The Good and The Bad of Angels and Demons

by Brian B.

Author Dan Brown is very well known for his novel The Da Vinci Code (2003). As some people may not know, there is actually a prequel to this book, which he titled Angels and Demons (2000). There is also a sequel, The Lost Symbol (2009), and another sequel to that, Inferno (2013), but that is not important to this paper, as this is a review for Angels and Demons only. The plot has been referred to as crime fiction, thriller, and even mystery.

The pages of the first book in the series reveal the story of symbologist Robert Langdon approximately one year before the plot that occurs in The Da Vinci Code. During this time, Langdon stays in the Vatican, investigating and hoping to solve a conflict that could essentially destroy all of Western civilization. This conflict is as follows: the Illuminati threaten the Vatican with a state-of-the-art weapon of mass destruction during the pressing time of selecting a pope. Langdon is put directly in the middle of this problem and is expected to mediate it within an extremely tight timeframe.

For someone who is very interested in - and somewhat unsure of his position on - the factor of science on religion, I was quickly drawn into this book. Conspiracy is not something to shake a stick at and move on from. It needs to be closely analyzed. Dan Brown is just like me. As an author, he did his research. The plot of this book does an excellent job criticizing commonly accepted aspects of the Roman Catholic belief and the history of the Vatican. As a result of all the twists, turns, and deep reassessment of history, the plot of this book was very unpredictable and intriguing.

As for things I did not like, the list is short. To start with, Angels and Demons is stuffed full of exposition that is drawn out more than it should be. Considering the nature of the story, exposition is almost required. How else would the author explain all of the hidden symbols without creating a 2,000-page novel? That's right, he couldn't. However, this is no excuse for what Brown did. While it is necessary in many parts of the book, perhaps he could have cut it down in length and kept the flow of the story going by focusing more on the characters and less on the discovered falsities of the religious world. Another part of this book I would like to comment on is how extreme and utterly unbelievable some pieces of the story become. This is only a problem because the entire novel is based on supposed truths involving the Vatican.

Whether or not this will be a good read for you comes down to what you find interesting. If you are someone who enjoys suspense and having your nose stuck to the binding of a book for hours anticipating the all-revealing ending, then yes, read the book. This is the case especially if you can make space in your mind for conspiracy and rethink your position on the debate of science versus religion. If you are not this type of person, perhaps a crime fiction/thriller/mystery is not your book, but I'm sure people like me are out there. If you are one, Angels and Demons is a very easy book to find. I got my copy from the Nashua South Media Center, but others a floating around everywhere. It is almost a guarantee that a relative or family friend will have the book lying around and is willing to let you borrow it. If not, you could buy the book, go to your public library, or even search for a full text online.