming to existence by itself can prove to all religious people that the universe CAN come from nothing. But this is a personal opinion and therefore subjective. Anyone reading this review can disapprove with my opinion, and I wouldn't mind in the very least. In fact, I won't even target them, or argue with them.
I think I enjoyed this more than [b:The Da Vinci Code 269831 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517GH6476YL.SL75.jpg 2982101]. As with the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully wove a tale of fiction regarding the Catholic Church and an ancient secret order, intertwining the fiction with bits and pieces of facts. I liked this one more because I found it had much better suspense. The starting hundred or so pages were a bit slow, but the pace picked up from there and went all the way to the end. There were also a stronger element of violence and sexual imagery in this book compared to the Da Vinci Code, but they were opportunely used to convey the proper reaction from the reader or to better depict a character. I read the book after the movie so I had the luxury of seeing what the movie altered from the book but it did cause me to lose out on the ending (a bit, not much, given how much the movie altered it). On the whole, a very entertaining read.
Ugh. Embarrassing!
But I was really stressed out all week, and realized that this schlocky gem was sitting on my bookshelf, as yet unread (I bought it just before a transatlantic flight, paranoid that my half-finished reading material would be finished too quickly). And Dan Brown is nothing if not a frothy distraction.
You know, the usual: nice art historical detail, questionable nonsense about science, a hackneyed and vaguely misogynistic love story, and a whole boatload of suspense that kept me reading despite the other shit.
I actually liked it better then De Vinci Code. If you liked it then read this as well! Fast pace with lots of action.
Ho commentato con gioia e con “semplicità” (che è la chiave di lettura di questo libro secondo me) “Il Codice da Vinci”, ora mi sento alquanto perplesso nel commentare “Angeli e Demoni”. In quanto mi sento di dire che mentre nel primo la tematica del mistero e del thriller è pregnante per tutto il libro, inserendo anche spunti che ti fanno interrogare sulla storia proposta, questo non mi ha suscitato, non mi ha coinvolto come il primo. La storia mi sembra raffazzonata, quasi l'autore sia “forzato” nello scrivere una storia che voleva uguagliare il precedente, ma senza riuscirci. Il finale poi è davvero disarmante. Devo dire che non mi ha lasciato granchè questo libro.
2022 Re-read: looks like I unknowingly listened to the abridged audiobook and based on my experience, I would not recommend. Maybe sometime down the road I'll give the full length a listen since I really enjoyed reading it years ago. Definitely a disappointing reread
