Angels and Demons by Dan Brown - Paperback

Very happy

El libro llegó antes de tiempo, muy bien empaquetado y en perfectas condiciones.

It's good, exactly like I wanted and the delivery was so fast.

The scene that a hero and a heroine running around Rome reminds me of Audrey's 'Roman Holiday'. However, this fiction is not so peaceful, instead, filled with much fear and trepidation. The story's progress is similar to that of 'Da Vinci Code' whose author is also Dan Brown, but it definitely thrills and surprises you much, much more, especially in the shocking ending... The backbone of this story is 'Which is righteous, science or religion?' I was impressed especially with the late Pope's chamberlain's speech that underlines the virtue of religion, because it was spoken in modern terms and unadorned and has much power that makes any atheists feel the existence of God. This fiction is beautifully decorated with countless factual Roman architecture. I strongly recommend the special illustrated edition that has 150 exquisite photos or drawings of them.

I had been very impressed by DIGITAL FORTESS, Dan Brown's first novel, and found his treatment of a complex subject matter both knowledgeable and compelling. I had then missed the publication of ANGELS AND DEMONS, but felt that he had overplayed his hand in his third novel DECEPTION POINT, which started with an interesting premise but wandered into unnecessary complexity and violence and ultimately complete implausibilty. With the publication of THE DA VINCI CODE, upon learning that Robert Langdon is the central character in both DA VINCI and ANGELS, I decided to first read ANGELS in order to keep the stories in sequence. This is a mesmerizing page turner as long as you accept the author's central technological premises concerning scientific achievements in the near future.Robert Langdon, a professor of iconography and religious symbology at Harvard, is awakened by a telephone call from Maximilian Kohler, head of a prestigious European scientific institute. One of Kohler's fellow scientists has been murdered and an ancient symbol burned into his chest. Langdon feels compelled to investigate, and soon finds himself in the midst of a plot involving not only the death of Leonardo Vetra, a priest who is the world's leading antimatter researcher, but of the revival of a centuries old vendetta by a secret society, The Illuminati, against the Catholic Church. Langdon is forced by circumstances and the nature of the threat to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, Leonardo's adopted daughter, in an attempt to uncover the Illumunati's secret and halt not only several additional murders which have been threatened but the destruction of The Vatican itself.Incredibly, the entire story takes place within a time span of just over twelve hours, which adds to the compelling nature of the action. The book is typical Dan Brown, meticulously researched (despite the complaints of a few reviewers about some details), with lots of interesting information about a variety of subjects related to religion, the Vatican, art, science and morality. It is a well constructed story, with several plot twists and enough misdirection to make it extremely difficult to anticipate the conclusion. (I doubt that the outcome was as expected by those critical reviewers who didn't finish the book after identifying their choice for the "obvious villian". I also did not feel that the story was at all anti- Catholic, in fact the author met with the Pope and was helped by the Vatican during his research efforts.) While there are several gruesome scenes, they are integral to the context of the story and the violence is usually minimized and only briefly described.The real bonus of reading this story is the wonderfully well articulated discussion of the tension between science and religious faith, which forms the heart of the story. The last section of the book has a particularly insightful monologue in this regard, but the subject infuses the whole discussion woven into the plot concerning the historical conflict between the Illuminati and the Church. For instance, early in the book Vittoria challenges Langdon's evasion concerning his apparent lack of a belief in God with the observation "I did not ask if you believe what man says about God. I asked if you believed in God. There is a difference."In addition, the book is almost worth reading just for the ambigrams (words or phrases which read the same right side up or upside down) which Dan Brown had created. These are truly works of art and their design is incredibly clever and beautiful. Finally, if you are familiar with Philips Exeter Academy, the author's alma mater, you will also have the fun of recognizing the source of the names of several of the characters referenced in the book.